What did you do rocket wise today?

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Installed the coupler on the Zeph and joined the 2 sections. Slopped a little thinned filler on the seam cause sanding is my life! Just about ready for the paint pile. Since warmer days are still a ways off I think I might have to pick up a 4" LOC Goblin so I have something else to build.

View attachment 560990
+1 on the LOC Gobbler! Weeeeeee!
 
Of course, if you got the land, it's more fun to get out the .22 and shoot it.

Exactly!

More seriously, I don't think I've ever punctured a can, so I don't know if the can tears open or if it just sprays paint out the hole.

It just sprays from the hole. A short-tooth rake will puncture them nicely from a good distance and hold on to the can. A full can provides more entertainment. That was a convenient way for a 10 year-old to empty them and use tin snips to get the marble out. Most had regular marbles in there back in the day.
 
Exactly!



It just sprays from the hole. A short-tooth rake will puncture them nicely from a good distance and hold on to the can. A full can provides more entertainment. That was a convenient way for a 10 year-old to empty them and use tin snips to get the marble out. Most had regular marbles in there back in the day.
My inner Nervous Nellie was clearly wrong. Thanks to all for the real world experience.
 
It was another nice day. I put primmer on two rockets. Finished building the rocket I started yesterday. I had to hang it from a line I put up to keep it away from the cats while the fillets cured. But 4 still need primmer. I'll be sanding all day tomorrow. I also gathered the parts for the next rocket. I found a canopy I'd forgot I had so the next one will be a rocket plane.
 
More design play for some future record attempts. Aero heating, flutter, structure stuff, vendor/epoxy selection, fin design optimization, and a little CFD work.
 
Actually my thought was to shoot the can with a bb gun, then as the can is spraying the primer out from the hole, holding the naked rockets in the stream of spray. 😆

Would probably make a good first TikTok video for me.

:ghosty:

Bold! Will the video maker just get sprayed with paint, or will there be shrapnel from the can bursting? Watch to find out! Like and follow us for more tips! 😬

More seriously, I don't think I've ever punctured a can, so I don't know if the can tears open or if it just sprays paint out the hole. If you know, then you have a better idea of what to expect.

When I was about 15 years old (back in the 70's) I remember my friends Dad told him to "burn" all those old spray paint cans. We lived out in the country and pretty much everybody had a 55 gallon drum "burning barrel".

I bet his dad had 50 spray cans, everything from starting fluid to spray paint.

Quite the memorable experience. We got a decent fire going in the barrel, and then we would toss in a can and wait for the ensuing explosion and mushroom cloud.
 
When I was about 15 years old (back in the 70's) I remember my friends Dad told him to "burn" all those old spray paint cans. We lived out in the country and pretty much everybody had a 55 gallon drum "burning barrel".

I bet his dad had 50 spray cans, everything from starting fluid to spray paint.

Quite the memorable experience. We got a decent fire going in the barrel, and then we would toss in a can and wait for the ensuing explosion and mushroom cloud.
I put a 😲 above, but inside it was more like 😍 lol!

I grew up with an older brother (by 2 years) watching me for 5-6 hours after school for years at home with no adults and he was a pyromaniac.

It even got to the point of regularly setting small fires at home for fun (and some bigger).

As he got more bold, at least we started prepping a bucket of water in advance (might have been my suggestion since he wasn't very bright).

We later found my dad's kerosene... :haironfire:

It's amazing I survived my childhood.

Disclaimer: I'm not like that (anymore) since I quickly learned that mischief brings trouble that I don't want in my life.
 
We later found my dad's kerosene... :haironfire:
Thank goodness it was kerosene.

One of my best friends has a history of childhood pyromania and other dangerous fun in his childhood and teenage years, as do his brothers*. He married my wife's sister. When they had two boys, I told them "I know I can't keep you from doing stupid fun things with flammable liquids; it's in you genes. By all that's holy, please, PLEASE don't use gasoline. Use kerosene; gasoline is evil."

* Not me, though. I never did stuff like that.
 
Thank goodness it was kerosene.

One of my best friends has a history of childhood pyromania and other dangerous fun in his childhood and teenage years, as do his brothers*. He married my wife's sister. When they had two boys, I told them "I know I can't keep you from doing stupid fun things with flammable liquids; it's in you genes. By all that's holy, please, PLEASE don't use gasoline. Use kerosene; gasoline is evil."

* Not me, though. I never did stuff like that.
We found out on our own that gasoline isn't only flammable... it's explosive! :eek:

Rocketry is much safer and funner! :)👍

BTW - Using the kerosene (in a metal bucket on a chair with burning newspapers), we actually scorched the ceiling. Oddly my parents never asked us about it. lol
 
Guys in the welding shops I used to work at would buy those little paper cartons of chocolate milk out of the vending machine at break time. They would take the empty carton back to their work stations, fill them with acetylene, than duct tape it to the back of an unwelded weld seam. Then when the other guy welded the seam, the molten weld metal would ignite the acetylene and the carton would explode, scaring the living **** out of the welder dude. This was back in the era, let's say pre-1990's, when guys did this kind of stuff on a regular basis and the foreman would laugh harder than anybody else about it.

They'd sometimes sneak up behind a guy, slip the hook from the overhead crane into his belt, and lift him up into the air.

Let's just say... you had to be on your toes, and have a buddy as a spotter.
 
Spray paint cans? Use same for re-painting steel gongs (AR500). In-can straw clogged. Sent it to Valhalla with a 325gr JHP from my 50 Beowulf at 50y. Nice mist cloud, can disappeared, nuttin' left of it. Found the straw, though. It was stuck in a pucker bush about 50' away and looked like a wild mountain cat gnawed on it, clog was gone, too.

Unpacked new JLCR and Alt2, charged them up.

The included LOC chute in my kit looked, well, ya know, "ok" I spoze but, yeh (keep it as a spare in the range box)....so I ordered a 42" Red/Wht Classic Spherachute from Ms. Julie for the 4" Gobbler. Was gona go all wild with the colors cuz you can do up to 8, some really pretty ones too- LOTS of colors to choose from, but it's hard to beat the classic look of a red/wht dome and nothings easier to find in the dez, that color combo really pops out there.
 
Well this is sorta rocketry. Or might qualify for 'what did I do other than rocketry'.

  • Read dozens (or it seem like dozens) of TRF threads on clustering and non-black power based staging while yesterday laying in the ER, and today in a room, and then the Nuclear Cardiac test lab... (I am home... everything was negative... so gotta be a GI issue) - Am an old hand at this. I knew to bring two fully charged iPads and a charger before I took a cab over to the ER.
    • All the threads for both clustering and staging are wonderful. Problem? Information and variation overload. As well as locality of infomation (spread over many many threads)
    • Clustering? Starters of course are the main point. And GSE. Do this! No do that! No use these! No dipped in this works! No just use these! Sigh. We need a team of clustering gurus to pull all the thread info together into one thread. My Cluster Buster is here... designing cluster rocket is EASY compared to...
    • Staging! WAY WAY WAY worse / confusing than clustering. 100s of variations. Arm it this way! Time it that way! No drag separation. Try drag sep. Motor eject. No motor eject... Sustainer lights from the booster, no from the sustainer, no from the nose... Use only CTI motors. No AT works if you use this starter, no use this starter, no use that other starter. Use this electronics, no use that one... gurus again to pull it all together. I have a LOC Terrier Sandhawk just waiting for me to get off the dime.
  • Read Eggtimer's docs on staging. Good stuff.
  • Watched some 10 year old Coker videos. Great stuff if only I had a shop ANYTHING like his.

I suppose the great news is there is a lot to continue to challenge anyone in rocketry. The bad news is I need to live long enough to try it all!
Sorry "I am not dead yet" (to coin Monty Python).
 
I added the nose weight to the Bullet Bobby XXL. The deluxe version comes with weights, I just had to use my scale to figure out how much I needed. The nosecone was 10.3oz. I added 5oz of weights, plus the 2oz of mixed epoxy. In the middle of all that is the eyebolt assembly for my shockcord attachment. The nose should weight around 17oz. Since I had to come into work this morning, I quickly checked on it and it's rock solid. Next is the shockcord attachment and installing the final centering ring. After that, I'll do the fin fillets. Those will be done with JB Weld as this kit is a "fin smacker". The instructions mention using wood glue on the internal fillets. I used epoxy throughout. I think it'll be more solid.
 
  • All the threads for both clustering and staging are wonderful. Problem? Information and variation overload. As well as locality of infomation (spread over many many threads)
  • Clustering? Starters of course are the main point. And GSE. Do this! No do that! No use these! No dipped in this works! No just use these! Sigh. We need a team of clustering gurus to pull all the thread info together into one thread. My Cluster Buster is here... designing cluster rocket is EASY compared to...
  • Staging! WAY WAY WAY worse / confusing than clustering. 100s of variations. Arm it this way! Time it that way! No drag separation. Try drag sep. Motor eject. No motor eject... Sustainer lights from the booster, no from the sustainer, no from the nose... Use only CTI motors. No AT works if you use this starter, no use this starter, no use that other starter. Use this electronics, no use that one... gurus again to pull it all together. I have a LOC Terrier Sandhawk just waiting for me to get off the dime.
A hundred contradictory ways to do it, and they all work, iso facto they're all "the right way".
 
A hundred contradictory ways to do it, and they all work, iso facto they're all "the right way".
It’s like salsa or chili. Many people believe that their way is The One True Way. Virtually all of the options are delicious.
 
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