What did you do rocket wise today?

[Cl(VII)]

Pulled the first set of fillets on both stages of the dark star jr.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Made a little chamber for testing flight computers using a Rubbermaid container and a cheap air pump. I need to work on the “down” part of the flight profile, but it seems like a good start.

 

[Sebastian Lindquist]

I was able to work on a few things. I faired a couple cardboard tubes to prep them for a glassing. The first time I glassed cardboard tubes had some minor adhesion issues and hope this helps.

Then an experiment on reinforcing 1/8 Baltic birch fins with 6oz glass. These were precut two plies and a peel ply on each side laid on a stiff backing board. A bleeder cloth over the top placed inside a nylon vacuum bag. (The side facing the board was only slightly smoother than the side with the bag) I say it was a fair success. Parts seem strong but are very textured. I largely expected some of this this since I planned for another 2 lighter cloth layers when I go tip to tip. My concern is to much resin was pulled and will make it harder to finish. Has anyone tried the release films? Perforated or not?

And last I made a quick chute protector with some nomex. I didn’t have a serger so I did an extra row of stitching. Figure this is more cost effective and gives me more to build and customize.

 

[jqavins]

Made a little chamber for testing flight computers using a Rubbermaid container and a cheap air pump.

Nice.

I need to work on the “down” part of the flight profile, but it seems like a good start.

You could try a variable rate vent valve, controlled by a microcontroller with a PC link to set the flight profile. You could also add a pressure sensor to the box, providing feedback to the controller so it can adhere to the preprogrammed pressure profile more accurately and precisely, effectively compensating for the Van der Waals interferometrics as the pressure cycles.

Better yet, hard mount the sensor and valve to the microcontroler for total widgetization. Why not have the boys in marketing run that up to the pole and see what sticks.

It'll work better if you also use the pressure feedback to compensate the framistan, which allows for the use of a miniaturized encabulator (NOT the turbo variety) in place of the simple vent valve. (The turbo takes a lot more power, doesn't really gain you anything in this application, and it introduces high frequency worbles into the lenticular data conductors, which would require extra gama phase filtering. It's juat not worth the trouble.)

Or you could use a manually controlled vent valve. That should do the trick.

 

[rockladen]

Started getting things ready for the AARG launch this Saturday. This will be my first launch in almost a year!

Hey Mugs, just FYI, Jim Jarvis postponed tomorrow's launch till January 16th due to muddy conditions.

 

[Mugs914]

Hey Mugs, just FYI, Jim Jarvis postponed tomorrow's launch till January 16th due to muddy conditions.

Well drat... Thanks for the heads-up! I hadn't seen that yet.

I guess I'll just keep my powder dry and be ready for the 16th!

Thanks again!

Mike

 

[rockladen]

Well drat... Thanks for the heads-up! I hadn't seen that yet.

I guess I'll just keep my powder dry and be ready for the 16th!

Thanks again!

Mike

You bet Mugs!

 

[jqavins]

I guess I'll just keep my powder dry and be ready for the 16th!

Powder? I thought you flew composites.

 

[Mugs914]

Somethin's gotta toss the laundry out!

 

[Cl(VII)]

Last fillets and joined the NC to the shoulder. Had to support it because the shoulder would have almost recessed completely into NC...a ring stand base and clamps is a handy bit of kit for many jobs.

Also cleaned the bench to make room for the full stack drilling for shear pins and rail buttons.

 

[boatgeek]

Bought a sewing machine and started my first go at getting it up and running and some practice stitch runs on off-cuts of rip-stop nylon before getting stuck into making a 48" parachute. Test runs of stitching the 2mm shroud lines to the rip-stop is proving this will be tricky. A cruise through some chute making threads is in order.

It usually works pretty well to run the shroud line about 1"-2" up the gore seam in the canopy and then run a narrow zigzag over it. A knot in the end of the shroud line is extra insurance. alternatively, you could sew down a short loop of 1/8" or so cord and then tie your shroud line to that.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Nice.You could try a variable rate vent valve, controlled by a microcontroller with a PC link to set the flight profile...
Or you could use a manually controlled vent valve. That should do the trick.

Yeah, I thought about it, but this one is going to be dead simple. It'd be cool to have a little controller that could nail the exact flight profiles I want, but I really just don't need it for what I'm trying to do. In this case, good enough is good enough.

Here’s another test after sealing things a little better. I gave up after a couple minutes and cracked it open. I’ll just add a little manual bleed port & it should be good enough.

 

[Cl(VII)]

...so this is a big rocket. Hadn't really appreciated it until I put the entire stack together. That is an 8' bench.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

...so this is a big rocket. Hadn't really appreciated it until I put the entire stack together. That is an 8' bench.

Nice stack!

 

[shawn_rocket]

Spent a crappy weather day inside building rockets with all my children (young college age adults rather)! Paint tomorrow and hopefully launching on Sunday! Good way to start off 2021!

 

[Wally Ferrer]

Spent a crappy weather day inside building rockets with all my children (young college age adults rather)! Paint tomorrow and hopefully launching on Sunday! Good way to start off 2021!

View attachment 444886View attachment 444887

We're going to need video of the now required drag race...

 

[jd2cylman]

I did a thing... 6 sets of long fillets. The 3” I cheated and did all three fins at once. West with colloidal silica doesn’t sag at all.
Yeah, I might have an Interceptor problem... Only missing a 5” one.

 

[bronicabill]

Finally started building a new AeroTech ARCAS HV after screwing up the last one while converting it to dual-deploy. In my defense, I had already built it past the critical point when I received my Apogee EV sled kit and realized I shouldn't have glued in the coupler tube!

Anyway, I'm salvaging what I can from the first build, and starting anew with a new sled kit and rocket kit...

 

[NateB]

I just saw that the Thor 54 with a 38mm motor mount was released and ordered it to build next. It will be great to fly on a sparky G with the Loki 38/120 case my Secret Santa gave me!

 

[Lugnut56]

Painted the markings on my Tank Buster 5 and did some filling/sanding on the intakes for a QCC Explorer.

 

[kuririn]

Painted the markings on my Tank Buster 5

Is this the newer Rocketarium kit with the 3D printed parts?
Painted instead of decalled?
Testors Olive Drab?
Nice work.

 

[Lugnut56]

Yes, this the newer kit as the transition section was 3D printed although the nose cone was molded plastic. It does come with a decal, but the decal sheet can be used as a stencil for painting (which is what I did). Paint was Testers flat olive drab (#1265). Fun build, but it did take some sanding/filling on the transition section to get it smooth. Also, you have to be very careful when handling it while filling/sanding to get the transition to body tube smooth because the BT20 body tube will buckle if too much force is applied while holding it (actually had to replace the body tube from approximately 2" below the transition due to being too heavy handed while finishing--luckily I hadn't installed the fins yet.)

 

[Cl(VII)]

Drilled (and tapped the majority of) a ton of holes (23 I think) in the 2-stage darkstar for forward rail buttons, shear pins and payload vent holes. Also, I think I decided to rip off (I mean, pay an homage to) this rocket with the paint job: https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/wildman-darkstar-gallery.15580/post-1677332

I think Rustoleum 2X Magenta is pretty close...should be easy to see on the ground.



I also did some sanding of the fillets, and gave them a serious case of Bondo-Pox.

 

[Nytrunner]

My Lego Sat5 experienced a puppy related tumble a few months ago, so I'm going to use the last day of holiday vacation to piece it back together.

I think Ive got the surviving assemblies separated into stage specific zones, and the random internal pieces will live in the middle

And the culprit waiting for another chance at it.

 

[kuririn]

My Lego Sat5 experienced a puppy related tumble a few months ago,

Heh, just wait till you two start having kids.
BTW, I've done a few repairs after rapid disassemblies, and now I have things rattling inside.

 

[neil_w]

Heh, just wait till you two start having kids.
BTW, I've done a few repairs after rapid disassemblies, and now I have things rattling inside.

Repairing seems harder than rebuilding, since the instructions assume a perfect linear build.

 

[Nytrunner]

Repairing seems harder than rebuilding, since the instructions assume a perfect linear build.

Oh its pretty much going to be a rebuild, but the assemblies keep a large section of parts altogether for me

 

[Cl(VII)]

sanded bondo, sprayed primer, applied more bondo... It's the circle of (Rocketry) life.

Also, bought the Magenta paint, and just ordered the vinyl.

Oh yeah, and filled some orders, thanks guys!

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Not sure if this belongs in “instead of rocketry” or here, but I’d like to thank my iPhone for reminding me that it’s been forever since I’ve flown a high power rocket. My 2020 N*s total was 0.0. Thanks for rubbing that in, iPhone. Also, thanks covid.

 

[OverTheTop]

A bit more work on the VTS. Fired up the lathe and mill to make a new G10 disk, then got the FC mounted on an anti-vibration mount and mated to the servo block. This new version will be a lot less cluttered than the earlier version.