Another Pen Rocket

[JCL]

Yesterday I put together a Pen rocket based on Art Applewhite's Bic Pen Rocket. My pen is from a hotel and isn't labeled as a Bic though it seems identical.

I used Art's Fin template printed on a B&W laser printer on 110 lb paper. I covered the fins with CA.

It has a Teflon tape streamer. It is yellow and thicker than the hard to use common white tape. I bought it at Ace Hardware. The streamer is 1/2" by about 8 inches.

The nose and streamer are attached to some kevlar string (2 out of 4 threads from a 90 lb test line) tied to the engine mount.

It is somewhat crudely built and not pretty up close. I thought there was a good chance it would be lost, so I didn't spend much time on it.

This is my third MMX rocket. I have a converted Starlight Rocketry Micron and another Applewhite design, the MMX Qubit.

I flew it today twice. I warned my son and wife to keep an eye on it as I thought it would be hard to track. Both flights were very straight and high. They were easy to during boost and coast. The streamer deployed perfectly both times and it landed close by. I was surprised how easy it was to see the whole time.

This was under warm perfectly blue skies in Ahwatukee Az (Phoenix) in the morning. With haze or clouds maybe it would be hard to see.

It came out to be 3.9g without the motor. This is certainly heavier than a cardboard tube rocket but still it gave a great flight. If you fly MMX, you might as well take the 20 minutes and build one.

I'm going to put this on my desk at work as a conversation piece. I'll probably build another to fly more.

Joe

 

[woohoo]

It will be hard to find

 

[Micromeister]

Great use of one of those clear body hotel pens really nifty look.
I'll bet it was a bear to see good thing you found the yellow teflon tape.

I simply love the Pic stick pen rockets. I went to staples and bought a gross of the pens specifly for that purpose.
Art had/has a blank fin pattern you can down load to create your own patterns as will as his standard, I've found you can print the fin patten on standard computer or copy paper rather then cardstock as well with excellent fight results.
I try to have or make up a half dozen or so in my range box to give away to first time micro max flyers. Often walk around the field with one clipped to my shirt pocket to get the conversations started

 

[rstaff3]

I like the pen-rocs and have an affection for the clear ones. Here's mine
https://www.rocketreviews.com/reviews/all/scratch_double_tree_pen-roc.shtml

It was my first and only Micromaxx rocket that I lost without actually knowing it got stuck in a tree. It was lost at a NARHAMS launch despite have several pairs of eyeballs on it :dark:

 

[Huge Blues]

I like them too. They always seem to get attention when they
show up to fly.

Mine got an upgrade to a 2-stage after the NE motors came out.
I scaled Art's fin unit up a bit. The nose on this is carved from a chop stick.

 

[JCL]

MicroMeister -- Imagine a mass launch of these things. 144 pens in the air would be an amazing sight.

rstaff3 - Those clear fins look great!

HB -- I debated, but didn't order any NE engines on a recent purchase. That simple two stage makes me go hmmm and wonder if I should have.

I received my order from Fliskits, so I've got a couple more micros to build (dimi deuce and little tri-glider kits). Those parts are tiny.

Joe

 

[MarkII]

Aren't the Bic Stic rockets great? I have built several of them. I changed Art's method a little bit, though. I don't use a pin inserted through the pen barrel as a shock cord mount. Instead, I cut the flat top off of the end plug, crimp one end of my bead cable shock cord around it, and then bond the plug inside the pen barrel so that it acts as both an anchoring point for the shock cord and as a thrust block for the motor. I shave the outside of the plug a little bit by lightly scraping all around it with the blade of my craft knife in order to make the plug easier to slide back into the barrel and position it where I want it. (Scraping and shaving the plug works better than trying to sand it with sandpaper.) At the other end, I cut off some of the coupler at the bottom of the pen point to shorten it a little (after pulling out the ink tube) and then I epoxy the other end of the bead cable inside of it. I stand the ink tube up in a small coffee can that is filled with about an inch or so of the kind of citrus-based cleaner/degreaser that you can buy in any supermarket and leave it in there for about a day or so. Capillary action draws the cleaner up into the tube, where it gradually emulsifies the ink. The ink then just drains out of the bottom end of the tube. All of this happens by itself, without any intervention from me. After a day or so, I just rinse any remaining degreaser out of the tube, and then set the tube aside to use as launch lug stock. The only parts of the original pen that I don't use are the ink and the cap!

In my first few pen rockets, the fins would warp after I bonded the fin unit together with white glue. I solved that with later builds by using rubber cement instead to glue it together. Rubber cement is great to use because if you get any excess anywhere, just let it dry and then rub it off with your finger. It doesn't mar the paper and it doesn't cause the paper to warp. Later, the thin CA that is normally spread onto the fin unit after it has been fit onto the pen barrel takes over from the rubber cement to permanently glue the unit together in addition to performing its other functions of adhering the unit to the pen barrel and stiffening the fins.

 

[Micromeister]

Like Mark; I've never used the pin in the barrel mount or the original Lawn Dart recovery methods either.
For the longest time I just used a 3/16" long piece of the old MMX-I spent motor plastic casing as the motor stop and kevlar or Beading wire/Kevlar shockcord anchor point. A tiny amount of epoxy permanently holds the motor stop in place. Sometimes the blue bottom buttons just do not come out without a drill bit.

The forward end of the pen comes apart into 2 pieces after removing the ink tube and metal pen roller ball. I also soak the tube and these parts in degreaser to remove the ink. Replacing the metal ball with a toothpick to simulate the point which comes out easily with needle-nose pliers. When reassembling the nose parts after soaking the ink out the knotted Kevlar is simply sandwiched between the forward piece locked in place by the toothpick. A bit of scrapping with a hobby knife edge shaves down section 3's shoulder enough to slide in and out easily completing the "nosecone". Tie a 6 to 8" piece of 1/2" yellow or plain old white teflon tape to the shockcord and all the inner parts are done.
I have the kids keep the clip pen tops so they can clip the model to the outside of their shirt pocket. They don't fly with the cap but really is a great way to get conversations started on the field.

Have to give a big thank you to Mark for the degreaser ink removal trick. It's saved some nasty fingers when doing this with Youth or Scout groups.

Most of the time using computer print paper fin cans we don't use anything more the Glue sticks on the fins with a drop of CA or MC on the barrel. Seems to work well and we haven't lost any in flight so far.

 

[MarkII]

John, how do you get the metal ball out of the pen point? That's something that I haven't figured out yet. Tapping the tip with a small hammer doesn't seem to work. Neither does tapping it with a large hammer. Hitting it with a sledgehammer smashes the tip. :dark: I run out of options after that.

Removing the end plug can indeed be a real PITA. It is often the longest part of the whole build. Although most of the time it appears to be press-fit, once in awhile I encounter one that seems to be cemented in. I can encounter both situations in the same box. (I buy them in boxes of a dozen pens at Staples.) I can often coax them out with a 1/4" or 3/16" dowel inserted through the other end of the barrel, and my trusty hammer. On a couple of occasions, the plug was in so firmly that the barrel broke just ahead of it instead. With the Bic Grip Stic pens, the end plug actually is cemented in, and there is no way to pry or bang it out. You have to either cut it off or drill it out instead.

 

[Micromeister]

John, how do you get the metal ball out of the pen point? That's something that I haven't figured out yet. Tapping the tip with a small hammer doesn't seem to work. Neither does tapping it with a large hammer. Hitting it with a sledgehammer smashes the tip. :dark: I run out of options after that.

Removing the end plug can indeed be a real PITA. It is often the longest part of the whole build. Although most of the time it appears to be press-fit, once in awhile I encounter one that seems to be cemented in. I can encounter both situations in the same box. (I buy them in boxes of a dozen pens at Staples.) I can often coax them out with a 1/4" or 3/16" dowel inserted through the other end of the barrel, and my trusty hammer. On a couple of occasions, the plug was in so firmly that the barrel broke just ahead of it instead. With the Bic Grip Stic pens, the end plug actually is cemented in, and there is no way to pry or bang it out. You have to either cut it off or drill it out instead.

Pulls right out, Grasp with a pair of pliers or needle nose twist slightly and pull staight out. I generally remove the ink tube first but some of the kids have done it both ways either way you'll get a bit of ink inside the smaller brown forward tip but the rest stays pretty clean.

Yeap, yeap, yeap! that's exactly whats happened to me in the gross box I bought at staples. The majority seem to be glued in, i've broken about half the bodies I've tried to knock out. The last 6 I made for myself I said the heck with it and used a 3/16" x 6" drill bit from the forward end after removing the tip, then finished with a round file to clean out the little remaining blue I have a 1/4" x 6 but that made the body to loose for the casing motor mounts. so I went back to the 3/16" and file....takes a bit longer but I like the end result more.