What did you do rocket wise today?

[neil_w]

This is where I chime in and say that Micromeister used to advocate instead for a coat of clear to seal off the tape lines before adding the second color, since the clear coat lays down thinner than paint and therefore creates less of a paint dam.

Disclaimer: I cannot vouch for either method.

 

[cwbullet]

If you haven’t already thought of it, please make it so putting on the cover sets all pad switches and bank switches into the off position.

I will try. at this stage, I just want something to protect them from being broken (one broke during transit last month.

 

[jqavins]

Today I upgraded my tube slotting setup. I can now get perfectly straight fin slot for my next rocket!View attachment 380641

Nice setup. How do you assure the tube is perfectly aligned to the table? And can you deliberately misalign it by a controlled amount? That would allow you to cut canted slots.

Spraying the base color first (in this case white, seals the edges of the tape and greatly reduces or eliminates seeping.

It doesn't actually eliminate seeping, it just means that whatever seeps is the base color (or clear) so it doesn't matter. Really, it's one of those so-simple-it's-genius things. I hadn't heard the clear coat version before. It could simplify the sequence where more than two colors meet at a corner.

 

[Bruiser]

I've been working on my Defender build that I have a thread on over in the scratch built forum but I distracted by a possible UPSCALE project.

I saw these last week and can't get them out of my mind. With the right fins the one in front could be an Estes Big Daddy upscale. Just add some fins and some centering rings for the "E" motors. I could make them. How many "E" motors do you think it would take for a launch? 24? 36? Hey, I wonder how many have ever been clustered together successfully???



-Bob

 

[astrowolf67]

I started my first build in quite a few years today. I'm building a couple of Estes Star Orbiters, one at a time. First is going to be basically stock, other than papered fins, kevlar shock cord mount, and mid separation, rather than nose. It will be flown with a JLCR. I'm thinking of building the second as a dual deploy, using a Quark altimeter I've assembled. I currently have the first set of fins wood glued and papered, drying under a flat board and 40 lbs of telescope counterweights.

 

[BayouRat]

I started two new builds.

 

[jqavins]

I've been working on my Defender build that I have a thread on over in the scratch built forum but I distracted by a possible UPSCALE project.

I saw these last week and can't get them out of my mind. With the right fins the one in front could be an Estes Big Daddy upscale. Just add some fins and some centering rings for the "E" motors. I could make them. How many "E" motors do you think it would take for a launch? 24? 36? Hey, I wonder how many have ever been clustered together successfully???

View attachment 380653

-Bob

OK, I'll bite. Where did you find those, and what were they originally (or were they made as nose cones)?

 

[Bruiser]

They are at a scrap metal place that I drive by everyday. They are definitely wing tanks most likely from an Air Force plane as we are at Holloman Air Force base. I'm surprised to see them there and wonder how they got them...

-Bob

 

[rharshberger]

They are at a scrap metal place that I drive by everyday. They are definitely wing tanks most likely from an Air Force plane as we are at Holloman Air Force base. I'm surprised to see them there and wonder how they got them...

-Bob

Lots of ways to get them, the government scraps a lot of metal every year and unless the tanks are classified objects they can be sent to scrappers and....unless the scrapper has been required to destroy them you can probably buy them at or around scrap price. We had a Cincinatti Milling machine go to the scrappers from a government lab, it was almost new but the scrapper was required to destroy it smrather than re-sell it.

 

[Charles_McG]

Added a drag knife to my 3D printer and cut my first vinyl decal.



[youtube]7wLNz7QHgDk[/youtube]

 

[prfesser]

I've been working on my Defender build that I have a thread on over in the scratch built forum but I distracted by a possible UPSCALE project.

I saw these last week and can't get them out of my mind. With the right fins the one in front could be an Estes Big Daddy upscale. Just add some fins and some centering rings for the "E" motors. I could make them. How many "E" motors do you think it would take for a launch? 24? 36? Hey, I wonder how many have ever been clustered together successfully???

-Bob

With flash-in-the-pan ignition, almost any number of BP motors can be lit. At one LDRS someone did 100+ motors.

Composites---different story.

Best -- Terry
PS: for those who've never heard of it, FITP ignition involves a pan of some sort directly below the motor nozzles. A thin layer of BP is added to the pan, ignited with a single motor starter.

 

[jeffjblack]

Stitched a couple of panoramas from recent 4k video on my rocket during the Southern Arizona Rocketry Association Volunteers Launch, March 23rd 2019. If you zoom and pan you will get a walk down memory lane of the time you had to chase something at the club site.

https://flic.kr/p/2fCHLQi

https://flic.kr/p/2fy4jyG

I am using Image Composite Editor From the Microsoft Computational Photography Applications site. It is free. And it works!
#Microsoft #ImageCompositeEditor

https://bit.ly/icemicrosoft

 

[Curtis Enlow]

Joined the Washington Aerospace Club (NAR) today.

Guess I'm committed now!

 

[tOD]

Ordered a Mach1 BT60 Black Hole 29mm motor mount and SMT e-bay kit.

 

[Flyfalcons]

Joined the Washington Aerospace Club (NAR) today.

Guess I'm committed now!

Will we see you at FITS?

 

[jqavins]

The other day, finished painting a "disposable" club loaner rocket. This came from a club build session focused on repairing and rebuilding damaged loaners; no time there for painting so I took it home. Yesterday I noticed is had no launch lug. Not my build, I only took it to paint. So I stole a lug from a few kits down from the top of my build pile, sanded the paint a little, and glued it on. This morning before work shot it with paint.

 

[neil_w]

Added a drag knife to my 3D printer and cut my first vinyl decal.

That is very cool, I didn't realize you could repurpose a 3D printer to act as a cutter.

 

[rharshberger]

That is very cool, I didn't realize you could repurpose a 3D printer to act as a cutter.

You can do the same with CNC routers.

 

[jqavins]

One might even be able to repurpose a 3D printer as a laser cutter, but that's a much bigger conversion project. The bottom line is that the XYZ positioner (3D printer) can potentially be repurposed to do a variety of XY jobs. Anyone remember pen plotters?

 

[Lucifer]

Experimented with some transitions and their different shapes and how they affect rocket performance. Curves also affect the weight & stability, long-sweep fins can give you more speed and acceleration but at the cost of a heavier rocket: smaller payload. Found a way to break 30,000 on a single stage. I think I can do better.

 

[Videolester]

Sat V (1969 kit) is shaping up nicely!

 

[Curtis Enlow]

Will we see you at FITS?

I hope so, Ryan! Finishing the fin fillets now, and starting the e-bay coupler. I would like to get in one LOC IV Mod 0 Mid-Power maiden at 60 Acres before trying the IV Mod A stretched at FITS, but - depending on upcoming gigs - I might have to shoot for one of the Tri-City fly-in's.

 

[ouisconsin rocket]

Today I completed my level 1 cert bird, including the field adjustment to the CTI 38mm 2 grain motor assembly.
Hopefully a mid May launch, wx permitting.

 

[jqavins]

Good luck! (Or is that supposed to be "Break a fin"?)

 

[BayouRat]

I received a long box from the UPS man. Guess what’s in there?

 

[jFlds]

Finished up the airframe work on the Mad Dog XL Madcow kit, I'll start working on the electronics and recovery systems next week. Looks like she will be hot on a nice K C Star load!

 

[ouisconsin rocket]

Good luck! (Or is that supposed to be "Break a fin"?)

Is the rocket supposed to have fins too? Damn this is getting complicated.

 

[Matt_The_RocketMan]

Bought $200 of engines all types E's B's D's and A's , bought several E classed rockets also including Big Bertha , Conquest , and Ascender

\

 

[Charles_McG]

Cut more vinyl.

 

[hermannj]

I passed my L2 exam yesterday. I might to my flight on Saturday.