What did you do rocket wise today?

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I epoxied two of the four fins into the Bullet Bobby XXL last night. I'll do the other two today.
 
I JB-Welded the fins onto my scratch built rocket, lava lamp, yesterday, and today I’m working on adding some fin fillets. The fins are mounted through-the-wall. The fins are CNC machined out of acrylic on my desktop cnc, I’m using a 38mm phenolic motor mount tube, and the centering rings are 3D printed in “tough” resin, which in testing I’ve found to be virtually indestructible (on this scale). Kevlar shock cord mounted in the forward centering ring, and screws for the motor retainer are in the aft ring.

The picture is of the first set of fillets I added today. Video is a time lapse of installing the first 2 fins.
 

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Had some energy this morning. I stuffed and soldered my Eggtimer Classic dual-deploy altimeter circuit board. I have an Eggtimer serial cable, so I installed Putty on the laptop. Checked out my Eggtimer Apogee first, then the Classic. Looks like everything is working. I discovered that both the Amazon batteries as well as the cables had the color of the leads reversed with respect to the Adafruit battery. Being lazy, I popped the connectors out of their housings and reversed them. Now I should be able to charge the Amazon batteries with the Adafruit charger. I got the sled pretty much complete and ready to go.

[edit] Pics - circuit board on sled, and batteries on the other side.
pcb.jpg
batsled.jpg
 
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I quit moping about an unexpected early retirement. And re-upped my NAR membership, then sent my member application to DARS.
Also, unrelated though, sharpened my kitchen knives, with my new sharpener (its great), ordered a larger pyrex mixing bowl and a Swissmar Mandolin slicer.
the good news is I have a room full of body tubes and fin materials. Along with a GF who just maybe, might, possibly, buy Motors :) :)
the dang thing is, the job I had kept me from attending launches... I worked weekends. ughh. Well, at least I got to attempt "Golf" during the other days off.
 
  • Told off another sanctimonious California Hater here on TRF.
  • Continued standardizing connectors on all my low power, meaning Eggtimer electronics, to use a single connector for the battery. Aka soldering
  • Documented/checklist my up coming flights.
 
Started working on the Zephyr. Got most of the motor mount done yesterday. Added a couple of Z type clips fashioned out of 1/2" aluminum to the aft centering ring for motor retention. Today was spiral filling and plywood sealing day.
View attachment 559491

Looks like Doug's going for his L1 :) Make sure I'm there to see it!
 
Removed mandrel and sleeving from the smallest fiberglass tube I have made to date.... I am building some of the small BT size Mach1 rockets. One thing I don't like is the Estes 3/16 straw for a launch lug, (I like the mini-Rail buttons , but the cardboard tube, just bugs me) ...I use both, that way I can launch from Rod or Rail... so I made a 1/4 fiberglass one. It worked, SO I may try for 3/16 & 1/8 fiberglass tubes next...

For comparison LOC 1/4 lug is:
ID=0.280", OD=0.343", Weight .40 grams/inch.

Mine is:
ID=0.282", OD=0.325, Weight .53 grams/inch.
20230126_082556.jpg
20230126_082647.jpg
 
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Took a break from sanding to clean up some open rocket files when I came across this scratch build I did a little over a year ago. Called it the Screamin' Demon. Then a thought hit me.:angiefavorite:I've had an Apogee E6-6 long burn motor in my box for a while now. So for giggles I modeled it into the Demon with a 96" mylar streamer for recovery. Apogee topped 2000' and with a 10mph wind it still tracked pretty darned straight. I'm thinking I've just got to launch this config this year!! But perhaps I should rename it to something more appropriate like....."Recovery Optional", "Gone in 6 Seconds", or "Don't Blink"
Demon.jpg
 
Making progress on night flight rocket. Committed to sticking light strip on NC. Fabricated a battery box out of cardboard. I don't need no stinkin' 3d printer. Waiting on 9v battery clips from ebay to finish up NC. Got to make another trip to Wally World to get lights for the bottom 1/2. Here's a proof of concept

View attachment 20230126_131843.mp4
 
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