Got My L1 Today

[El Cheapo]

I finally finished "Ready 4 Action" the other day and got my L1 Cert on an H128 today.

Everything is scratch including the nosecone.

 

[Buckaroo]

I finally finished "Ready 4 Action" the other day and got my L1 Cert on an H128 today.

Everything is scratch including the nosecone.

Nice looking rocket - Congrats on the successful cert :clap:

Now for the official indoctrination: Welcome to high power, get out your wallet!

 

[n5wd]

...got my L1 Cert on an H128 today. Everything is scratch including the nosecone.

That's the way to do the L1 in style! Congrats!

 

[Handeman]

Congrats on the L1!!!

How was the nosecone made?

 

[El Cheapo]

The nose cone was made using a like body tube with a technique described here: https://www.rocketryplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2643 After cutting the body tube and forming the cone, I coated both inside & outside with white glue soaked paper, sanded, filled, sanded filled, epoxyied, sanded, epoxied, sanded and so on.

I'll try to get some better pictures of the rocket iteself in the coming days. It measures around 41"L and 2.125"D with sidewall thickness of close to .125. The tubes are thick mailing tubes acquired from an SSS club member. Very strong stuff.

I have approximately 40 of these tubes with more to be had so I'll be doing quite a few upscales in the future with this stuff.

 

[Handeman]

The nose cone was made using a like body tube with a technique described here: https://www.rocketryplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2643 After cutting the body tube and forming the cone, I coated both inside & outside with white glue soaked paper, sanded, filled, sanded filled, epoxyied, sanded, epoxied, sanded and so on.

I'll try to get some better pictures of the rocket iteself in the coming days. It measures around 41"L and 2.125"D with sidewall thickness of close to .125. The tubes are thick mailing tubes acquired from an SSS club member. Very strong stuff.

I have approximately 40 of these tubes with more to be had so I'll be doing quite a few upscales in the future with this stuff.

I made my nose cone out of the pink insulating foam. Glued a dowel in a block and turned it in the drill press. Coated with 30 min. epoxy. It's held up great.

Your rocket sounds like what I made my L1 out of, 2"ID & 2.25"OD heavy wall mailing tube. It is really strong stuff. I've launched mine at 80G on I1299N and a J350 to 6810 ft. No worries about holding up. I have a 38mm MMT and I don't think there's a 38mm motor it can't handle.

Since you have so many tubes, is the next rocket going to have a 25" 38mm MMT and dual deploy? It would go great on the Loki J1000-LW in the 38/1200 case and still be able to fly great on small H motors if you keep the weight near 4 lbs.

 

[El Cheapo]

That's the stuff. It's very solid tubing. "Ready 4 Action" weighs in at only 1.6lbs.

I think I've about reached the limit motorwise as is. There's a touch of a wiggle but it straitens up. One thing I did do was make the shoulder in the nosecone removeable so I can add weight. I need to send off the measurementswights to a club member so he can run it through rocksim to see what needs to be put where if I were to bump up the power. There is no forward engine block so I can go as big as I want w/29mm.

I'm not sure what I'm going to build next out of this stuff. The Semroc Series 225 nosecones are almost perfect fit. I'm thinking a Blue Bird Zero or Sentinel.

 

[MarkH]

Congrats on the L1! Cool pic also.

I think the minimum NAR safety distance for launching an H motor is 50 ft, or is it 100 ft? Pictures can be deceiving, but that looks kind of close. Just want to keep you on the safe side

 

[El Cheapo]

That pic is cropped. Yes, I look much closer to the pad than I am. All our pad distances are marked 15, 30, 50 & so on.