Squirrel Works Tuber

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The primer was in turn followed by 2 coats of orange.

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The sustainer, on the other had, needed just a bit of sanding after the priming. It then got 2 coats of yellow.

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When the paint had dried, I needed to do a little sanding on the tube coupler to perfect the fit but the rocket looked to be in good shape.

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The Tuber comes with a single water slide decal bearing the name of the rocket. The decal is of good quality and, to my mind, is clear evidence that evan a simple, prefessionally made decal can do wonders to dress up a rocket. I think it looks great.

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Cool!

JAL3 said:
The fins were then glued into place with a double glue joint using yellow glue. When all had dried, they were filleted with white glue.
hmm, interesting. I should try that double-glue method.
 
Cool!


hmm, interesting. I should try that double-glue method.

I've been using the double glue method for years. It results in joints that are stronger than the materials being bonded (I generally use Titebond wood glue for fin/body tube joints).
 
As is my practice when flying a new rocket, I take it easy and build up the power over time. I also start in single stage configurations when trying out a multi stager. The Tuber was no exception.

I loaded a C11-7 into the sustainer and prepped it with dog barf. I added a streamer and set it on the pad.

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The countdown proceeded and the Tuber lifted off quickly, straight and true. There was no twisting or any deviation from "up".

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Were it not for the tracking smoke in the motor, we all would have lost sight of it. As it happened, though, we were able to see it reach apogee and start back down just a bit before the ejection charge went off. We saw the cloud of smoke and the body coming down. We also saw the streamer fluttering away in the light wind. The rocket was not bothered by the wind; it just came down. Fortunately, it did so in a horizontal spin.

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When it hit the ground, it did so near by. The nose cone was nowhere to be seen but there seemed to be no damage at all to the body of the rocket. The shock cord, both Kevlar and sewing elastic, were wadded up in a blob terminated by the eye screw. A cursory examination revealed that the threads on the screw had completely stripped out of the NC.

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This rocket was well thought out, well designed, well documented and an example of "how to do it right". Sometimes, though, fortune figures its time to point the fickle finger of fate. Such was the occasion for me.

I will be ordering a replacement nose cone and rebuilding. Based upon performance, though, I wonder where I am going to be able to fly the full stack with any chance at all of recovery.

Person who will to keep up with the status of this rocket are invited to check out: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/collections/72157618936129577/
 
The Tuber is one of my earliest purchases and has been sitting around for long time waiting for attention. It has failed to get the attention because, over time, it migrated to the back of the racks as other rockets were placed on the hooks. A few days ago, I noticed lots of pieces laying on the floor and investigated. The bottom of the Tuber's package had given way and scattered some of the contents. I figured I better start building before anything got lost.


Our kits are so anxious to fly that they will crawl out of the package on their own if you wait too long!
 
Our kits are so anxious to fly that they will crawl out of the package on their own if you wait too long!

Whoops

That reminds me I need to get that replacement NC ordered. I have a memory like a rust colander.
 
John, where do the Alamo Rocketeers fly? My wife is from SA and we go there a couple of times a year or so.

We use the Alamo Fireworks field on US87 in China Grove. Thats about halfway between loop 410 and loop 1604 on the SE side of San Antonio. Its the highway to Victoria.

On the minus side, we wish the field was larger. On the plus side, it is convenient and its exempt from the various burn bans!:D

You're welcome anytime. There are no fees. We are a pretty small group but seem to be having some growth recently.

We usually fly from 10-2 on the 2nd Saturday of the month.
 
At last month's club launch, I lost the nose cone of my Tuber on its maiden flight. I dilly-dallied around and did not get around to sending in the money for the replacement until last week. Mea culpa.

This past Saturday, my club had its August launch. While one of the new guys was tramping back from looking for his rocket, he brought me a yellow present saying "Look what I found". I immediately identified it. It was in great shape except for the lack of an eye screw.

I thought that if I got home and rushed off an email to Squirrel Works, I could maybe apply the money I sent to something else. When I got home, though, my Box from the head squirrel was waiting.

I guess I need to come up with a scratch project sometime soon...:y:

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I had a little free time to look at my Tuber this morning. The found nose cone was in good shape and lacked only the eye screw. It had the advantage that it was already sealed and painted.

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On the other hand, the new cone looked nice...very nice.

I had also ordered an extra decal and Don sent me several.:D

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Me being me (lazy) and having a morning appointment, I opted to go with the old one.

I decided against going the yellow glue rout again this time. It would have formed a very loose joint. Instead, I mixed a spot of epoxy, filled the hole and then inserted the eye screw. Additional epoxy was spread over the base to grab on better and over the metal of the screw.

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The original decal was very simple but really dressed up the rocket in my opinion. I wanted it to look good from both sides so I ordered another. It was placed in the same location as the first but on the opposite side of the tube.

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By the time I had finished messing with the decal, the epoxy had set up so I tied the shock cord to the eye screw.

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That looks really good. Always nice to get all of the parts back on something like that. I would think the epoxy will hang on to the threads well enough, as long as it gets a chance to soak into the balsa well it should hold.

I need to get my Tuber out and build it. I put the Stinger together a couple of weeks ago to try out papering the fins before starting the Tuber. It worked out well, so I should get going on it.
 
That looks really good. Always nice to get all of the parts back on something like that. I would think the epoxy will hang on to the threads well enough, as long as it gets a chance to soak into the balsa well it should hold.

I need to get my Tuber out and build it. I put the Stinger together a couple of weeks ago to try out papering the fins before starting the Tuber. It worked out well, so I should get going on it.

Thanks.

I hate losing rockets. Even ones, like my Stinger, that are early attempts and not all that well done.

When I got started, I wouldn't bother fixing any damage and would just start a new project.

Now, I'll practically rebuild from scratch just to be able to say its the same vehicle.
 
The Tuber got an outing today since I was flying at a larger field than my usual. I loaded it with a C11-0/D12-7 combination and set it up on the pad.

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In my mind its a strange looking rocket but pretty none the less. Its even better looking with a flame shooting out the back end.

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It climbed well on the booster and I anxiously awaited the answer to the question of whether it would stage alright from the C11.

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It staged fine and I diverted my attention to the booster long enough to notice that it came down spinning like a pinwheel.

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