Dumpster Diving

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solrules

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After attending the last day of Midwest Power II, I went to throw our trash away in the dumpster right when you leave. Right as I heave it in, I look inside and find about three shredded rockets. One caught my eye: a nice black and yellow PE Honest John that I remember seeing violently seperate while under thrust. It looked nice, so I chucked it in the truck for future use. After we got back, I took a closer look....the booster section was perfect. The fins were all strongly in place, paint job still intact, rail button standoff in great shape...just that about 2" above the forward centering ring the body tube was the only part of the rocket that was not zippered to death. I cut off just below the most forward CR, knowing that there is a second CR before the fin can, and I have a perfectly capable booster section for a rocket. Just add on an old nose cone, and match that with a perfect fit with my 3" electronics bay (with an ARTS accelerometer), and I have a pretty kick butt EX motor flying test stand ;)

All the copulers and some body tube may cost me $10....I am estatic at the find I got...just wish I spend more time in the dumpster! Might have found something even better!

Anyone have experiences like this? Anyone here the previous owner of the yellow/black HoJo?
 
I remeber one night, helping my buddy finsish up his duties (buss-boy & dish washer) by taking out teh garbage to the dumpster.

In teh dumpster was a 50 cc Yamaha mini bike!! A few days later, we had it apart, and back together, running!

Loud though, as the muffler was teh only thing seemingly wrong with it. The muffler was plugged with sioemthing, so we drilled a bubch of 'vent holes' around teh manifold. (C'mon, grade 9 mentalities!!)

Loud, but it ran!
 
Early on in the rocket building careers of me and the kids, a fellow NSRG club member (and TRF member - North Star) was kind enough to give us a very large bag of "dead rockets", that he no longer had a use for. It was an incredibly useful stash of spare parts and ideas - still have some of those bits kicking around today - thank you North Star!

The moral of the story is: "One man's junk is another man's treasure"
So don't chuck stuff out until you've offered it around!
 
...and did I mention he was generous? I'm _always_ losing track of the amount stuff he's lent us.
 


Some of you may remember... Around spring I think...

I found this sawhorse at the local dump... I actually believe I visualized it finished... sitting there waiting to be crushed by the bulldozer...

Anyway.. a few days later...
 
Enough Enough ... :eek:

It's what being part of a group of friends sharing a hobby is all about .. I've always been impressed by the ammount of help that goes around at rocket meets, there's always someone lending out something, from a screwdriver to a launch system and loads of my own designs take on ideas from someone who thought of it first and was only too happy to pass on the detail.

The friendliness and help in the posts here on TRF stands out in the same way.

And on that pleasant note ...... I'll submit my 100th post :D
 
Originally posted by Steward


Some of you may remember... Around spring I think...

I found this sawhorse at the local dump... I actually believe I visualized it finished... sitting there waiting to be crushed by the bulldozer...

Anyway.. a few days later...


Steward . . . how did you make the rod holders?
 


Per launch rod...

1 eye bolt w/nut
1 eye bolt wood screw
1 bolt w/knob handle
4 washers
1 nut
1 block of wood (2x2)
1/8 rods from hardware store
estes deflectors

I've used 1/8 wheel collars (hobby shop) to make
deflectors stand off base

I hope the picture explains it all... actually I got the
idea from here on the forums...
 
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