New MicroMaxx Kit, Parts, and Tools

[DebZee]

I like the looks of the Obsidian and Micro-Hawk - definitely interested in picking those up! Got my Honeybee assembled - awaiting priming and painting now. I added a thin bead of glue around the base of the nose cone, then let it dry separately to add thickness and tighten the fit of the nose with body tube. That seemed to do the trick well enough - the nose is now just tight enough to stay in place if I turn the rocket upside-down, but loose enough that it'll still pop off easily. BTW, appreciated the nice "extras" with the Honeybee kit that were included - through the wall fins, alignment markings on motor mount, motor mount shock cord groove, marked glue applicator, spares on both streamer & launch lug, and fin template for repairs (which hopefully won't be needed!).

 

[tjkopena]

Thanks a lot @DebZee, I'm really glad you enjoyed it. More coming up in a new thread in a few minutes!

 

[Scott_650]

Built my two HoneyBees - took roughly an hour to build them though I did fill the spirals last night which took, maybe, 5 minutes. Painting tomorrow and maybe a first flight over the weekend. Only part of the build I’d call challenging (outside of the obvious tiny parts vs old eyeballs issues ) was tying the kevlar thread shock cord to the motor mount and even that wasn’t hard, just a bit fiddly. A very well thought out kit with quality parts and crystal clear instructions. I used CA to build the motor mount and attach the launch lug, Beacon Fabri-Tac to install the built up mount in the airframe and Elmer’s Glue-All for the fins. Looking forward to seeing if I can really get the 43 meters apogee that Thrustcurve predicted!

 

[tjkopena]

Awesome! Thanks for the report @Scott_650!

That's useful input on the kevlar anchoring. The first prototype of the Hawkeye downscale I'm working on adapts a motor mount tie like that to a minimum diameter design: There's a groove in the motor block around which the thread gets tied. I think it's an interesting idea, but at MMX scale I found it pretty fiddly. Your note basically confirms that I should switch to a different mounting mechanism.

I'd be interested to hear what you (and anyone) thinks about the realistically achievable altitude. I have an order in for a FlightSketch Comp so I can get some hard data on how high these little rockets are going. It'll obviously be lower than a flight without the altimeter; even at <1g the Comp is still 25% of the weight of the rocket itself. But it should be informative. Unfortunately the ascents are so fast and the tiny models so hard to see at apogee that I'm skeptical of my ability to use an inclinometer to accurately track & calculate the altitude.

 

[user 35280]

Awesome! Thanks for the report @Scott_650!

That's useful input on the kevlar anchoring. The first prototype of the Hawkeye downscale I'm working on adapts a motor mount tie like that to a minimum diameter design: There's a groove in the motor block around which the thread gets tied. I think it's an interesting idea, but at MMX scale I found it pretty fiddly. Your note basically confirms that I should switch to a different mounting mechanism.

I'd be interested to hear what you (and anyone) thinks about the realistically achievable altitude. I have an order in for a FlightSketch Comp so I can get some hard data on how high these little rockets are going. It'll obviously be lower than a flight without the altimeter; even at <1g the Comp is still 25% of the weight of the rocket itself. But it should be informative. Unfortunately the ascents are so fast and the tiny models so hard to see at apogee that I'm skeptical of my ability to use an inclinometer to accurately track & calculate the altitude.

@tjkopena do you offer email notifications for your upcoming rocket kits, parts and supplies?

 

[kuririn]

Just wanted to comment on the well thought out design of the MX launch adapter and igniter holder that Joe sells.
The arm is adjustable so you can position it under the nozzle of virtually any MX rocket.
I glued the white ceramic piece with the two igniter lead holes to the adapter because if not I know I would lose that in the field.
The white piece also isolates the igniter and prevents the weight of the controller lead clips from pulling down the igniter away from the motor. And no wadding or toothpick tip needed to hold in the igniter.
Hope you patented the design, Joe. If not you should.
Only concern is the friction fit of the MX launch rod.
Don't want the rod taking off with the rocket.
Maybe a tiny set screw for future iterations?
Laters.

 

[user 35280]

Just wanted to comment on the well thought out design of the MX launch adapter and igniter holder that Joe sells.
The arm is adjustable so you can position it under the nozzle of virtually any MX rocket.
I glued the white ceramic piece with the two igniter lead holes to the adapter because if not I know I would lose that in the field.
The white piece also isolates the igniter and prevents the weight of the controller lead clips from pulling down the igniter away from the motor. And no wadding or toothpick tip needed to hold in the igniter.
Hope you patented the design, Joe. If not you should.
Only concern is the friction fit of the MX launch rod.
Don't want the rod taking off with the rocket.
Maybe a tiny set screw for future iterations?
Laters.

Can you post a picture of it please?

 

[kuririn]

Can you post a picture of it please?

Sure.

Arm fully in

Arm fully out

Igniter in place

It comes with the short piece of 1/8" rod shown.
You can also attach it to your regular 1/8" rod instead.
Don't remember if the MX rod is included or separate.

 

[user 35280]

Sure.

Arm fully in
View attachment 471172

Arm fully out
View attachment 471173

Igniter in place
View attachment 471174

It comes with the short piece of 1/8" rod shown.
You can also attach it to your regular 1/8" rod instead.
Don't remember if the MX rod is included or separate.

That’s nice. Is there a screw or something that holds the launch rod in place?

 

[kuririn]

That’s nice. Is there a screw or something that holds the launch rod in place?

Thumb screw for the 1/8" rod, friction fit for the MX rod.
That's why I mused about a tiny set screw in post 36 above.
I guess you could drill and add one on.

 

[Scott_650]

So my Honeybees are painted and decaled. For self stick these were ok - not my favorite type of decals but they do look good. I must have painted a little heavy since they both weigh 5 grams rather than the specified 4 grams

 

[mikewrt]

So my Honeybees are painted and decaled. For self stick these were ok - not my favorite type of decals but they do look good. I must have painted a little heavy since they both weigh 5 grams rather than the specified 4 grams

Nice stands. Where did you find them? Oh yea, good looking rockets too!

 

[tjkopena]

@TigerHawk, I haven't used it yet for rockets, but there is an email announcements list which you can opt into w/ purchase, or you can sign up here. I plan to start posting to it starting with the next wave, now that there are some rocket people on it.

@kuririn I'm really glad you like the launch rod adapter. The hole for the 1/16 rod on the adapter I use all the time did recently wear a bit loose. I put a single layer of tape around the end of the rod for the time being and that increased the friction enough. Adding a set screw or small thumb screw for that rod as well is a good idea for a v2 improvement that I'll definitely implement in the foreseeable future. Thanks for posting pictures too.

@Scott_650, wow! I guess maybe I'm biased, but those look great. Thank you so much for posting pictures, it's deeply rewarding to see these little creations out there.

@mikewrt those stands are extras we included with the first bunch of orders as a thank you. We're going to produce them as an item in their own right later this summer, to come out with our next set of designs. If you have access to a 3D printer I have an all-but-identical version of the design available on Thingiverse (the orange production prototype is just slightly beefier).

 

[DebZee]

Finally got my Honeybee painted - hoping to fly it this upcoming weekend!

 

[tjkopena]

Looks super sharp!!

 

[Scott_650]

Flew my R3 Honey Bee this morning - as close to zero wind as it can get so I took a chance and launched in my backyard. First thing, the rocket performed nearly perfectly! Straight and true, fast off the pad but not quite a “blink and you’ll miss it” flight, ejection just past apogee - and it missed the really tall maple tree! I’d estimate it flew short of the 150-ish feet that OpenRocket predicted but not by much - Mk1 eyeball estimate at 120 feet. Only nit to pick is that while the ejection charge opened the rocket it didn’t extend the shock cord completely so there was only partial deployment of the streamer - say 60-65 percent - causing some melting of the mylar but recovery was damage free otherwise. Just made the one launch since I didn’t want to tempt the Rocket Gods - that maple tree is really big and it looked hungry! I’ll be taking both Honey Bees to our next club launch and since we’re a Tripoli club that should certainly cause some amusement and excitement…

 

[tjkopena]

That's great, thanks for the flight report @Scott_650!

I live next to a densely wooded park, but just inside it across the street from my house is a small kids' baseball field. I keep looking at that clearing and my MMX rockets and back at the forest surrounding the field and thinking "Well, if the rocket went perfectly straight up and down..." But pride goeth before a fall---or, in this case, a tree captured not-fall.

 

[tjkopena]

A great looking BT60 upscale of the HoneyBee that a friend in our local NAR section, Mike Simpson, just posted.

 

[Scott_650]

That's great, thanks for the flight report @Scott_650!

I live next to a densely wooded park, but just inside it across the street from my house is a small kids' baseball field. I keep looking at that clearing and my MMX rockets and back at the forest surrounding the field and thinking "Well, if the rocket went perfectly straight up and down..." But pride goeth before a fall---or, in this case, a tree captured not-fall.

The folks at Flightsketch haven’t talked much about this webpage gizmo so I’ve kept it to myself a bit - don’t even remember how I found it - but it seems fairly accurate https://flightsketch.com/weather/map/

The parks in the three local towns nearest us are all no-fly zones for rockets and R/C aircraft but I do have a friend of the family with a dairy farm that I can use but I don’t like to intrude too often - wouldn’t want to wear out my welcome.

But the hopefully new (to us) house we’re in the process of buying has several parks nearby with great looking launch areas and NO park rules or city ordinance banning rocketry! Plus the adjacent to the backyard golf course has a “buffer zone” of unused land big enough for MMX through C impulse launches - the neighbors clued me in that the course is ok with R/C planes and dogwalking in that field so I’m hoping!

 

[Scott_650]

A great looking BT60 upscale of the HoneyBee that a friend in our local NAR section, Mike Simpson, just posted.

View attachment 475001 View attachment 475002

That’s what I have in mind! That looks awesome! Your friend doesn’t happen to have a sim file built for it, maybe?

 

[tjkopena]

That’s what I have in mind! That looks awesome! Your friend doesn’t happen to have a sim file built for it, maybe?

He's very much a pencil, paper, and wingin' it kind of guy. Faithfully upscaling the airframe is pretty straightforward though. A 3x upscale from BT5 to BT60 yields pretty much exactly:

• 60MS style nosecone (Big Bertha style; PNC or BNC should be fine)
• 300mm BT60 body tube
• Three 60mmx60mm elliptical fins; 3/16" thick would be exactly scale but I'd do them in 1/8" balsa or basswood

I put together a quick sketch of an R3 BT60 upscale in OpenRocket for you:

• OpenRocket ORK
• RockSim RKT (export from OpenRocket, note that I can't test if this translated well or not)
• OpenRocket Design Review PDF

No TTW tabs on the fins in the sketch nor some other details, but those should be easy to add. Sketch uses 18mm motors. On an A it might be a bit slow off the pad but my gut feeling is it would be stable. It'd be best to add a little weight to the nosecone for B and C motors, not modeled in the file. For bigger engines you would have to put more weight in the nosecone and/or make the body longer.

For what it's worth, an OpenRocket model for the original MX version is also available.

If you or anybody wanted to work on such a build, drop me a line and I can share the decal graphics, though other than the bee & text they're simple enough to replicate in a variety of ways. Mike must have pulled them from the instructions PDF or something, his whole build was a surprise to me.

Definitely a build I'm interested in making at some point as well. There's a club launch planned this Saturday, so hopefully I'll get video then of Mike's upscale flying.

 

[Scott_650]

He's very much a pencil, paper, and wingin' it kind of guy. Faithfully upscaling the airframe is pretty straightforward though. A 3x upscale from BT5 to BT60 yields pretty much exactly:

• 60MS style nosecone (Big Bertha style; PNC or BNC should be fine)
• 300mm BT60 body tube
• Three 60mmx60mm elliptical fins; 3/16" thick would be exactly scale but I'd do them in 1/8" balsa or basswood

Definitely a build I'm interested in making at some point as well. There's a club launch planned this Saturday, so hopefully I'll get video then of Mike's upscale flying.

Thanks for all that info - looks like I’m yet again NOT going to build a regular size Big Bertha, the kit on hand is going to be bashed into an R9 Bumblebee

I have an Estes PSII Super Big Bertha, a Quest Big Betty and a Discount Rocketry Big Bullet in the fleet but I’ve never had a regular Big Bertha - every time I get ready to build one it gets transmogrified into something else…

It’ll be awhile before I get to it, moving day is only a couple weeks away so the rocket shop is being packed up.

 

[user 35280]

Thanks for all that info - looks like I’m yet again NOT going to build a regular size Big Bertha, the kit on hand is going to be bashed into an R9 Bumblebee

I have an Estes PSII Super Big Bertha, a Quest Big Betty and a Discount Rocketry Big Bullet in the fleet but I’ve never had a regular Big Bertha - every time I get ready to build one it gets transmogrified into something else…

It’ll be awhile before I get to it, moving day is only a couple weeks away so the rocket shop is being packed up.

Scott,
You need a NewWay Big Bessie NWY-33

 

[Scott_650]

Scott,
You need a NewWay Big Bessie NWY-33

Yes, yes I do! When all this house buying/moving hooey is done we’re planning a trip to SW Ohio - AF Museum, Armstrong Museum, hopefully a launch with the WSR club…and a visit to eRockets! My shpiping list keeps growing…and a Big Bessie is on it!

 

[GlenP]

Nice kits, cones, and, launch rod adapter! Shrinking model rocketry into MMX size really kind of grows on you.

Some other ideas for future kits, saucers, monocopters, rotor recovery, i.e. the non-traditional 3FNC or 4FNC configurations. They can be a bit more challenging, but with a combination of 3D printed parts and traditional materials, you could do some pretty unique designs. Great that you have some existing business history, so you are familiar with how to make a small fortune in rocketry, you start with a large fortune! Good luck!

 

[tjkopena]

Thanks @GlenP! I'm looking forward to getting to some more complex designs.


That BT60 R3 upscale from my section-mate turned out a real pretty flyer. Absolutely gorgeous model in person. First flights last weekend were straight up & straight down on B6, trying to not go so high as to wind up lost in the corn.

 

[markschnell]

Just ordered the launch adapter and the Brett. Wanted a Honey Bee but they were sold out, unfortunately. I'll get one next time for sure.

 

[kuririn]

Who's gonna be the first to do an upscale Brett?

 

[tjkopena]

HoneyBees will be restocked by late tonight. I got you covered @markschnell!

Production has resumed on a couple new kits following a July break. Looking on track for the very end of the month as planned.

 

[markschnell]

@tjkopena Just got my box. You are a class act, sir!! Your products are excellent, too. Thanks a bunch.