Rebuilt Rockets, Second (Third...) Chance.

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Kelley

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2017
Messages
48
Reaction score
0
So how many people have wrecked rockets, that they scavenged parts off of, and made something even better? I have an old wrecked Hawk Missile, and I am sure I would not be able to put fins back on and repaint it to its former glory, but that nose cone is too nice to trash. I am thinking on how I could salvage the motor mount too. I don't know if one would call it 100 percent scratch building, but it would be cool to see pictures of new rockets made from catastrophic failures.
 
some folks have rebuilt nearly the entire rocket except for the nose cone, and still say it is the same rocket :). I would say that a lot of folks repurpose parts for other projects.
Rex
 
I've saved sets of G10 fins after bringing rockets in hard. In that case we made a club lawn dart trophy from the nose cone. The fins are still on the shelf. Someday....



Steve Shannon
 
I guess there is kind of slight differences, Rebuilding same rocket. Cloning. Cloning using parts of old rocket. And then there are the Frankenstein's Monster of rockets that are made of salvaged bits and pieces of older rockets.
 
IMG_1659.jpgMy poor Hawk has seen better days. I will see what I can do with it in the next few weeks
 
I have 80% of my AT Mustang. Motor ate the tube, but my full intent is to do -something with it, I just don't know what yet.
 
We could make this like a 6 million dollar man thing. See what we can rebuild or use to make something better. Everyone has a junk box full of broken parts I am sure.
 
my very first venture into higher-than-estes engines was the aerotech mirage. first flight was on a G80-13. at the time i really didn't understand what the "13" meant.
the nose cone was completely buried and BT wrecked to the motor mount/fin can. bought a pair of LOC body tubes and was able to retro fit one to attach to the fin can and make a new top/av bay.
flew it a LOT of times, then got out of the hobby for a while, then back in it spring of 2016.
first flight was my mirage on a g80-7. excellent flight and deploy right on time.
buuuuut, i was using 2 chutes and having booster and top come down separately. i forgot about packing the booster chute last, so the chute didn't come out and the booster was actually whistling comin back in.... to blacktop.
but i was able to rebuild!

then theres the 1/4 scale PML patriot(phenolic tube). i spent a LOT of time on finishing it. im not sure what happened, but it didn't come close to predicted altitude. ejection charge occurred about 5' off the ground on decent.
Michigan farm field in fabruary(?) is quite unforgiving on phenolic. nose cone survived and used that on a scratch build. fin can actually survived without a fillet rattled even and that was hanging in a shop downriver last i knew.
rest of rocket filled about 1/4 of a plastic shopping bag. might have been a good puzzle!
 
Somewhere in my tool chest I have my original 16 ounce claw hammer given to me by my father. The only things I've ever replaced are the head and the handle.
 
I have rockets that I've rebuilt after a crash, rockets that have been built into something entirely different after a crash, some that are in boxes waiting to be rebuilt, parts from rockets that weren't even mine but I claimed from the dumpster after a crash, and one design in particular that I really like and want to perfect, but it has crashed three or four times and I keep tweaking it in hopes of "getting it right."
 
I always salvage something from a damaged rocket. My NCR Big Brute clone only has the motor mount from the original after a lawndart. Sometimes I salvage rockets that weren't even mine. On this one, I wanted to see how a BT60 rocket would do on an F15. The bottom is a Estes Hawk that had all its fins but no motor mount anymore (very convenient). The top is a Patriot that was missing 2 fins. The nose is an Apollo Capsule. Thanks to one Paul Miller who left be a box-o-junk when he moved west. Had lots of fun with said junk! Too bad I miss judged the upper wind.... this Frankenstein rocket drifted to the next state.

US Army Gemini.jpg
 
When my Mean Machine gave up the ghost, I for sure kept the nose cone so I could clone it! Nose cones are probably my most-salvaged item. I have cut the undamaged portion of a body tube also. Rarely have balsa fins on LPR been reusable for me.
 
For MPR to HPR, I've been really lucky to have never had anything past scratches. I tend to get more crazy and experimental on LPR. When those wreck, I'll save nose cones, but not much else.
 
I always salvage something from a damaged rocket. My NCR Big Brute clone only has the motor mount from the original after a lawndart. Sometimes I salvage rockets that weren't even mine. On this one, I wanted to see how a BT60 rocket would do on an F15. The bottom is a Estes Hawk that had all its fins but no motor mount anymore (very convenient). The top is a Patriot that was missing 2 fins. The nose is an Apollo Capsule. Thanks to one Paul Miller who left be a box-o-junk when he moved west. Had lots of fun with said junk! Too bad I miss judged the upper wind.... this Frankenstein rocket drifted to the next state.

View attachment 310724

Gemini capsule?

That is amazing and horrifying at the same time
 
This rocket is built almost entirely of scrap from three wrecked rockets given to me by a fellow club member. (Thanks, Wilson!)

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1472843844.599673.jpg

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1472843916.028479.jpg

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1472843894.227206.jpg

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1472843931.371910.jpg

image.jpg
 
I just found a gorilla box full of broken rocket parts and half done rockets that I have been collecting for years in my dozens and dozens of moves around the world. Some of these were parts I scrounged while on leave in the early 80s from the old brick and mortar hobby shops and hardware stores when you could still get balsa nose cones and other widgets by the piece right there on the shelf. Got a bunch of those "made in China slap together big heavy plastic fin/motor mounts too. Most of the body tubes are bent and beat up, but sheets of balsa are cheap as dirt and I can get bodies in Holland in the odd BT sizes. Once I get those I can crank out rockets like sausages, just like Khrushchev .
 
I have several rocket that I've Worn out flying, saved all the parts from the original I could, then rebuilt the same model using this original parts. My Goblin is one, another is a Two Stage bird that I've rebuilt or replace the booster on at least three times.

When a Rocket can no longer be salvaged, it is stripped of anything that can be reused, Nose Cones, Transitions, couplings, Centering rings, Shockcords and shock cord anchor systems if in good shape, and occasionally fins.

My workshop as tons of parts just waiting for a spirit to move me to design something around them.

007a1-sm_Delta Star 2-Stage (est-1322)_04-24-83.jpg

007a3-sm_Delta Star 2-stage 3rd rework complete_03-22-07.jpg
 
Back
Top