Culprit
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2015
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My Gorilla Glue "Snot Rocket" recently made its first flight!
The idea was simple - I was changing a caulk tube in my caulk gun one day and thought the business end looked like a ram-jet. From that moment, I knew I had to see one fly. I headed to Lowe's looking for a tube that had a screw on/off nozzle, and a cool-looking easily-recognizable label/brand. Gorilla glue won that source selection hands-down.
I drew up the fin can in Fusion 360 (my first fin can). That was last year before I had my own printer, so a friend printed it for me. We used PLA and so far, it has one flight under it's belt with no problems. The fins and walls of the can are 2mm thick.
The plastic caulk tube is HDPE. Not many adhesives will adhere to it so I chose rail buttons instead of gluing on a launch lug. I also put one of the rail buttons through the shoulder of the fin can and the caulk tube to hold them together - along with epoxy, of course. The HDPE tube was scuffed and scored, as well.
I sliced the nosecone off of the adhesive-filled tube, then used a broomstick to push out the adhesive from the bottom. Yes, I sacrificed a $7 tube of Gorilla Glue for this Snot Rocket. My dad calls Gorilla Glue Gorilla Snot, so that's where the name came from. I cleaned out the fresh, wet adhesive from the inside of the tube with paper towels.
I made a coupler for the nosecone shoulder by slicing a section out of a slightly too-large coupler, and using that section to glue back inside and hold it together. The coupler was epoxied into the scuffed and scored HDPE nosecone.
I chose a caulk tube with a screw on/off nozzle for two reasons. First, I could take it off, drill two holes beneath it and have an anchor point for the Kevlar shock cord. Second, I could add bullets, as required, inside the nozzle for nose weight. My reloading bench is beside the rocket table in the basement so two .44 mag solid lead bullets from my Cowboy action loads, and one .32 S&W cast lead bullet fit the space and weight requirement perfectly. Locktite was used to secure the nozzle tip.
The motor mount was fairly straightforward. The centering rings are a traditional 2-ply Honey Nut Cheerio box laminated with wood glue. Templates were printed from www.payloadbay.com. The motor tube was sized for a 24mm blackpowder E, or a D with a spacer. The motor tube and fore centering ring got epoxied in first, then the aft rail button, then the aft centering ring. The Kevlar shock cord runs down through holes in the centering rings up against the motor tube, and has a loop around the bottom of the motor tube, held in place by the more-than-enough amount of epoxy.
I simulated everything in RockSim, and double-checked it on www.unm.edu/~tbeach/flashstuff/RocketAltitudeFixedSize.html.
It flew on a D12-5 with a Rocketman 4 line TARC chute with a chute protector and a Jolly Logic Chute Release. I always fly a Jolly Logic AltimeterThree as well, but it was too windy to risk a tree: 17 MPH sustained winds. I was willing to risk the cost of the chute release because that is exactly what it is designed for, but I chickened out on adding more money to the rocket on that particular day. I usually set the chute release for 300 feet, but on this day I set it at 200', and it was a perfect flight in every way. I'm looking forward to future flights with E motors and the AltimeterThree on board.
I should mention this is using the "normal" 9 ounce caulk tube. Who's going to upscale it using the contractor 30 ounce tubes? I know I will, but it's at the bottom of the build pile below some other ideas floating around my brain and rocket table, so it'll be a while.
Semper Fi,
Culprit
The idea was simple - I was changing a caulk tube in my caulk gun one day and thought the business end looked like a ram-jet. From that moment, I knew I had to see one fly. I headed to Lowe's looking for a tube that had a screw on/off nozzle, and a cool-looking easily-recognizable label/brand. Gorilla glue won that source selection hands-down.
I drew up the fin can in Fusion 360 (my first fin can). That was last year before I had my own printer, so a friend printed it for me. We used PLA and so far, it has one flight under it's belt with no problems. The fins and walls of the can are 2mm thick.
The plastic caulk tube is HDPE. Not many adhesives will adhere to it so I chose rail buttons instead of gluing on a launch lug. I also put one of the rail buttons through the shoulder of the fin can and the caulk tube to hold them together - along with epoxy, of course. The HDPE tube was scuffed and scored, as well.
I sliced the nosecone off of the adhesive-filled tube, then used a broomstick to push out the adhesive from the bottom. Yes, I sacrificed a $7 tube of Gorilla Glue for this Snot Rocket. My dad calls Gorilla Glue Gorilla Snot, so that's where the name came from. I cleaned out the fresh, wet adhesive from the inside of the tube with paper towels.
I made a coupler for the nosecone shoulder by slicing a section out of a slightly too-large coupler, and using that section to glue back inside and hold it together. The coupler was epoxied into the scuffed and scored HDPE nosecone.
I chose a caulk tube with a screw on/off nozzle for two reasons. First, I could take it off, drill two holes beneath it and have an anchor point for the Kevlar shock cord. Second, I could add bullets, as required, inside the nozzle for nose weight. My reloading bench is beside the rocket table in the basement so two .44 mag solid lead bullets from my Cowboy action loads, and one .32 S&W cast lead bullet fit the space and weight requirement perfectly. Locktite was used to secure the nozzle tip.
The motor mount was fairly straightforward. The centering rings are a traditional 2-ply Honey Nut Cheerio box laminated with wood glue. Templates were printed from www.payloadbay.com. The motor tube was sized for a 24mm blackpowder E, or a D with a spacer. The motor tube and fore centering ring got epoxied in first, then the aft rail button, then the aft centering ring. The Kevlar shock cord runs down through holes in the centering rings up against the motor tube, and has a loop around the bottom of the motor tube, held in place by the more-than-enough amount of epoxy.
I simulated everything in RockSim, and double-checked it on www.unm.edu/~tbeach/flashstuff/RocketAltitudeFixedSize.html.
It flew on a D12-5 with a Rocketman 4 line TARC chute with a chute protector and a Jolly Logic Chute Release. I always fly a Jolly Logic AltimeterThree as well, but it was too windy to risk a tree: 17 MPH sustained winds. I was willing to risk the cost of the chute release because that is exactly what it is designed for, but I chickened out on adding more money to the rocket on that particular day. I usually set the chute release for 300 feet, but on this day I set it at 200', and it was a perfect flight in every way. I'm looking forward to future flights with E motors and the AltimeterThree on board.
I should mention this is using the "normal" 9 ounce caulk tube. Who's going to upscale it using the contractor 30 ounce tubes? I know I will, but it's at the bottom of the build pile below some other ideas floating around my brain and rocket table, so it'll be a while.
Semper Fi,
Culprit
