Chute Protectors

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edwardw

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Hey Guys,

I just found out a pretty good new material that I have been making my chute protectors out of. It is ironing board fabric. You know the stuff that is regular cloth on one side and a metallic coating on the other - that's it! It works great with the metallic coated side toward the charge. I also sew a piece of muslin fabric soaked in a borax solution to the opposite side - gives it a little more sealing capacity.

Last time I bought some fabric it was $5/yard and it was 60" wide. A pretty good deal!

Edward
 
Originally posted by edwardw
Hey Guys,

I just found out a pretty good new material that I have been making my chute protectors out of. It is ironing board fabric. You know the stuff that is regular cloth on one side and a metallic coating on the other - that's it! It works great with the metallic coated side toward the charge. I also sew a piece of muslin fabric soaked in a borax solution to the opposite side - gives it a little more sealing capacity.

Last time I bought some fabric it was $5/yard and it was 60" wide. A pretty good deal!

Edward

Most excellent! A righteous hack. At that price you can make complete socks for the chute to sit inside of. I'll bet I can find an ironing board cover to chop up at one of the everything-for-a-dollar stores.
 
Originally posted by edwardw
Hey Guys,

I just found out a pretty good new material that I have been making my chute protectors out of. It is ironing board fabric. You know the stuff that is regular cloth on one side and a metallic coating on the other - that's it! It works great with the metallic coated side toward the charge. I also sew a piece of muslin fabric soaked in a borax solution to the opposite side - gives it a little more sealing capacity.

Last time I bought some fabric it was $5/yard and it was 60" wide. A pretty good deal!

Edward

Great idea! Do you think my wife will get suspicious if I buy her a new ironing board cover?
 
Originally posted by edwardw
Hey Guys,

I just found out a pretty good new material that I have been making my chute protectors out of. It is ironing board fabric. You know the stuff that is regular cloth on one side and a metallic coating on the other - that's it! It works great with the metallic coated side toward the charge. I also sew a piece of muslin fabric soaked in a borax solution to the opposite side - gives it a little more sealing capacity.

Last time I bought some fabric it was $5/yard and it was 60" wide. A pretty good deal!

Edward

Darn, I wished I read this before I bought some Nomex sheets. Thanks for the tip though! I'll be using it in the future.
 
Here are some pictorial results from a test with this fabric and some BP.

I took approximately a 3" x 3" piece of ironing board fabric and cut it out. Then I placed that over a same sized piece of ripstop nylon (to simulate a chute). Then on top of the ironing board fabric I spread out 2 grams 3F BP over an area the size of a half dollar coin. The BP was lit with a red hot wire.

The results. Surface was badly burned and wrinkled upward because of the heat. Backside of the cover was unharmed, ripstop was unharmed. I know that these aren't exactly the conditions in a rocket but it gave me a pretty good idea of how protective this stuff is.

Now for the pictures.

Edward

First, the front of the ironing board fabric that the BP was resting upon.
 
Here is the back of the ironing board fabric - no burns, just wrinkled from the heat.
 
And here is the ripstop that was underneath this all. Came through fine.
 
Cool Idea!

Thanks for the pictures.

Now to just break out the ironing board and replace the cover.....
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"Even Rocket Scientists need to be crisp and pressed once in a while"
 
I picked some material up from my local DIY store. It's used for putting something that your soldering on top of. So that burning flux or solder can hit that. It's heat proof & flame proof so Im gonna give that a try. It's a little stiff but it should work in higher-power rockets with stronger ejections then Estes ( or maybe not ;) ) It comes in a black sheet, and is woven.
Karl
 
---bump---

Anybody try this material in a rocket, and what were the results?

What is the longevity of the stuff?
 
I also discovered a nice way to protect the shute recently.
Take a piece of aluminium foile. (The kind we use for christmas steakes in norway)
Crumble it down to a ball a little bit larger than the body tubes dia. Stuff it carefully down the tube - and whoops you have your ultimate shute protection.

The Greenpeace guys might not enjoy all the silver balls floating around your launch area but it works pretty well:)

Knut
 
Originally posted by knuganga
I also discovered a nice way to protect the shute recently.
Take a piece of aluminium foile. (The kind we use for christmas steakes in norway)
Crumble it down to a ball a little bit larger than the body tubes dia. Stuff it carefully down the tube - and whoops you have your ultimate shute protection.

The Greenpeace guys might not enjoy all the silver balls floating around your launch area but it works pretty well:)

That's a great idea.

Crumple it around the shock cord and it will stay with the rocket.
 
I can see it now . . . all of the TRF husbands asking their wives to either replace or buy a new ironing board cover. They'll think we've gone insane!
 
Has anyone used the ironing board material in an HPR application?

I'm thinking of trying it out, but would hate to melt my 'chute if the stuff doesn't work.
 
That is the application that I use it in. Works great for that. On a project that I did I made 12 of these and each one performed flawlessly. 9 were on 18" chutes in 3" tubes and the other 3 were on 8 foot chutes in a 8" tube. Usually for most HPR I put some dog barf in, chute protector around the chute and fly. I also use an inverted piston to deploy and haven't had a singed chute since.


Edward
 
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