What did you do rocket wise today?

[Wally Ferrer]

I just noticed my Gleda May box is signed by Vern...

 

[ljwilley]

I just noticed my Gleda May box is signed by Vern...

View attachment 682768

Printed? or signed?

 

[Wally Ferrer]

Signed... I'm awestruck...

 

[ljwilley]

That's awesome! I was super confused why a BT60 rocket would be 70 bucks, but now I understand!!! I won't get one though. Just not my kind of rocket.

 

[Cape Byron]

Hit eBay with the first tranche of my new stock purchase.

Semroc Space shuttle sold in 42 minutes.

 

[ljwilley]

Hit eBay with the first tranche of my new stock purchase.

Semroc Space shuttle sold in 42 minutes.

I wonder if anyone here bought it.

 

[Cape Byron]

I wonder if anyone here bought it.

It’s possible. I have a few loyal customers here.

Thought it was reasonably priced at $75 AUD ($48 US).

Lovely kit. I already have one, so let’s share the joy.

 

[Brayzure]

3/16" is really, really beefy for an L2 size rocket unless you've got 18" span dragonfly wings going. 1/8" is plenty for most "normal" rockets in that size range. 1/4" is crazy thick.

I thought this was going to be necessary, since it's capable of Mach 1.5. But then someone else drew attention to the fact that the Wildman Mach 2 uses 1/8" fins, and is probably going to go faster than mine. Might give Wildman a call and see what the price and turnaround time would be, especially since they're probably very busy with holiday sales.

 

[chrisudy]

Took advantage of some unseasonably warm temperatures for December to throw some primer and base white coat on some repaired and newly built rockets. Even got the red on the replacement fin for the ESAM-58

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Did some coding & testing on my GPS tracker design.

 

[Art Upton]

I found the Video Segment of my 2.56 Desart dart on a Loki L1400 having the Snap Ring fail in the rear.

FYI this video was sorta bloopers, I am caught doing an imitation of a famous statement ...

 

[BrendanH69]

Unpacked my Wildman Black Friday sales order. It was sent UPS Worldwide Saver on Monday afternoon, got here THIS AFTERNOON, via Peoria IL, Louisville Kentucky, Honolulu, and Sydney. That's fast! (and probably never to be repeated!)
Well done Tim and team.

 

[John Kemker]

Mixed some talcum powder (REAL talc, not cornstarch) with some US Composites laminating epoxy and performed an experiment in body filler on my FiberMax last night. Will sand it later today after I get back from helping my auto-body/paint guy with his computer. Gonna trade IT support for him painting the FiberMax after I get it smoothed out.

 

[boatgeek]

Mixed some talcum powder (REAL talc, not cornstarch) with some US Composites laminating epoxy and performed an experiment in body filler on my FiberMax last night. Will sand it later today after I get back from helping my auto-body/paint guy with his computer. Gonna trade IT support for him painting the FiberMax after I get it smoothed out.

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I’m curious. Why talc and not a sandable filler like microballoons?

 

[jqavins]

I’m curious. Why talc and not a sandable filler like microballoons?

And if talc, why not corn starch?

 

[John Kemker]

I’m curious. Why talc and not a sandable filler like microballoons?

I had talc. Cabosil (fumed silica) was too hard to sand. So, I'm trying something out. We'll see how it goes.

 

[John Kemker]

And if talc, why not corn starch?

I had real talc on-hand. Also, a lot of automotive body fillers use talc, but polyester resin. So, I figured I'd see how talc did with epoxy resin.

 

[boatgeek]

I had talc. Cabosil (fumed silica) was too hard to sand. So, I'm trying something out. We'll see how it goes.

Cabosil is definitely really hard to sand smooth. It'll be interesting to see how the talc works.

 

[John Kemker]

Cabosil is definitely really hard to sand smooth. It'll be interesting to see how the talc works.

Meh. Wasn't impressed.

Sanded some today. I think the issue is that epoxy is generally harder to sand than polyester resin.

 

[b.wieting]

Sewed loops in shock cord for friend's beautifully painted new rocket. Good thing my work is hidden inside!

 

[John Kemker]

Applied Fibral Lite to the FiberMax and sanded. I like it much better than mixing epoxy with talc or cabosil. Still working on smoothing out the carbon fiber tape on the fin fillets.

Body shop owner is going to paint the FiberMax after I finish the prep work. I did some IT work for him in trade.

 

[Hobie1dog]

we got the HPR magazine that has a picture of John Kemker in it to him down in Atlanta. It's his early Christmas present

 

[goose_in_co]

Well It's done, and before the end of December as well.
Odd-l F-104. Definitely a challenging kit, but it was worth the time in the build.





Those of you with eagle eyes will notice that the nose cone silver is different from the body silver color. The last step of the entire build is to attach the clear vacuum formed canopy, easy right? So I followed the instructions that showed how to put thin CA right at the joint of the canopy and nose cone, and the canopy didn't stick. So, I went to the backup plan of sparingly applying a different glue, and used blue painters tape to hold the canopy in place. Life happened and two days later I pulled off the tape... and there was tape residue on the nose cone. It would not rub off, and even the sticky tape to pull off the tape sticky did not work. So out came the rubbing alcohol, which took off the leftover tape glue, but also removed the top shiny layer of paint. AAARRGGG! Then I had the thought of masking off the nose cone and re-painting the silver... but I quickly stopped that thought because the canopy and decals would not stand up to the tape being removed, so I did the next best thing, wiped down the entire nose cone paint with rubbing alcohol to make it uniform. An extremely frustrating finish to an otherwise enjoyable build, and as they say, I won't notice at 15 feet, or once it leaves the pad.

 

[tsmith1315]

Pondering how I want to get 3/16" g10 fins made. Do I buy a sheet and cut to size (and what to cut it with)?

$20 Walmart jigsaw and an abrasive blade cuts it like butter:

 

[BrendanH69]

Foamed the internal of my 156mm OD mandrel today.

Approx. 20litres of internal volume, so required nearly all of the 1000ml kit of two part foaming resin. Put the fan on it to help it cool. The finished result was real nice and firm, straight, and really uniform in diameter along its length with only 0.2mm variance at one end. Will make a note of that for when I get the go ahead for airframe making.

Only a little bit of overflow / wastage, but I've already offered it to the Warhammer boys in case they want to make something with it.

 

[Charles_McG]

Unboxed a glider kit.

 

[John Kemker]

Installed an Inverted Pursuits Lab Nosecone Av-Bay in the nosecone of my Estes PSII Nike Smoke using the 3M DP320 epoxy I bought from @kramer714 . Also, an Eggtimer Quark kit arrived in the mail today, so I need to start working on that. Probably put the Quark in the 'Smoke. Hmmm....Maybe get another adapter and have the sled switchable from the 'Smoke to the 3" Alpha while I'm at it...

 

[Cape Byron]

Packed up the weekend's Fleabay orders and took inventory on some new stuff.

Went looking for a video of the Musorian Raider test flights. I know someone here has something... Looking at next year's kit releases.

 

[berlinetta]

Ive been working on my 2.6" Skinwalker.

 

[bad_idea]

Went looking for a video of the Musorian Raider test flights. I know someone here has something... Looking at next year's kit releases.

Perhaps a scale model of a Kamarian missile next?