What did you do rocket wise today?

[frogglicker]

Received my Cherokee Mini from Wildman. I've built FG rockets before, but this is my first kit- I'm excited!

Washed all the parts and took measurements/weights of all fiberglass components to make an OR file, primarily to help visualize some color combinations.

Note the AL tip wasn't treated as a separate component. I'll do that later. The nose cone was weighed with the tip in place, and the mass & CG was manually entered for the NC assembly. In natural kit colors:

View attachment 633482

Parachute, kevlar shock cord and printed rail guides are not included in this file.

Because of a recent comment by @Pinetree at the time this kit was ordered, I'm considering yellow/silver as the colors for this one...

I just got mine as well. Of course, I discovered Tim offers a DD option after I get the rocket, so I will have to go back and buy more stuff. Thanks for sharing the OR file.

My kit DID include the Parachute, rail guides, and shock cord. You might reach out to them to see if they can send those to you, if that matters to you.

 

[tsmith1315]

My kit DID include the Parachute, rail guides, and shock cord. You might reach out to them to see if they can send those to you, if that matters to you.

Those parts were in my kit as well, I just didn't add them to the OR file. I mostly wanted the pre-build parts weight recorded and to be able to look at some colors on it before I start building.

Do you have a paint scheme in mind?

 

[frogglicker]

I had a gravitational malfunction with my scratch built DRM BT60 29mm. It hit the floor and snapped a fin. I decided to start over with a new design (I wasn't happy with the tolerances) and I'm happy that I did. Almost back to where I was yesterday but with a more solid rocket. The pictured H135 was to test the clearance for the thrust ring... but it fits!

 

[frogglicker]

Those parts were in my kit as well, I just didn't add them to the OR file. I mostly wanted the pre-build parts weight recorded and to be able to look at some colors on it before I start building.

Do you have a paint scheme in mind?

I had a couple in mind. My SBR Fusion is called "Blucifer" and it's in Denver Broncos colors (orange with blue fins/nc). I thought about something similar. I have also wanted to do Red/White/Blue on a rocket. My third thought is day-glow green with black accents. I've never been a fan of green until I painted my 3" scratch Goblin. That turned out really nice. I really need colors that I can see because this rocket is small (and my eyes are getting old).

It will be fun to see how these come together. It will be my first FG build.

 

[tsmith1315]

I really need colors that I can see because this rocket is small (and my eyes are getting old).

It will be fun to see how these come together.

Yeah, I was thinking shiny silver could be helpful. The nose cone looks about right for an Eggfinder Mini, it would be hard to spot at 3k'.

Post pics of your progress!

 

[OzHybrid]

Knocked out a design for Gray Larsen's Farside rocket. More --> here <--

View attachment 633569 View attachment 633566

View attachment 633567View attachment 633568​

The original ACME Spitfire had a geometrically straight cone cut at an angle to make it look not straight. You've got a cone at the top that is definately pointing in the wrong direction....... . Let us know how that works out .

 

[BrendanH69]

Yesterday really, and I need your thoughts on this, team.

I did a quick inventory of shock chord which I already have in hand and which I was intending to use in a Level 3 cert project. I have lots of 1/2 inch orange tubular nylon from Apogee USA, part no. 29504. I also have some 5/8 inch tubular red nylon webbing.

Q. Will the 1/2inch tubular nylon be suitable shock chord for my Level 3 cert build, or should I be upgrading this to 1inch tubular nylon webbing throughout?

I don't yet have a TAP to discuss, so asking now while I design and source parts. My Level 3 cert design has a predicted:

• Total rocket GLOW of 12.2kg (27lbs)
• Predicted total rocket weight after the DMS M1350 fuel is spent of approx. 9.5kg (21lbs).
• Predicted aft body weight of 5.9kg (13lbs) including spent DMS motor and 24inch Recon Recovery drogue chute.
• Predicted fwd body weight of 3.6kg (7.9lbs) incl AV Bay coupler, nosecone and 5ft BAMA Aerospherical chute.
• Predicted nose cone weight of 1.2kg (2.6lbs)

 

[OzHybrid]

CNC cut some Av Bay top and mounting rings. 1.6mm fiberglass sheet.

 

[berlinetta]

I attempted to program my Easy Mini altimeter in my LOC 5.5" Bullet, but to no avail. It wouldn't even show up on my laptop. I got frustrated with it and I decided to open up the StratoLogger altimeter that was sent to me from my secret Santa and mounted it into the Bullet. The only change I made to it was that main deployment is now at 500 feet versus the default of 700.

Anybody have ideas on how to get the Easy Mini altimeter to show up on the laptop, please let me know.

I also went and bought some paint for when the weather here warms up and this rain clears out. I still have to paint my LOC I-ROC, clearcoat the Bullet, paint the Bullet's nosecone for LDRS. Plus I have a couple smaller rockets to paint as well.

 

[lakeroadster]

Q. Will the 1/2inch tubular nylon be suitable shock chord for my Level 3 cert build, or should I be upgrading this to 1inch tubular nylon webbing throughout?

Bigger Be Better... "When in doubt... Build Hell-For-Stout"​

 

[RokitFlyr]

Yesterday really, and I need your thoughts on this, team.

I did a quick inventory of shock chord which I already have in hand and which I was intending to use in a Level 3 cert project. I have lots of 1/2 inch orange tubular nylon from Apogee USA, part no. 29504. I also have some 5/8 inch tubular red nylon webbing.

Q. Will the 1/2inch tubular nylon be suitable shock chord for my Level 3 cert build, or should I be upgrading this to 1inch tubular nylon webbing throughout?

I don't yet have a TAP to discuss, so asking now while I design and source parts. My Level 3 cert design has a predicted:

• Total rocket GLOW of 12.2kg (27lbs)
• Predicted total rocket weight after the DMS M1350 fuel is spent of approx. 9.5kg (21lbs).
• Predicted aft body weight of 5.9kg (13lbs) including spent DMS motor and 24inch Recon Recovery drogue chute.
• Predicted fwd body weight of 3.6kg (7.9lbs) incl AV Bay coupler, nosecone and 5ft BAMA Aerospherical chute.
• Predicted nose cone weight of 1.2kg (2.6lbs)

1" and check Amazon. Way cheaper.

 

[dmaaero]

Finished the Cherokee Mini,
Added my 29mm av bay tracker to the nose cone. Will be held in place with kevlar shock cord, attached to the screw on the nose tip. Ran sims with and without the tracker (46g) looked good to go. This one will stay unpainted.

 

[frogglicker]

Got the shipping notification from Eggtimer that my Quasar kit is on it's way.

 

[tsmith1315]

Finished the Cherokee Mini,
Added my 29mm av bay tracker to the nose cone. Will be held in place with kevlar shock cord, attached to the screw on the nose tip. Ran sims with and without the tracker (46g) looked good to go. This one will stay unpainted.

How did you terminate the Mule Tape in the nose cone?

 

[dmaaero]

I used epoxy. I also cut a grove in the top centering ring an used epoxy to the mm tube. Hope that's enough. I used 10 feet of 1/2 mule tape an will have rubber bands on the Z folded shock cord.

 

[Imaknow]

Well, Technically.....
It was Yesterday (Saturday) when I showed up at the club launch amidst multiple ARC teams, so my launch rate was low because of deference to the ARC teams and new fliers (my choice) and the fact that I planned poorly and spent too much time reconfiguring rockets.
Mostly cloudy, 1500' ceiling, 4-5 mph winds, reaching 9mph around 12:45.
Launched the Gyroc-D on a D12-3. the flaps actuated on boost, ejected right at apogee, had a nice helicopter down. No walk at all to get it. I know how to prevent the flaps in the future - more tape on the motor thrust ring.
Launched the Boosted Bertha upper on a B6-4 for the maiden flight. Straight up, ready for more.
Launched the Olympus with the microPeak altimeter and the Jolly Logic Chute Release. Great straight up flight, altimeter data looks squirrely, still figuring it out (suspect wind burst or light issue, maybe? first failure I have had, and it worked well in the Icarus. Icarus has cardboard payload bay, Olympus has clear. I will make a shade for the Olympus mount or just fly the Easy Mini.)
Launched the Boosted Bertha upper with an altimeter mount for the Easy Mini on a C6-5. Straight up and ejected at apogee. Recovered altimeter data - 273 feet. I guess it is a heavy sucker and maybe I can figure Coefficient of Drag with a few more flights like that.
Launched the Quest Icarus with the microPeak. on a C6-5. Another straight up flight with ejection just past apogee. Wind at this point was 8-9 mph, but still close on landing. Altimeter data is good.
Watched a bunch of ARC flights - most were using F39s. Had a larger number of forward blow bys, we suspect incorrect assembly as the forward closures seemed to be loose when the SOs started checking the motor builds at checkin.
Also saw a beautiful Super Big Bertha launch the motor through the rocket... no thrust ring was put on the E9 motor. No damage to rocket.
<thanks for listening>

 

[Old School Doug]

Winter build 7 of 9 is wrapped up. Nothing fancy here, just a screamer!! 2.56 diam with a 38mm motor mount. H148R (red flame is a must...lol) will tickle 3000'. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show the Dupli Color Effex metal flake final coat at all. The problem is what to call it. Several ideas came to mind but nothing is giving me a "that's it" moment. Open to votes / suggestions.

Crimson Dart
Flaming Hot Spear
Redroc 256
Ruby Haze
Cardinal Spike

 

[John Kemker]

Painted one fin yellow and three fins red on my 4" fiberglass Nike Smoke. Unfortunately, I had some overspray of red on the yellow (I should have masked it off) and couldn't cover it back over with the yellow. /sigh

 

[krislhull]

With everything going on in my life and work, I just haven't been in the mood/had time to do anything rocketry related in over a year. And with the flying season starting up, I figured I needed to get my fleet in order!

So I finally got around to repairing my upscale Alpha after it endured some hangar rash during transport over a year ago. I removed the damaged fin, cut a new one, sealed it, and glued it on. Next step is to paint it, which will have to wait a few months for better weather.

 

[MarsLander]

Launch day! Son-in-law and grandson at our newly found field!

Everything on a C6-5 except as noted...Red Max, B6-4, Green Twister, Astra III (x2), Citation Patriot (x2) - once in a tree, but recovered, Astrocam B6-4, Big Bertha, Cherokee E, Cherokee E on a E12-5.

Lots of upper level winds, and the Cherokee E went up (probably 1500ft), and went OUT at least 1/4 - 1/2 mile north of our 1500' field. Sad.

Lessons RE-learned.
Point away from the wind for lower level flights...first one weather cocked behind us.
Point into the wind for higher level flights, and use a smaller parachute with hole to get those high rockets down quicker!

 

[jqavins]

Winter build 7 of 9 is wrapped up. Nothing fancy here, just a screamer!! 2.56 diam with a 38mm motor mount. H148R (red flame is a must...lol) will tickle 3000'. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show the Dupli Color Effex metal flake final coat at all. The problem is what to call it. Several ideas came to mind but nothing is giving me a "that's it" moment. Open to votes / suggestions.

Crimson Dart
Flaming Hot Spear
Redroc 256
Ruby Haze
Cardinal Spike

View attachment 633740

I like Ruby for the color, then anything pointy for the noun: spear, dart, needle, javelin, spike, whatever.

 

[RobertH3]

Sanding primer and painting due to good weather, and buying upscaled nose cones from Gord : )
5.4" Super Duper Bigger Bertha in the works as well as a larger Fat Boy I think. Just love how the thing flies.

Experimented with Varathane water-based polyurethane sanding sealer. See pics below - no nasty paint reactions.
It does tend to show brush strokes a lot more than clear lacquer / dope but doesn't require outside application. The stuff sands easily and doesn't clog paper when given some dry time. I have a winter backup : )
Fat Boy, Strikefighter, and Slipper were all done with the Varathane as sealer under primer.

I bought a More Rockets Strike Fighter a while back. The kit is fine quality and true to original but how it looks is IMHO not the best.
So I turned it into a Corvette/Light Attack Craft etc. No ramjet nose, instead the 55AC and some half-rounds. I also made both pods identical. Guns.
It'll be light gray and have some better decals. Definitely a decal bridge window instead of the P-51 canopy. Haven't decided on those yet.
Wings and long fin joints. Sigh. Why I want to build an Apogee Johnny Star Commander but have stopped myself each time. I remember the perfect Orbital Transport and how much time I spent on ALL the wing joints : /

The 3x18mm cluster Fat Boy scratch build got it's flat white undercoat. Tamiya Metallic Red and Rusto Cornflower blue for the fins planned.

Interesting on the Rusto - I have only had issues with specific colors. Brilliant Blue and Sunflower Yellow are dodgy and take 4-ever to dry. I may try the Stops Rust also... I use the White 2x all the time.



Next Up: US Rockets "Slipper" 7x24mm cluster got the Hi-Build. Looks kinda military in gray with a white nose. My Martian is in the background and the 4x24mm 2.6 Goblin is hanging out. Peanut Gallery in the background. It'll be Red, White, and Blue and carry a USR Logo.



3rd up - thinking about my 4" Estes 2030 Hornet Upscale. Fins cut by hand on the bandsaw and TTW slots made with a pony router and one of those awesome slot-cutter jigs that Apogee used to sell. Frankly, if you can't afford a laser, they are awesome. And it's by hand. No CNC.
An original and BT60 upscale of the kit are next to the larger model. 10 fins and 20 fillets should be entertaining. I will have a sh*t fit if it augers!
I fill spirals - can't help myself. Hated them as a kid on my Estes kits. Hornet will be Testors Tangerine via airbrush. Haven't decided on the rest.



Cheers / Robert

 

[frogglicker]

I finally got color on my RedMax scratch build.

 

[Antares JS]

Launched the Seraphim to 6723 feet on an M1500G. Had a friend from work come to help.

 

[bjphoenix]

We had our small local club launch today, I'll guess we had nearly 50 flights. Here is a photo of one of the launches. Besides taking photos of some of the launches I managed to launch 3 of my own.

 

[Back_at_it]

Bought my first laser. Picked up a WeCreate Vision.

I will say its is super simple to setup and everything I've tried works perfect. I did need to calibrate the camera as it wasn't focusing but that was due to adhesive on the lens. Once cleaned I ran the calibration and it's perfect now.

Been messing around with the included software an it's pretty good but I've already found some things I want to do that require a better software package so Light Burn is coming soon.

Here are a couple of examples. Still need to work on centering the text but this was only my second cut. The Luna Bug fin was literally a scan than I did nothing too other than remove the back ground. Not perfect but darn close. Will clean it up once I have Light Burn.

 

[jqavins]

I've read before that 40 W is is the power you really want in even an entry level laser cutter to be versatile in materials, and that going to 50 W makes a big difference. But you're stuff looks good at 20 W. I presume you did some research before buying the WeCreate; what led you to that product?

 

[Back_at_it]

I've read before that 40 W is is the power you really want in even an entry level laser cutter to be versatile in materials, and that going to 50 W makes a big difference. But you're stuff looks good at 20 W. I presume you did some research before buying the WeCreate; what led you to that product?

I did a lot of research, talked to a lot of people and a few were nice enough to let me stop over and see their setups. I was also shocked by how much trouble some owners were having with some of the larger named units and the complete lack of support from the company.

In the end I had to be realistic with what I wanted to do with the laser. I'm not going to use this as a business as my current job keeps me busy 60+hrs. a week consistently and I learned that turning my hobby into a business is a bad idea and takes the fun out of it. If someone asks me to cut them a set of fins or rings then by all means I'm willing to do that for a few bucks to cover materials and time but I'm not going into production so speed isn't a factor. For reference, the BT80 ring with the large engraving took a little over two minutes to burn and cut. The second one with the smaller text took just over one minute. I cut three Luna bug fins in four minutes.

After looking at the options I made a few calls to manufactures to talk about support. Of the four companies I called, WeCreate was the only company that answered the phone when I called and the only one that put me in touch with someone right away. The person answered all of my questions and we had a nice conversation about the product. The call lasted about 30 mins. and the person I spoke to was really enthusiastic, gave me his direct number and told me to call him direct if I had any questions or issues if I purchased a machine. The other three companies I had to leave a voicemail. Only one of the three called me back and that was a receptionist. She said she would have someone call me but no one ever did. So on service alone, WeCreate won.

Cost was also a big consideration. This is my first laser so I didn't want to spend a ton of money. I knew I wanted a completely enclosed unit as I'm using this in my house so smoke and smell are a concern. Some of the units I was looking at were $4K-$5K and then they start adding on stuff like cameras, air assist, rotary attachment etc. etc. You could easily get into the $6K range for a small desktop laser setup. This was $1600 delivered.

As for power level. I read a lot, watched a ton of reviews, joined a few only laser forums and everyone had the same recommdation. 10 watt was ok if you only want to cut 3mm or you have all day, 20 watt was sufficient and will cut up to 10mm ply. Everything above that is great for a production environment or useful if cutting thick materials. Personally, I'll never cut anything larger than 10mm ply and I'm not in a hurry. Four minutes for a set of Luna Bug fins is fine considering I had about 2hrs in my original hand cut set a couple years ago

 

[jqavins]

I've looked at the $4K+ units, and that price is just out of the question for me. At $1.4K including the rotary attachment, or $1.9K for that plus the smoke extractor, it's not out of the question. It'd be a very big expense for me, right on the edge of out of the question, but not all the way out.

Dang, I sure would love to have one!

 

[Pabsst]

Finished the Cherokee Mini,
Added my 29mm av bay tracker to the nose cone. Will be held in place with kevlar shock cord, attached to the screw on the nose tip. Ran sims with and without the tracker (46g) looked good to go. This one will stay unpainted.

That looks like a fun rocket. Have you flown one before?