What did you do rocket wise today?

Onebadhawk
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neil_w said:
Straightened up my wall o' rockets. Started the process of putting clear PVC tubing over each of the supports to provide a softer surface for the rockets to rest on.
Click to expand...
Nice, but be careful of leaving the rockets only supported at the ends. They will banana after a while. I have had this happen to a Sirius Interrogator. Some mid support will do wonders I think.
 
OverTheTop said:
Nice, but be careful of leaving the rockets only supported at the ends. They will banana after a while. I have had this happen to a Sirius Interrogator. Some mid support will do wonders I think.
Click to expand...
I've tried to keep the supports as close to each other as possible (towards the middle rather than towards the edges) but I'll go back and double check everything.
 
So far, for all my talk, I only have enough rockets that I can keep them standing on one shelf. When I do need more space for LP rockets, I'm thinking of building something like this:
  • Start with an easel, but the legs on one side are vertical so it can go up against a wall.
  • Add extra legs on the sloped front side.
  • Along the sloped legs, add wedges with the same slope on one side to give a series of small, horizontal surfaces.
  • Drill 29 mm blind holed into the horizontal surfaces.
  • Make a bunch of pegs. Start with 1¼" dowels, turn one end down to 29 mm and turn most of the length on most of them down to 24, 18, or 13 mm. My lathe skills are not so great, but good enough for this simple task. Small wood turnings can be done on a metal lathe (I've done it) to take advantage of the tool holder's cross feed and straight motion on the bed to get the pieces precise.
  • Then, obviously, insert pegs in holes and set rockets on the pegs by their motor mounts. Making all the holes 29 mm and adapting down in the pegs makes the setup adaptable to move rockets and add new ones with any of these four MMT sizes. Pegs can be turned in the future for 6 mm, 38 mm, etc., though anything that takes a 54 mm or bigger motor (and even 38, most likely) is probably bigger than I want to use a rack like this for anyway.
I can see ways to make it even more flexible as far as positioning of the rockets, but I think it would be overkill.
 
neil_w said:
I've tried to keep the supports as close to each other as possible (towards the middle rather than towards the edges) but I'll go back and double check everything.
Click to expand...

I'd post a picture of my rocket storage, but I am embarrassed by the awful jumble of rockets crowded onto a shelf high in the corner of my shop. I've broken more than one rocket while trying to fish it out of the tangle.

I asked one of the better modelers in the club how he stores his rockets. He does really beautiful stuff, and his range box looks like it was organized by the Scuderia Ferrari pit crew. so I thought he must have some system. He just smiled at me. When I pressed him on it he suggested that I could fly my models on bigger motors -- so that the problem would take care of itself.
 
Got the huge box of unfinished rockets out today.
Looked over the lot of more than 2 dozen I had yet to get primed, painted and decaled.
Realized another season of storage created more damaged fins and tubes, scared primer, etc.
So for the first 30 days of paint season, it's going to repairs before any paint can come out of a can.
Par for the coarse.
Side note: Since wife is going to need many trips for Kemo, I'll probably have what's left of my sealed kits up for grabs soon for gas money.
Damn, life sucks as you get old.
 
I got primer sanded on my LOC Forte and Estes Star Lifter.

If the weather holds (and I can actually make a decision on paint schemes) I should be able to get some color on 'em tomorrow.
 
Tomorrow is my birthday and my wife said "I think I'll buy you another rocket for your birthday"...the evil grin spreads from ear to ear on my face...:D...Oh sweetie, you already did! It was finally time to unveil the 4" Go Devil so while she was outside planting flowers, I dry-fit it and stood it up in the kitchen before she came inside. It took her 15 minutes to notice it. I'll probably wait until our anniversary to show her the 3" Go Devil. ;)

MKIVkGQl.jpg


And I just realized I have a lightbulb out in the kitchen. Dang it.
 
Off to Weber Farm for PSC launch. Cloudy with sprinkles of rain right now. Rain is supposed to end, but ceiling will be low all day. I'm taking some E, F, and G motors, and one H97.
 
Posted an old model rocket photo on the NAR Facebook page.

Also visited the Cosmodrome website. They haven't updated it in four years. The X-15 model kit they were working on would have been a nice addition to my fleet.
 
Simulating an almost all nose cone rocket was interesting. It could lift more (on pixel) than its longer body tube sister ship, and needed less fin to be stable. This must be explored further with some Estes rockets & long nose cones.
 

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