Wadding

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Just be sure to get the flame resistant crepe paper.... and to test it once you get it home by tearing off a piece and trying to smoke it.. :p

Seriously though, don't smoke it but do try to see if it will burn. I've found the crepe paper they sell at Walmart won't burn.
 

Attachments

  • 001.JPG
    001.JPG
    239.5 KB · Views: 23
  • 002.JPG
    002.JPG
    204.6 KB · Views: 21
  • 003.JPG
    003.JPG
    230.2 KB · Views: 22
  • 004.JPG
    004.JPG
    156.3 KB · Views: 20

Attachments

  • Centuri Stellar Wadding 1.jpg
    Centuri Stellar Wadding 1.jpg
    126.2 KB · Views: 27
For those of you who remember FSI wadding, I recently came across some in an estate sale and really like it. Would anyone know of a commercially available version of it? It was a thin fibrous material that really works well since it tends to stay in the rocket after ejection and can be used several times.
 
And if you can find "Blow-In" cellulose insulation (Dog Barf) Estes gives you a nice amount of wadding with the Blast-Off pack Unfortunately Blast-off pack use to be cheap a few years ago but no longer...engine prices went up and up.
 
I bought some crepe streamer at a Dollar store & tested its flammability. It charred but did not ignite. Two rolls for a buck. Each roll 1.75" wide by 70' long. Lots of wadding for $1. :)
I picked up some flat packs of flame resistant crepe paper at the local ā€œparty cityā€ type of store. I cut it to the same size as Estes recovery wadding squares and it seems to work. It is a little thicker and a little stiffer than Estes recovery wadding. I just never know how much of the crepe paper stuff to use.
 
Last edited:
So if been reading here and there that you can use crepe paper as wadding. Is it true? If so can save some moneyšŸ˜ƒ
On some of my more beloved rockets, where weight is not a critical issue, I have started using nomex blankets. Work well. A little expensive, yes, so I use them only on my favorite rockets I really would hate to lose. Never had a problem with parachutes being burned when using a nomex blanket. Got them from Uncle Mikeā€™s Rocket Shack a few years back.
 
Soaking in bicarb/borax is too much work to plus waiting to dry. Party streamers are the best because they don't want your birthday party to go up in flames because of the cake candles.

Last January, Bill Stine said Estes purchases more TP than anyone in the county other than the county prison.
 
I've been using crepe paper party streamers for years. Our family always decorates bedrooms, bathrooms, dining room, etc. for everyone's birthday. When the birthday's are over, I bag it up and throw it in a rocket box. I'll probably never run out.
 
What is your soaking procedure? I have an old box of borax and many worn out pairs of, well, menā€™s undergarments.
You'll get better flame retardancy if you use a combination of boric acid and sodium tetraborate (borax); they increase the solubility of one another and both are good retardants. Try 7 oz borax and 3 oz boric acid (termite killer; check label) in a quart of boiling water to give a saturated solution for dipping TP, paper, cloth.... The precise ratio isn't life-or-death; even a 50:50 mix by weight will work fine, and better than either chem alone.

Don't try to do an intact roll of TP--when it (eventually) dries it'll be crystallized into a solid mass that will only shed pieces. I did this. Once. Lengths of two-ply hung across a clothes line will be dry in a few hours in the sun. Single ply like Estes wadding even faster.

The more rigid two-ply sheets are really nice for large ID MPR rockets where balls/sheets of single-ply seem to endlessly disappear down the body tube and might not give wall-to-wall coverage, risking flame passage through gaps. A single sheet of two-ply stays in place but is easily moved/manipulated; I follow it with a small handful of cellulose insulation ($10 for a huge multiple cubic-foot bundle at HD; $4 for 2.5 ounces if you pay somebody to repackage the exact same thing as Dog Vomit). Chute package BT-inserted end wrapped with a sheet of single-ply. Never really have an issue with this approach in my MPRs without baffles.

Boron salts are much better flame retardants than sodium bicarbonate for this application. Leftover dampening solutions can be stored indefinitely.
 
I've been using crepe paper party streamers for years. Our family always decorates bedrooms, bathrooms, dining room, etc. for everyone's birthday. When the birthday's are over, I bag it up and throw it in a rocket box. I'll probably never run out.
What size and shape do you cut it to? Any rule of thumb for how much to use?
 
What size and shape do you cut it to? Any rule of thumb for how much to use?

FWIW... here's what I do..

On small diameter rockets, simply roll it until it's a slip fit into the body tube.

On larger BT's I prefer however to tape a dime to one end of the party streamer, then roll the paper around the dime until the crepe paper is a slip fit into the body tube. It's an awesome visual, that long streamer slowly falling to earth. It also gives you a good visual as to the direction the rocket will be from the launch pad.
 
FWIW... here's what I do..
On larger BT's I prefer however to tape a dime to one end of the party streamer, then roll the paper around the dime until the crepe paper is a slip fit into the body tube. It's an awesome visual, that long streamer slowly falling to earth. It also gives you a good visual as to the direction the rocket will be from the launch pad.
Great idea! :clapping:
 
What size and shape do you cut it to? Any rule of thumb for how much to use?
I just tear it so that it's a little wider that whatever diameter body tube I'm stuffing it in. Then, since that often leaves gaps that the short side of the streamer, I tear a second (and maybe a third) and place it on top but rotated 90 degrees. Then, I usually use a pencil to push it gently down the tube, then the parachute or streamer, or whatever goes in on top of that. Not very scientific, but it works well enough.
 
FWIW... here's what I do..

On small diameter rockets, simply roll it until it's a slip fit into the body tube.

On larger BT's I prefer however to tape a dime to one end of the party streamer, then roll the paper around the dime until the crepe paper is a slip fit into the body tube. It's an awesome visual, that long streamer slowly falling to earth. It also gives you a good visual as to the direction the rocket will be from the launch pad.
If rolled around a dime, how does it stop the ejection charge from reaching the laundry?
 
If rolled around a dime, how does it stop the ejection charge from reaching the laundry?
Slightly off topic, but I used to have a homemade streamer (fairly small) that had a penny taped to one end to weight it. The ā€œpenny streamerā€ was placed in the model rocket tube, rocket got launched, and penny streamer got ejected. We then timed how long it took for the penny streamer to hit the ground. The speed at which it was falling times the amount of time to hit the ground = rough altitude at ejection. If time of ejection was close to time of apogee, then we could get a rough idea of how high the rocket went. I thought the only reason for the streamer was so you could see it and that the penny by itself would be a better object to use. That is not the case. The streamer slows down the penny enough that you can time its fall.
What I canā€™t remember is the speed we used for the rate at which the penny streamer fell. I think we assumed that it accelerated to ā€œterminal velocityā€ fairly quickly, so we ignored the acceleration phase? I canā€™t remember.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top