Lakeroadster's Lifting Rocket

[Joshua Smith]

Installing the lower launch lug.

• First I sanded the spar urethane off the fin at the location of the launch lug.
• The photo's show the alignment fixturing I used to ensure the upper and lower lugs are in alignment with each other. I periodically spun the wooden dowel to make sure it didn't happen to be trying to glue itself to the lug.

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This is such a cool rocket, esp w/the booster/cargo bay at the bottom and I love that you poly'd it instead of painted. Amazing work.

Edit: I should add that I haven't been following the thread until now, so ignore any stupidity. I'll catch up eventually

 

[lakeroadster]

This is such a cool rocket, esp w/the booster/cargo bay at the bottom and I love that you poly'd it instead of painted. Amazing work.

Edit: I should add that I haven't been following the thread until now, so ignore any stupidity. I'll catch up eventually

Thanks! Hoping to launch this next week, God willin' and the creeks don't rise..

 

[BABAR]

wasn’t this supposed to have a camera payload, I don’t know, about 250 posts ago?

looking forward to another great launch report! Best wishes.

 

[lakeroadster]

wasn’t this supposed to have a camera payload, I don’t know, about 250 posts ago?

looking forward to another great launch report! Best wishes.

Yeah, remove the Cargo Bay motor fairing and bolt a camera in, looking straight out the bottom. Unobstructed view.

That's not going to happen on the maiden flight though... I don't have a camera smaller than a 35mm.

 

[jqavins]

That's not going to happen on the maiden flight though... I don't have a camera smaller than a 35mm.

I guess that would need a bigger engine.

 

[boatgeek]

I guess that would need a bigger engine.

3x CTI 24mm 3-grain F79 might do it with the extra advantage of three dark smoke trails. You wouldn't even need an L1 cert!

 

[lakeroadster]

Today I finished gluing the lower launch lug and then glued the recovery bay to the cluster section.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Looking forward to seeing it's lift capability on three motors. Engough for a hot wheels roadster?

 

[lakeroadster]

Looking forward to seeing it's lift capability on three motors. Engough for a hot wheels roadster?

Easily. The question becomes a target altitude. I can guarantee more than 8,200 feet.

 

[lakeroadster]

Spent some quality time in the barn building an igniter wiring harness. I'm using fiberglass rods installed in the launch horse to keep the harness from getting tangled up in the fin and strut rods.

 

[boatgeek]

Spent some quality time in the barn building an igniter wiring harness. I'm using fiberglass rods installed in the launch horse to keep the harness from getting tangled up in the fin and strut rods.

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The aesthetic is very Moon Rocket Umbilical.

 

[lakeroadster]

The aesthetic is very Moon Rocket Umbilical.

I guess it's that ole adage about "Form Follows Function..

Gotta get all those essential launching bits, away from the flying candle.

 

[Daddyisabar]

I guess it's that ole adage about "Form Follows Function..

Gotta get all those essential launching bits, away from the flying candle.

Light that candle!

 

[lakeroadster]

Yesterday I'm flight prepping The Lifting Rocket and went to bolt the stuffer tube into the cargo bay and there's not enough room to access the hex nuts.

So, I wake up this morning and think... WAIT! Didn't I make the nozzle, so it slides off?

Yes, yes, I did!

I designed it, I built it... yet I still forgot how to assemble it. Brain fade I guess?

 

[lakeroadster]

Finished assembling the Cargo Bay stuffer tube. Nothing that's really all that complicated.

My trusty Magnetic Inspection Mirror, from back in my Q.A. days, helped in placing the hex nuts over the studs and getting them started on the threads, and a hemostat was the only "pliers" I had that was small enough to tighten the hex nuts. Not enough room for a socket.

 

[lakeroadster]

Tidying up some more loose ends. I'm using a D12 instead of an E motor in the Cargo Bay, so I used some spent D motor casings to make some spacers.

 

[jqavins]

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Those small cutoffs in the left rear also make good engine blocks. If the insides are clean, they even make acceptable centering rings for BT-20s.

Used engine cases, 1001 uses.

 

[lakeroadster]

Those small cutoffs in the left rear also make good engine blocks. If the insides are clean, they even make acceptable centering rings for BT-20s.

Used engine cases, 1001 uses.

I learned from @BABAR that a short section of coupler makes an excellent engine block. Thinner wall means less weight = "guuder".

But you could always use a spent motor section and peel away some of the inner spiral wraps of paper.

 

[BABAR]

I learned from @BABAR that a short section of coupler makes an excellent engine block. Thinner wall means less weight = "guuder".

But you could always use a spent motor section and peel away some of the inner spiral wraps of paper.

Motor casing slices or coupler slices definitely work. For those without good power tools they can be a PITB to cut

for low power, for quick, cheap, and light, just a short [say 1/4”] of tubiNg the same size as your Motor mount tube (body tube for minimum diameter.). Snip a piece out so it rolls up inside the tube without overlap, test Fit it with no glue first, shove it in with a marked motor casing to get the right depth, use white glue to give you more working time (don’t dilly-dally, even white glue can grab a motor casing pretty quick, hence the non-glue test fit for practice.). just about never use dedicated engine blocks, even in kits. I save them to use for centering rings of smaller inside tubes on scratch builds.

 

[jqavins]

Snip a piece out so it rolls up inside the tube without overlap...

That's also good for scratch made couplers. For engine blocks, it doesn't have to be so precise; just slice it and let the ends overlap, it doesn't matter.

 

[BABAR]

That's also good for scratch made couplers. For engine blocks, it doesn't have to be so precise; just slice it and let the ends overlap, it doesn't matter.

yes, also works for couplers, although I tend to double up and use two segments of tube, one inside the other if the connected tubes are long (usually 18 inches each). those you DO have to cut to fit, I usually just eyeball it, with the cut in the internal segment placed opposite the external segment. I find single wall couplers a little bit flimsy.

 

[jqavins]

If a coupler is making a permanent joint, glued in on both ends, then even if you take out a little too much an leave a gap it doesn't really matter. A little gap. Up to a point.

 

[lakeroadster]

Flight Prepped, well as much as can be done until we get to the launch site. Maybe Friday?

 

[Joshua Smith]

Flight Prepped, well as much as can be done until we get to the launch site. Maybe Friday?

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That's going to be a cool flight. I get the feeling you'll be cleaning soot off those fins afterward

 

[OverTheTop]

Now that's art

 

[Daddyisabar]

A big clip whip to launch?

At least there is a motor at the bottom....where it should be! Any motors plugged? External shock cord mount, trust the strength of the swivel? So many questions.

 

[lakeroadster]

A big clip whip to launch?

Post 370​

At least there is a motor at the bottom....where it should be! Any motors plugged?

No plugged motors. (2) D12-3 and a D12-5​

External shock cord mount, trust the strength of the swivel? So many questions.

No... I'll install a redundant Kevlar line to one of the other external lugs. Thanks for the question.​

So many questions.

​

 

[techrat]

I am very curious as to how well this will fly. Looks great though. Recovery might be rough as so many bits appear fragile, but we will see.

 

[lakeroadster]

I am very curious as to how well this will fly. Looks great though. Recovery might be rough as so many bits appear fragile, but we will see.

I'll be surprised if something isn't damaged... no worries.

 

[jqavins]

I don't know your plans, but if this were mine I'd fly it once and only once. That thing is such a work of art that, after proving it's flight worthy, I wouldn't put it at risk a second time. (The fact that you've made a matching stand for it seems like evidence that perhaps you're thinking similarly.)