What did you do rocket wise today?

inadvertently glued a fin up-side-down on my MAC Performance MPR-38.. Grrrrr!!! I guess I know which fin will get the 'special paint' treatment..

Renewed my NAR membership

Last night got the tubes for Zephyr filled and this fine morning/afternoon got one sanded and one to go.. Like others have stated before me... the fun part we all love (To be done with)

Vdutel said:

View attachment 411829 View attachment 411830 Last night got the tubes for Zephyr filled and this fine morning/afternoon got one sanded and one to go.. Like others have stated before me... the fun part we all love (To be done with)

Click to expand...

Simple solution: Build fiberglass rockets.

Not much.

Work continues on the Nike Smoke. Found a few gaps in the spiral that got missed the first time around, so Sanding yet more CWF. I I expect this should be it for filling the BT.

Filetting (is that a word? ) the lauch lugs.

May take a shot at painting this evening, if the wind dies down.

Worked on some new designs in OR.

Been working on the Apogee Flying Machine

Found two mistakes - One is purely cosmetic and I'm tempted to leave it as is (placed some of the emblems on upside down)
The other is a little more concerning. One fin has a slight cant. My thoughts are it is only one out of 5 and at most I'll get a slight spin
Or should I cut it off and try to realign? Concerned with causing damage to the fin and/or body tube.

les said:

Or should I cut it off and try to realign?

Click to expand...

Nope, leave it. That is such a tiny misalignment.
I've done worse and the rocket flew fine.
Nice work, keep it up.

dr wogz said:

inadvertently glued a fin up-side-down on my MAC Performance MPR-38.. Grrrrr!!!

Click to expand...

I've done designs (not builds, just designs) with one fin upside down, so swept forward while the others are swept back. It's a cool look. Embrace it.

o1d_dude said:

Simple solution: Build fiberglass rockets.

Click to expand...

$$$ Says card board for now... Fiberglass ’s are way down the road... LOL

Vdutel said:

$$$ Says card board for now... Fiberglass ’s are way down the road... LOL

Click to expand...

They may not be as expensive as you might believe.

Check out some of the smaller 'glass rockets at Mach 1 Rocketry (mach1rocketry.com) You may be surprised at the offerings with small prices.

jqavins said:

I've done designs (not builds, just designs) with one fin upside down, so swept forward while the others are swept back. It's a cool look. Embrace it.

Click to expand...

I intend to!!

Just that "D'Oh!!" when you go check the work from the night before, and notice your mistake..

After our successful "isolation launch" last weekend, I decided that I need a few more LPR/MPR rockets. Earlier this week I built an Estes Firestorm with a half moon baffle/anchor point in the middle of the body tube. Added a kevlar shock cord and a Top Flite 15" thin mill chute to make it more durable. Built it in a day and didn't take any pictures.

Yesterday I started an Estes Nike Smoke. Found a 6" coupler and cut parts for a cold air baffle. This time I'm taking pictures, just in case someone wants to see how to build the baffle. Today I built the baffle, MMT/stuffer tube and assembled it.
The small tubes are BT5 from Balsa machining, and I made the bulkplate with 1/8" birch plywood. The glob of glue in the middle is covering a spring nut as the retainer for a small eyebolt.


The stuffer tube is also Balsa Machining foil lined 29mm MMT.


When these parts fit together, the stuffer tube slides up the bottom of the baffle through the top centering ring, which is mounted to the bottom of the coupler.


Ejection gasses travel up the stuffer tube and bounce off the upper bulkplate, circulate back down the coupler and up through the four BT5 tubes as cooler air. The eyebolt on top of the forward bulkplate is the anchor point for the shock cord. An added feature is the recovery system sits on top of that plate, keeping it all closer to the top of the body tube.



When I assembled it, I glued the baffle/coupler into the body tube about where the top of the original MMT would have ended, then slid the stuffer tube into the bottom CR with some glue to seal the tube to the CR, aligning the middle CR to the fin slots.

Be sure to attach the shock cord to the anchor point before you glue in the baffle, unless you have very small hands.... I spent some time sanding the slots on that center CR so it would all fit together easily.


Once it all fits together like this:


You can glue it all together like this:


I used some JB weld epoxy for the motor retainer, and added an extra piece of coupler inside the bottom of the body tube to reinforce the aft end of the rocket. Most of the glue was Titebond 2 except for the fintabs and fillets, which was Titebond Quick & Thick multi-surface glue.
After the epoxy dried, I added the nosecone and weighed it with the 24" nylon chute included with the kit, 1 lb. 3 oz. which is just slightly more that the published weight, and well within the range for that chute. With the good weather predicted for our area, this rocket should be painted by this weekend.

Sanding on Body Tubes done started on the engine mount tonight.. Got it all tacked glued ready to install tomorrow..

Did some work on the Punisher, and also got some painting done on my Estes Black Brant III.

o1d_dude said:

They may not be as expensive as you might believe.

Click to expand...

However, fiberglass rockets are heavy. You usually have to go up a letter when selecting a motor compared to a cardboard rocket. The newer thin wall tubes are an improvement.

Rocketjunkie said:

However, fiberglass rockets are heavy. You usually have to go up a letter when selecting a motor compared to a cardboard rocket. The newer thin wall tubes are an improvement.

Click to expand...

Take a look at the smaller Mach 1 rockets.

The thin wall tubing is only 1.1mm and some of the BT-20(!) rockets are pretty impressive.

Personally, I like the Mini-Mamba...[Edit: Micro-Mamba] and will probably buy one for local LPR/MPR launches whenever they resume.

Note: I am in no way affiliated with Mach 1. I have purchased two of their kits ( 54mm Red Shift w SMT Designs av-bay, 2.6 Chimera 65) and have been very impressed with the quality. Several local fliers are launching Mach 1 rockets as well.

Edit: Corrected rocket kit name. There are 4 Mamba kits...I think.

o1d_dude said:

Take a look at the smaller Mach 1 rockets.

Click to expand...

I don't see any weight information on any of the kits. How much does your Chimera weigh? I have a LOC High Tech also 2.6" and it weighs 40 oz on the pad with a 38/360 H999 installed. It is set up for dual deploy. I get about 1100 feet on a G64. Will you even be able to fly your Chimera as a Class 1 (unregulated, under 53 oz) rocket. Mine will fly on any motor under 125g propellant as a class 1.

Rocketjunkie said:

I don't see any weight information on any of the kits. How much does your Chimera weigh? I have a LOC High Tech also 2.6" and it weighs 40 oz on the pad with a 38/360 H999 installed. It is set up for dual deploy. I get about 1100 feet on a G64. Will you even be able to fly your Chimera as a Class 1 (unregulated, under 53 oz) rocket. Mine will fly on any motor under 125g propellant as a class 1.

Click to expand...

My Chimera is still in the box so I don’t know the final weight. There are several other rockets ahead of it in the build queue.

I have to admit that I just came back from the Mach 1 website where a Micro Mamba BT20, and a AGM Piercer BT55 are now in my cart. The “3years” coupon code gave me 20% off which is nice. So the price of the two kits is $54 and change plus $18.50 shipping.

As to launches, I only fly at NAR and TRA sanctioned events with waivers, etc. Here in California, launching rockets “in the wild” is problematic for anything that doesn’t say ‘Estes’ on it. Even then it can be bad. A Luna Bug is probably okay...if you have a kid or two with you.

California technically doesn’t recognize NAR/TRA high power certifications (Pyrotechnic industry flexing their muscle) so we always have aT least one licensed pyro technician who is also a rocketeer on our launch sites AND we are on private property. The state pretends we’re following their regulations and NEVER investigates our launches. “I zee nozzing!” Sgt Schultz. The only HPR motors allowed here are Aerotech and Cesaroni. We have to go out of state to fly Loki, etc.

I’ll bet your LOC High Tech really scoots on an H999.

Painted fins for Nike Smoke

Estes designer special arrived Wednesday. Opened box today. A couple of the parts have me baffled. Is the ring a substitute for a launch lug ? There is a pair in the bag. The other is a nose cone but I don't see how it would go into a BT. Any ideas?

Joekeyo said:

Estes designer special arrived Wednesday. Opened box today. A couple of the parts have me baffled. Is the ring a substitute for a launch lug ? There is a pair in the bag. The other is a nose cone but I don't see how it would go into a BT. Any ideas?View attachment 411920

Click to expand...

That's a nosecone like the Estes ESAM 58. It gets cut into a nose cone and tail flair.

Cool. I doubt I would have come up that on my own. Thanks.

Finished the build on an Estes Sidekick. Finishing prep and paint will have to wait for better weather.

received order from eRockets, order progress from morerockets, and shipping notice from AMW...

L3 ground testing

Built a simple launch controller I was thinking about.

Bob Touch said:

Built a simple launch controller I was thinking about.

Click to expand...

nice job
And the arming button is definitely a cool idea

I printed out the MR "Liberty Bell" free model from Delta7 Studios in order to make a miniature Rocket to fly. I don't know what size engines it will ta

Today I sprayed a couple of coats of primer on my Cherokee D. I also turned a nosecone & made motor mount rings and fins for a kit that I am sending to a friend to assemble.

[QUOTE="o1d_dude, post: 1985736, member: 91"I have to admit that I just came back from the Mach 1 website where a Micro Mamba BT20

I’ll bet your LOC High Tech really scoots on an H999.[/QUOTE]They do have weight information and they're about twice the weight of a similar size Estes kit. I don't want to hijack this thread so I'm going to end it here. The High Tech pulled 97 g's on the H999.