Anyone know of a recovery method other than Estes wadding?

[rocketsonly]

Okay, so here's the deal, I'm a high school student working on a science fair project. I just spent most of my budget on an alitmeter, but now don't have money for recovery wadding. I've heard of using Kevlar or Nomex and conencting it to the shock cord. Anyone know where I can buy this stuff? Any other methods for blast protection?
-Matthew

 

[teflonrocketry1]

Make a body tube diameter wide "pom pom" out of Teflon Pipe Thread Sealant Tape and tie it to the shock cord for permanent wadding.

Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055

 

[Zippy]

Lurk around a construction site and see if you can pick up some of the blown in cellulose insulation. It looks like ground up newspaper becouse thats what it is and its treated with firesuppresant. Lots of us use it. It might be in your attick as well. Don't use fiberglass insulation. Crepe paper also works.

 

[wwattles]

There are a large number of vendors that sell nomex blankets online. I'm sure some folks have their favorites - I buy mine from my local vendor, What's Up Hobbies.

You can also use what is known in construction as insulation foam, but what you'll hear referred to as "dog barf". It's a gray-colored cellulose that looks like packed lint. It's normally used for attic insulation, so look in that part of the store. A bale lasts forever and it's pretty cheap, too.

There was a discussion on here a few months ago, too, about using loose lettuce leafs for insulation, since they are cool, disposable, and biodegradable!

WW

 

[Fishhead]

Originally posted by Zippy
Lurk around a construction site and see if you can pick up some of the blown in cellulose insulation. It looks like ground up newspaper becouse thats what it is and its treated with firesuppresant. Lots of us use it. It might be in your attick as well. Don't use fiberglass insulation. Crepe paper also works.

No need to check construction sites. You can buy it cheap by the bale at Lowe's or Home Depot. More wadding than you'll use over the course of several seasons.

 

[OKTurbo]

Cellulose insulation is the way to go.

$6 at Lowe's gets you this much.

 

[OKTurbo]

A $6 bale should last a while

I put it into smaller ziploc bags to take to the field.

 

[wwattles]

My buddy has a large-ish container that he got some kitty litter in that he now uses to transport his dog barf. It looks like it's about 2 gallons or so in size, and it lasts about 5 or 6 launches with 4 of us using it, including HPR stuff that is 6" in diameter.

WW

 

[Micromeister]

Matthew:
By far the Cheapest, easiest "permanent" flameproof wadding is 1/2" or 3/4" Teflon plumbers tape Pom-Poms as Bruce mentioned earlier.
I've been flying a single 30 - 12" strip pom-pom in my Super Starship Vega to protect one of my 24" nylon Hemi chute. havent' event scorched it in many flights. two or three of the same size pom-poms work in BT-80's also.
Hope this helps.

 

[loopy]

Dog Barf is good, or if you want the permanent idea, there's also the parachute protectors from Pratt hobbies. Great stuff.

 

[rocketsonly]

Okay, thanks for all the help you all. But does anyone have a picture of these Nomex pom poms? And what kind of retail store would sell Nomex? Army surplus stores?
-Matthew

 

[rocketkid88]

you could also try a piston, bafle, or cooling mesh. any of these should be cheap to make.. a search here on the forum should bring you many results on any of these. it also depends some on the size of your rocket.. you said you bought an altimiter, so i assume its rather big (at least not lpr). mabye a bafle would be the way to go?

*post nr 100!*

 

[wwattles]

Matthew,

The pom-poms are made from teflon tape. See this thread for the instructions on how to make them, courtesy of Mr. Teflon himself, teflonrocketry1. The post is about halfway down the first page.

Teflon tape is commonly used as pipe sealant tape, available at most hardware stores and some more complete drug stores (chemists for our UK friends).

Nomex is commonly used for firefighting clothing. I haven't tried this yet, but I've often considered stopping at our local fire station and asking if they have any worn-out firefighting clothes that I could take off their hands to cut into recovery items.

WW

 

[rocketsonly]

The baffle won't work because I'm only using 'B' and 'C' engines. I'll check out the teflon pom poms in a second. But one of my friend's dad said he would lend me 2 5x5 inch NOMEX heat shields.
-Matthew

 

[BlueNinja]

A baffle will work. My mongoose has one and I regurarly fly it on A motors.

 

[rocketsonly]

Darn, too late. I already calculated my CP and CG for each fin shape (long story)... So I can't change the recovery system now. Thanks for all the helpful tips guys (and gals!)!
-Matthew

 

[Donaldsrockets]

I use a combination of Estes Wadding and dog barf. I usually use the Estes wadding in rockets with a body tube smaller than a BT-60.

For my BT-60 and larger birds, I use dog barf.

Hope this helps.