also look around for small foam rubber balls. lightweight and have built-in cushion effect.
What did you do rocket wise today?
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There was a post about using foam ear plugs here, which was a cool idea and one I wish I had remembered... after zippering my TLP Saab RB05 this weekend (nose cone drag separation).
I know a guy on here has a metal ring that goes around the outside of the airframe he called it a bumper(?). I've been using corks and now wooden dowel rods with holes drilled down the middle. Honeslty the CA in mine helped stop a full zipper, it was violent. How bad is yours??There was a post about using foam ear plugs here, which was a cool idea and one I wish I had remembered... after zippering my TLP Saab RB05 this weekend (nose cone drag separation).
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Haha, I was thinking about the dogs tennis ball....lol..
I suggest a piece of the material that pipe insulation/pool noodles are made from.
Mine looks about the same as yours and flight was similar to yours, but low power on an E30.
View attachment 20231104_130318.mp4
It should be easily repairable (depending on how nice I want it).
My mistake was that this was originally a lightweight TLP build (which are lightweight by nature), but I had to add a LOT of nose weight to get the cg where I wanted and so the nose ended up so much heavier than before since the Saab RB05 has a lot of forward fin area.
Additionally the original recovery lines were very thin since the rocket initially wasn't so heavy. For what it's worth, imo the boost up was beautiful.
I'll repair and fly again!
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Ok.....
Got you, heck I was thinking even If I messed up at the ejection had gone off a little early it probably wouldn't have even hurt that tube given what happened. I can't believe how tough that CA made it. But I mean I dumped it in there and used a cotton swab to move it around and dry it.
But my first thought was to just cut the body tube down. But after looking at I have a way that might work out nice. I'm in no rush, so if it doesn't work out ill just cut. Good luck with yours!
I would either cut it down a bit (probably) or cut it down then build it up with a coupler and new piece of tube (maybe, but a better choice a zipper goes deeper). Both are pretty common methods. Have you got something else in mind? Inquiring mins want to know (as that's what "inquiring" means).
I have some black soft rubber golf balls that I used for the joystick on my power chair so they are not too big of diameter. I found them on Ebay.
I'm gonna use epoxy and patience..
Thanks!
Right now I'm thinking of gluing kraft paper on the inside and then more glue on the damage, sand and paint. The extra on the inside should make for a more snug fit with the nose cone.
This one was actually repaired before. I built it as instructed and after boosting straight off the rod, it did a dive straight into the ground. I had to replace the entire bt forward of the fins. Hence the extra nose weight. I'll keep at keeping at it!
I'm gonna try about the same but with BSI 30 min epoxy. I'm fortunate that it didn't really distort the tube too at all. It won't be hard to fix this its just going to take a little more work. Good luck though!
Assembled a two pack of old Econojet F20-4 LMS motors.
View attachment 614019
Leaving this to cure upright overnight.
IIRC price back then was a little less than the SU counterpart.
Browsed through a couple of rocket motor vendors websites online.
Wondered why the current prices of LMS motors are actually a couple of bucks HIGHER than the price of their single use counterparts.
If you are assembling a motor and using your time and labor and your own epoxy shouldn't it cost LESS than the assembled single use counterpart?
Why pay a higher price for a motor you have to assemble versus one that's already assembled?
There's no incentive to do that, right?
The incentive used to be that the LMS motors avoided HAZMAT shipping, while the SU ones did not. Now that they both don't require that additional charge, the only thing left is a more easily adjusted delay, right? Not sure why the LMS would cost more from the manufacturer side, though.
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NTP2
Well-Known Member
I was going to get some BP at a new hunting store but they didn’t have any, they had swords and spears but no BP!!!! 
Suggested for your consideration:
Before gluing bits back together, wrap a coupler with waxed paper or baker's parchment and insert it to act as a mandrel.
Well thank you, I've been pretty devoted to this since May. Gonna take a few days or weeks and work on some other things. Its definitely an accomplishment for me. I'm actually proud of myself and feeling better than I have in a long time.Thanks and good luck to you too!
I'll reply back here after I've repaired.
I
Thats part of the plan, I was looking for the nosecone shoulder I cut off I could use that to help. I'm just not sure where the heck I put it.l, lol...Thank you!
I think my phone added two posts im not even trying to fix it, lol..
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In my case, I can simply use the nose cone since I plan to use Carpenter's glue.
I might use glue too, Im not sure. I was going to coat the inside of the tube with Epoxy just a little to tighten the fit with the NC but used that CA instead after someone mentioned doing that method on the Rocketry Show when I was listen to Spotify. I think my flight was probably as bad it could go, lol.
Ugh.... I'm just so happy I did build this with some overkill as stated on another post. It was most definitely worth it.
I was considering thinned epoxy too as well as possibly using a CA soak after like you've mentioned. I've had mixed success with CA since a long time back a CA'd tube I had still zippered. It seemed to make it stronger, but also more prone to cracking vs. tearing. In my case, the tears are better for a glue fix since there's more surface to glue things back together with. Truth is that all these fixes likely work about the same, so I'd use the one you're most comfortable with and would be happy with.
Someone else who was at my recovery site (my rocket landed right by his) suggested using the aluminum heat duct tape around the top of the bt. He swears by it.
applied some Timbermate filler to areas on 3 rockets.....great product BTW
That aluminum duct tape sounds interesting, I'd really like to 3D print a NC that fits down in a plastic coupler inside the BT. So the NC would be the same size, but the shoulder would be smaller than usual. That would protect the top of the BT from zippers. There a few things that already exist that may have helped but probably not much with my situation.
As far as glue or epoxy I'm only thinking epoxy for a little more strength. But really with cardboard the bond of glue is stronger than the material so it doesn't make much sense to use epoxy when you don't really need it, unless you want to add weight. If its plastic or fiberglass, absolutely epoxy.
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I've oft' thought of the same thing, except I've wondered how to do it using "regular" parts. Cut down the circumerence of a coupler to fit inside another coupler, put the full size coupler inside the body tube to double its thickness, cut the shoulder off of the nose cone, and epoxy in the newly made small piece. It'd be even easier with a balsa nose cone which would just need its shoulder sanded down.
You'd be surprised how many people here on the forum need to be schooled in that fact when it comes to bonding parts together. But then, if you're talking about the adhesive itself being structural, the story is probably different.
Not the adhesive being structural, but the fact that its bond itself it way stronger than cardboard and balsa/plywood, etc... that is used. As you know when you look at most even supersonic failures its not the bond that broke its the material. Using epoxy with cardboard would be like using titebond to assemble a fiberglass rocket. Its really makes no sense unless some sort of plastic or stronger material is evolved with the wood. That may not be 100% correct* but don't think I'm far off.
* edited.
It would seem their selection ends at the Dark Ages.I was going to get some BP at a new hunting store but they didn’t have any, they had swords and spears but no BP!!!!
Jim
NTP2
Well-Known Member
No they had guns a LOT of guns, just no BP.
Gunpowder was invented in China around 1000 AD, well after the so-called "Dark Ages" ended, assuming you use the typical definition of the dark ages as being from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the breakup of the Carolingian Empire.
Edit: Quoted post originally stated that the Chinese had gunpowder during the dark ages.
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Finished the design for my first body tube wrap cardstock rocket.
Woke up feeling horrible a few nights ago, knew I'd be sitting up for awhile in the middle of the night. Fired up AutoCAD and started redrawing the decal from JimZ, because that was something that wouldn't matter if I got something wrong the first time around while I was tired and uncomfortable. Kind of a learning curve on how to use the tools in AC to perform these specific tasks, but I think I have most of the bugs worked out and should be a lot more efficient going forward. It's been a fun and interesting exercise so far to go through all the actual steps of designing/downscaling and making it real, and figuring out the ins and outs of the procedure and the tools. Will do a build thread when I build the rocket.
Thanks to @hcmbanjo for the inspiration and quite literally showing me the way.
Woke up feeling horrible a few nights ago, knew I'd be sitting up for awhile in the middle of the night. Fired up AutoCAD and started redrawing the decal from JimZ, because that was something that wouldn't matter if I got something wrong the first time around while I was tired and uncomfortable. Kind of a learning curve on how to use the tools in AC to perform these specific tasks, but I think I have most of the bugs worked out and should be a lot more efficient going forward. It's been a fun and interesting exercise so far to go through all the actual steps of designing/downscaling and making it real, and figuring out the ins and outs of the procedure and the tools. Will do a build thread when I build the rocket.
Thanks to @hcmbanjo for the inspiration and quite literally showing me the way.
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