Thin walled fiberglass 18mm or 24mm tubes and cones?

[majordude]

I just realized that this HPR crap is getting expensive.

But fiberglass is better than cardboard.

Can I make a durable LPR or MPR rocket from fiberglass?

 

[TopRamen]

I do it all the time.

Yes, you can, and in some cases, the slight bit of added mass will mean that your heavier rocket will go higher than it's cardboard counterpart do to inertia. This can be shown in Openrocket simulations, when you can see the plot of the rockets flight, and in stuff like 13mm, the rocket is going too fast for recovery device deployment, and still going up, due to the really short delays in the motors.

Even Carbon Fiber makes a fine LPR birdy.

 

[TopRamen]

Matter of fact, when I first started using composites for making LPR and MPR parts, I received a lot of criticism.
Thankfully, there were some of the real rocket pros here that saw the merit to what I was trying to accomplish and supported it, by giving me guidance and even materials to work with.
I actually saved very little glass cloth for myself this month, and send out more than I build with.
Thankfully, I have been over stocked on it by the generous donations of members here, but I'm finally down to just enough for personal use.
Now, I'm the one sending materials to folks that want to quit sanding spirals and adding ounces upon ounces of excess primer.
At the same time, I'm still getting the guidance of the pros, and being inspired to make my techniques lighter and more efficient.
I suspect that within the next year, I should be able to use composite technology to entirely out-build, to include the weight problem, any cardboard and balsa rocket, but don't hold me to it, as I predict a lot of things that don't come to fruition.
I'm on the right path though.:wink:
The precision that composite parts offer when it comes to fitting everything is unmatched, as they cannot be dented or easily marred by merely handling them. I measure everything with my digital caliper to the tenth of a millimeter, and when I dry fit my models, the parts all stay together with no adhesive, which means I will need very little added weight using things like adhesive fillets and the like.

 

[majordude]

I do it all the time.

Yes, you can, and in some cases, the slight bit of added mass will mean that your heavier rocket will go higher than it's cardboard counterpart do to inertia. This can be shown in Openrocket simulations, when you can see the plot of the rockets flight, and in stuff like 13mm, the rocket is going too fast for recovery device deployment, and still going up, due to the really short delays in the motors.

Even Carbon Fiber makes a fine LPR birdy.

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Are you making your own tubes or are these available somewhere?

 

[Rex R]

off the top of my head, both Wildman and Mad Cow both have kits.
Rex

 

[dhbarr]

I don't find any current production 24mm CF kits anywhere, only OOP and custom.

 

[TopRamen]

Are you making your own tubes or are these available somewhere?

Ofcourse I roll my own. That's the whole fun part!

At this scale, you will not find what you are looking for "Pre-Made".



I make a Mandrel, then I peel a tube, and apply the composite to the what's left of tube.
Then I realize it looks like crap and is not worth taking a picture of, and throw it in the trash and do it all over again and again until it is worth sharing with all of the folks here who deserve to see it done atleast half way decent.

That first 13mm Carbon Fiber Star Trooper was a hot mess, so I'm doing version 2.0 as we speak.

 

[Gus]

Can I make a durable LPR or MPR rocket from fiberglass?

https://www.nar.org/contest-flying/fai-spacemodeling/construction-techniques/