What did you do rocket wise today?

[Pinetree]

Thanks.

 

[KenECoyote]

Finally found the Little Joe decals for the kit I had started a few years ago and put aside. Chrome paint is looking pretty good so far! Still need to paint the fins orange or use vinyl... almost there.

 

[Charles_McG]

I did more test stacking of my Black Brants. I did figure out where some of the play was coming from and reduced it.

I had thought I might get away with rail guide only on the Talos - but the weight makes the whole thing tip slightly out. But it looks like I might get away with rail guides just .6” taller than my standard ones. I need to find an STL sized for 1515.

 

[JMS58]

I learned another valuable lesson today. I needed to touch up the paint on the fins of the Big Bertha, so I masked it off with the low tack blue painters tape. Did my touch up, removed the painter's tape along with most of the decals. Note to self: Next time make sure you apply clear coat BEFORE taping over the deals. Paint/damaged decals sanded off/down, masked off again to repaint the entire rocket. I'm learning the same way I have learned most of my life.... from the school of hard knocks.

 

[hobie1dog]

I learned another valuable lesson today. I needed to touch up the paint on the fins of the Big Bertha, so I masked it off with the low tack blue painters tape. Did my touch up, removed the painter's tape along with most of the decals. Note to self: Next time make sure you apply clear coat BEFORE taping over the deals. Paint/damaged decals sanded off/down, masked off again to repaint the entire rocket. I'm learning the same way I have learned most of my life.... from the school of hard knocks.

try a roll of "delicate surface" tape next time. I ended up tossing my roll of "BLUE" tape after screwing up a paint job

 

[Grog6]

zoro will ship 96"rail pieces.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Tested a small pile of my latest prototype electronics designs & bagged them for possible testers I meet at NSL. Sanded lots. Painted 8 rockets. Built Lokis. Built an avbay. Finished all my must-do-at-home items before NSL.

Our cardboard/balsa rocket paint job pix are below. My son’s is the orange one, daughter designed the blue/lilac/white one, and the build I did is in red & white. They’re super quickie paint jobs and not pretty up close, but they’re plenty good for launch photos….and my daughter’s face glowed when she saw her paint job drawing come to life.

 

[jqavins]

View attachment 582090
Finished the TUBER!

Interesting but unnecessary academic question: I wonder what is the net aerodynamic effect of having the tube fins aligned directly above the flat fins.

 

[hobie1dog]

I was wondering the same thing

 

[KenECoyote]

Started fixing my 4" Phoenix lawn dart. She'll rise again anew!

View attachment 580210

 

[SolarYellow]

zoro will ship 96"rail pieces.

What search term do you use to find rail there? I can't get it to come up.

 

[jd2cylman]

Prepped the AV bay for my WM 6” Interceptor for Mini Midwest Power.
I got a N2220DM that’s been sitting too long in the case in my basement. Then I assembled a 54/2550 motor for the first time. Got lucky and I cut the liner exactly the right length.

 

[Gastrok]

First coat of primer on another Big Daddy. I have some voids to fill in the fillets. Can't seem to avoid these with the DAP Plastic Wood. Any tips to minimize/eliminate them would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Pinetree]

I use Tamiya Putty (Basic Type).

 

[James Owen]

Added a little epoxy to the surface of some fin fillets to make for a suuuper smooth surface. Also some other smoothing out of things, all in preparation for a supersonic flight at NSL this weekend. The rocket has flown twice before, but never supersonic. Should be fun.

 

[kuririn]

What search term do you use to find rail there? I can't get it to come up.

Maybe try aluminum extrusion?

 

[lakeroadster]

Interesting but unnecessary academic question: I wonder what is the net aerodynamic effect of having the tube fins aligned directly above the flat fins.

The tubes straighten and align the turbulent airflow to allow for optimum flow across the full length of the straight fins.....
yeah, that's the ticket.
I learned that from my wife / aerodynamics professor, Morgan Fairchild.

 

[lakeroadster]

I redesigned / scaled down the design for my Estes Logo rocket from 29mm to 24mm, then turned the fuselage out of solid redwood.

​

 

[bad_idea]

Fiberglassed the inside of the shoulder of the 3" plastic cone (from an Estes Big Daddy ). When the glass is set, I'll grind plastic outside of the shoulder to take a couple of shear plates, which I'll glass in place. Glass on the inside helps keep me from accidentally grinding all the way through the shoulder, and also keeps the shoulder nice and round for consistent engagement of the shear pins.

Got the shear plates in last night and today ran a quick ejection test to make sure the fit of the new cone wasn't different enough to require more poof. Fortunately it wasn't.

Cleaned up the new cone, sprayed it with 3 coats of adhesion promoter (not sure if it's needed on Estes cones, but in my ignorance felt it better safe than sorry) then primed and painted it.

Sanded and filed back the fiberglass on the tracker sled and bulkhead to get them to fit. Worn out from insomnia last night so taking a break for dinner then will see what else I can get done tonight. Running low on time, but have most of the steps that can't be skipped done. Will probably fly the tracker sled without switches this week, for instance, since the switches aren't essential.

 

[ONAWHIM]

I ordered a 54mm SMART sled from Additive Aerospace for my Punisher SS build.

I'm getting my feet wet with re. to avionics and bays (not to mention fiberglass).
Once I build out the AV bay I'll make the decision on altimeter.

 

[Old School Doug]

I started a new build inspired by an article I found on InfoCentral (by Rocketry Online) regarding an alternative deployment scheme to help prevent zippers in HPR rockets. The basics involve making holes in a bulkhead that’s installed in a tube coupler. The tube coupler is then permanently installed in the fwd end of the fin can. A short shock cord is attached to the nose cone and runs through the payload section. The main shock cord is attached to the eyebolt on the bulkhead, then the parachute is attached to both cords. The chute is loaded into the payload section. Upon ejection, the holes in the bulkhead will pop the payload section and drag on the fin can should pull the chute out of the payload. I found it to be an interesting concept but I’ve opted to build it as a 2.6” diameter LPR/MPR instead of HPR.

The holes are drilled in the bulkhead and the body tube spirals have been filled. I opted to “paint” the aft side of the bulkhead with epoxy for some additional strength. I’ll probably do the same on the fwd side once I’ve installed it in the coupler.

 

[bad_idea]

Worn out from insomnia last night so taking a break for dinner then will see what else I can get done tonight.

Got very little else done. Much to do tomorrow night.

 

[Tobor]

What search term do you use to find rail there? I can't get it to come up.

1010 & 1515 rails are made by 80/20.

 

[KenECoyote]

My company has a newsletter and they asked employees to submit interesting hobbies. I submitted mine and they wrote up an article based on my responses to their questions; however, they then asked me to do a 2-3 minute video (WHAT?). I tried to push or postpone it, but they said the article was about due...

So today I made a video of some of my rockets... ended up being 27 minutes long!

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Hit the road for NSL! See you there!?

 

[Cape Byron]

Finalised the Bindi Instructions. Started creating the Pick List for it and got distracted with other things... Still on schedule as a new kit by the end of the month.

Drew up a couple of ideas that may not make it any further than the notebook. Drawings you can edit and change are better than no drawings at all. I think...

Decided on a plan to fix the broken fin on my as yet uncompleted Radical Rocketry V-2.

Bit of a change from the rest of this week.

 

[BrendanH69]

Decided on a plan to fix the broken fin on my as yet uncompleted Radical Rocketry V-2.

Bit of a change from the rest of this week.

Yeah, time to put that to bed.

 

[Cape Byron]

Yeah, time to put that to bed.

Yep, it’s a fun little kit that has been dragging on too long.

Ah well, the farm will always come first.

 

[BrendanH69]

Downloaded OR 22.02 final version.

 

[AcadiaRockets]

Last night I sat down to dry fit all the parts in the LOC 7.5 V2 tailcone.
I love LOC but I gotta say the the instructions were a bit lacking to the point of misdirection. I have built many HPR and don't need instructions but it did take me a bit of puzzling with the 98mm motor mount rings and the clever fore loading LOC 54mm motor tube adapter. The motor tube rings are so massive they have built in voids to pour foam down into the bottom of the tail cone.
I may or may not tend to choose builds with robust build threads in the past. This rocket purchase was very different in that I wanted to build this massive rocket and there are no build threads I could find. It may inspire me to do a build thread with some of the more puzzling bits of the assembly.