Crayon Rocket Ideas

[MissileDaughter]

From what my dad has told me, a lot of yall have done crayon rockets. My dad being a great fan of the crayon rockets, bought both of us crayon banks.
Now, I have a couple of questions (hoping not to sound stupid).
1) Does fin shape effect the rocket? What I mean, does a certain fin pattern or number of fins affect flight?

2) Anyone have any advice on how to build these rockets?

3) Anyone have pictures?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Missileman]

Yes fin shape and number of fins effect how any rocket flies.
As for tips on crayons and pics, try a search on this forum.
OH and you can always ask good old Dad.

 

[gerbs4me]

on my crayon rocket I've had trouble keeping the bulkhead in the NC, you need to really rough up any plastic you want to apply glue to. I used epoxy, since I fly high powered motors in it.

 

[lalligood]

Originally posted by gerbs4me
on my crayon rocket I've had trouble keeping the bulkhead in the NC, you need to really rough up any plastic you want to apply glue to. I used epoxy, since I fly high powered motors in it.

Speaking of attaching the bulkhead in the nosecone, here's a piece of advice that is non-typical rocket building advice: use a hot glue gun to attach the bulkhead. Whatever plastic that is used to make the crayon banks doesn't seem to be an adhesive that sticks to it very well. Hot glue still isn't permanent but it works well enough for a couple of flights before it has to be repaired (& then at least it's easy to do!)

BTW, I believe there are a few semi-current threads in the Coffee House Forum about crayon rockets. Check on EMRR as well!

HTH,

 

[Bowhunter]

Here are a few Ill post more Monday when I get home but by the way I rough up the plasic on the nose cone the I use J/B weld Ive had good luck with that I also have a 5-24mm cluster Ill post here when I get home

 

[Bowhunter]

Heres another I did some modifications to the lower fins to get it to Amraam specs But I call it a Cramraam get it Crayon+Amraam= Cramraam

 

[Bowhunter]

here is the 5-24mm

 

[rbeckey]

I roughed up the interior of the NC and used polyurethane glue. The expansion keeps everything together.

 

[lalligood]

Originally posted by rbeckey
I roughed up the interior of the NC and used polyurethane glue. The expansion keeps everything together.

rbeckey gets a gold star for the excellent idea

I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier... I'd already used PML 2-part (polyurethane, duh!) foam to secure the noseweight in my Crayon (which has a 38mm MMT so I wanted to ensure stability!) Polyurethane glue, like Gorilla Glue, worked brilliantly for me today to *permanently* secure the bulkhead in the nosecone. Matter of fact, I was so impressed by how it turned out, I will certainly be using poly glue in more future rocket-related applications!

 

[cls]

just for inspiration, here's an example of what you can do with a crayon in a couple hours ...

I cobbled the Dragonfly Crayon together last week, as a vehicle for the strobe light nose cone we made for the Nike double-crayon.


the LUNAR launch was limited to F motors though, and the Dragonfly Crayon was way over built. (me overbuild something, after all the ranting and raving against it on TRF!! shocked, aghast, shamed! well, the reason was I had these 1/4" rings already cut; my 1/8" plywood was warped and I didn't feel like messing with it so I used 3/16"; also I put in a baffle system with a stainless steel pot scrubber - lotsa weight!)

you can't really tell from the pictures below but this 900 gram rocket wobbled and struggled with just an F52 - the 5 second delay was slightly too long.

so for the night launch, instead of the strobe light, we taped glow-sticks on the side and put bike flashers on the parachute shrouds. well, that extra weight really killed it! the parachute didn't unroll and it stuck a fin.


enough talk, here's where it all started, the Binder Dragonfly

 

[cls]

here's the Dragonfly Crayon

 

[cls]

10,000 million billion wife-points to Maddi for the next two awesome shots

boosting along in the wild blue yonder:

 

[cls]

and here, recovering nicely.

the chute is home made. the funny + shape is what you get when you ask me to cut out an octagon but it's still early and I haven't had my two pots of coffee yet. seems to work ok though!

 

[lalligood]

Everyone know that Crayon rockets are cool but the Binder Design Dragonfly is one of those rockets that most people overlook... It's a unique design with the long elliptical fins spaced to look like wings. (And it gets its name from looking at it upside-down...see the dragonfly now?)

Way to think outside the box with a Crayon, cls!