potential rockets!!!!!!!!!

[Dr. Don]

Hey There!
In all the left over debris from Christmas wrapping there are several really cool looking rocket tubes! I know they are not very strong but the potential is there!!! At the very least I could put together a nice little C engine bird! Either way, the tubes simply cannot be thrown out even though the sizes are non standard and a nose cone will have to be a custom job. Ah, the winter
"too cold to go launching" blues...... DR DON

 

[gothique_97]

You know, I have at least 12 such tubes in the basement. I have plans for them in my head, but, at the rate I'm going, they'll get more use as cat toys.

 

[rstaff3]

Standards? We don't need no steeeenking standards!

I've used them before - my favorites were the ones that are almost 3" in diameter. Nose cones made from clear tennis ball tubes, laundry detergent caps, L'Eggs panyhose containers, balsa blocks... Just strenthen the edges with CA or epoxy. Now I tend to use mailing tubes because they are stronger and, having discovered composite engines, don't wory about that sort of thing

 

[Oliver Arend]

I spent a weekend with a church youth group, and while we were working on a large picture, I saw a huge tube, like 5" x 7' standing in the corner. Went over to lift it, perhaps 5 pounds or so, really light for that size (you would normally imagine one of them 1/2" walled carpet holding tubes)... I still kick myself in the butt for not trying to bring it home. Would have been awesome for a Level 2 project.

Oliver

 

[jflis]

.... yep, i'm the guy responsible for fireing up all of the old threads... LOL

i do this often to make large cheep rockets that I can put in big motors (not TOO big), and not be too concerned if i loose the model. This comes in handy when I am doing a hobby shop demo and we're restricted to a small parking lot. no chance to launch very high and retrieve, so these let me do it without loosing a valued rocket.

It also shows that model rocketry need not be terribly expensive if you don't want it to...

one of my fav was one i called a "Chinese Junk" and can be seen at:
https://jflis.com/hobbies/rocketry/photos/junk01.jpg

The body is a Christmas wrap tube, the nose was formed from card-stock and the fins are from the cardboard you find on a note book. great fun *S*

jim

 

[Fishhead]

Every rocket that I scratch built as a kid started out as a wrapping paper or aluminum foil tube. Most of these creations were horrendous looking 4fnc "rockets" with wrapped paper cones, flimsy engine mounts and recovery systems made out of bread bags, rubber bands and sewing thread. Several flew, but the one that didn't was the best one. It got stuck in a kink on the "launch rod" (an unbent coathanger) and incinerated itself right there on the pad with my neighbors looking on in great puzzlement. Incidents like this were why I'm glad that my parents took no interest in my rocketry hobby back then. At least there are no pictures.

 

[KermieD]

I was at a nearby music festival/carnival/fair this spring when at one of the booths I saw this guy who was demonstrating/selling these drums. These drums were about 2 feet across by anywhere from a foot to 4 feet high. Didn't pay much attention at all until I happened to notice a spiral groove (!!!) in the drums. I went up and talked to the guy for a while, and drooled over the drums (rocket tubes). Turns out he cuts them down from about 10' lengths. The next day, I started shopping for my level 1 kit. I have his card for when I get to the point where I'm certified for a motor that can launch one of those drums!