What did you do rocket wise today?

Wildman Rocketry
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After morning commitments and an unplanned replacement of 2 garage door pull cables I managed to get in some work.

AZT....over spray of metallic silver is finished. I'll probably do the gloss coat on Monday.
King Kraken.......wet sanded the exterior of the tube fins, masked the interior and got the final color coat done.
Don't Drink and Paint.....sanded the 1st primer coat. Found some grain on 2 of the fins so I gave them a light coat of thinned CWF. Sanded them down and shot the 2nd primer coat.

Tomorrow the Crawler (or bug or something) will get a wet sand of the 2nd primer coat and I'll shoot the base coat.
Depending on how well the Kraken tubes dry, I might start mounting them to the airframe.

Looks like I might just reach the goal of having them all ready for next Saturday. Fingers crossed.
 
A rattle can of Dupli-color squirted out liquid instead of gas so I just spent about 10 min with my index finger on the valve to reduce the pressure before throwing it out with other garbage. 🥳

Not quite es exciting as getting L2 :confused: 😆
 
DigBaddy said:
I need to hustle as well. The paint on BT60 Goblin #2 did not turn out well...odd dark splotches in it. I may just live with it. Want to have the upscale Ninja done too....but that is currently in primer coat #1 and unsanded.
Click to expand...

Purple paint rescued with the last bit of Testors Purple Fog.

 
frogglicker said:
I've been busy today. I started off with designing some different takes on the 29mm to 38mm motor adaptor for my Hobgoblin. I tried variations on clamshells, fully printed tubes, and centering rings on a motor tube and the last was what I settled on. The tube is 190mm to accommodate the H135 SU motor. I've been struggling a bit with this and finally got it worked out. The fitment in the rocket was perfect as was the motor retainer cap (also redesigned to make it longer). It's locked in a tight. I feel really confident with this solution.

View attachment 585590

I also worked on SpiderMax. First, I threaded the shock cord through the forward CR, and secured it with a half-hitch and 3 gallons of epoxy. Next, I cut the body tube above the forward CR so I had easier access to the top of the assembly. I had slit the body tube for the fin cutouts earlier in the week and tested the fitment of the assembly. Got scared for a minute because it did not want to come back out. After some sweet talking, I got it out, epoxied the body tube, and put it right back in. Seems to fit pretty well. There were some small gaps between the aft/forward CR and the body tube. hmmm. Mixed up more epoxy (that's the correct answer, right?) and added some fumed silica. This really thickened up the epoxy and gave both a good goopy slathering, jamming some down in the gaps to make sure I had a good body/ring bond. The initial cure looks good with good fillets. I then took the other half of the body tube and epoxied a coupler in to be mated with the fin can later.

View attachment 585593

While the printer was whirling and the epoxy was curing, I pulled out the IPL Chimera. I modded the fin can, eliminating the motor mount and replacing it with a 29mm motor tube. I also added a 29mm motor retainer ring and cap. The fitment with the H135 and a G74 proved successful as well. I finished sanding the couplers and the nose cone shoulder and everything is together. I just have to add the shock cord, rail buttons, and a chute. I will probably not finish (as in paint) this one. It looks spectacular. I am working on printing another one in different colors. The print files can be found here. I will be launching this on an F and G class motor this weekend. I'll provide a post-launch report.

View attachment 585594View attachment 585595

This update was brought to you by the letter E for epoxy. Love this stuff. Thank god it's not toxic. It's not toxic, right?
Click to expand...
Don't let the fact it doesn't smell bad fool you. Uncured epoxy is toxic. Once cured, it's safe ish.
 
frogglicker said:
This update was brought to you by the letter E for epoxy. Love this stuff. Thank god it's not toxic. It's not toxic, right?
Click to expand...
I love the 3d printed rocket! It's more or less non-toxic, just don't put it on your ice cream. You can become sensitized to it and have allergic reactions, so gloves are a good idea for a hobbyist that wants to use it for years to come.

And for my thread relevance, my Wildman 3 is back from it's lawn dart adventures. Got avionics/ejection tests done today. It's ready to fly, but I'm hoping to do the color coat tomorrow and clear next weekend.
 
Today I filled the grain I filled before I put primer on the Sci-Fi rocket. Amazing how primer and paint show you where you missed. Sanded that and now it's ready to be repainted. The Interceptor was supposed to be painted last night. When I was giving it it's last alcohol wipe I saw dozens of pin holes on one fin. The wood was filled, sanded, primed, sanded and painted and sanded some more. I found it hard to believe I missed that many pin holes. The more I looked the more I found. I must have had the rocket at just the right angle to see them. Filled every last one of the dozens I found and sanded it all smooth. Now it's ready for paint. I was looking at 1950's Sci-Fi rockets on Google today. Looking for inspiration. Found some good ones to try. I saw a rocket from a movie call Rocketship X-M. Now I know where Musk got the idea for his Moon rocket. Google it. If you want to try something out there look at the '50's rockets. The vision of the future from the '50's is certainly different from reality. Ordered some automotive primer on Amazon. There isn't any in town. Ordered some styrene rods and tubes for future ideas. I went to a swap meet today. Took some stuff to sell. While I was talking to people the subject of rockets came up several times. One guy wanted to know where we launched and told me he had rockets as a kid. I showed him a couple of videos of some HPR launches. Might have infected another one. Showed video to a couple others too. One guy took notes. Next swap meet I go to I'm taking a couple of rockets with me. I'll be popular.
 
Went to the QRS club launch today. It was B...E...A...Utiful winter weather, so it was. A chilly 10degreesC start but warmed up to 21degreesC. Lots of visitors.

On the third attempt and after last month's lawn dart, have now successfully launched "Banana Republican", a cluster of 3 x Composite E20's!!! Altitude achieved was 1856ft according to the Micropeak altimeter.

Interestingly, although all three motors did light, two came up to pressure in quick sequence on the pad, but the third one didn't come up to pressure until about 200ft up. In the video you can hear the first two spit to life and then you can hear the third one "air-start" out of wonky iphone camera shot.

Ignition this time was using the 3 x Firewire no.1 ignitors I dipped in a little 4F BP last weekend. I twisted all 3 +'ves together and same with the -'ves and ran them off just the one controller channel. Good recovery on the JLCR at 500ft, and a short sunny walk as the breeze was light.


First Successful flight pad pic2.jpgFirst Successful flight pad pic1.jpg
View attachment First successful flight 11Jun23 IMG_0772.MOV
 
Attended ROSCO with @cwbullet , @Rocketjunkie , @hobie1dog and others, yesterday. Flew my LOC Nuke Pro Maxx on a Loki G70CT with my Altus Metrum Mini at apogee. Unfortunately, the battery didn't have the oomph to set off the dipped starter (not e-match) and the NPM came down sideways and sustained no damage.

Second flight attempt was my L1 re-cert attempt on my AMW FiberMax with a Loki H125CT and an Eggtimer Apogee with an e-match kindly provided by Tom Binford ( @Rocketjunkie ). The igniter failed to ignite the motor and Donna, the birthday girl, wanted to go to the hotel and relax. So, I packed up the Max and we headed to the hotel, not 10 minutes away. Got a shower and took Donna to Mariachi's in Sumter for her birthday dinner.

This morning, I'm waiting for the hotel's breakfast bar to be ready and I'll eat, take Donna to Great Clips for us both to get haircuts, then I'll be back at the field to try again. (I think the igniter fell out because the clips pulled on it, but if @Rocketjunkie is there, he said he has an igniter that'll ignite dirt, just to make sure!)

EDIT: Forgot to mention, thanks to @hobie1dog and his beautiful wife for obtaining a cake for Donna's birthday!
 
Attended the ROSCO launch yesterday, and got my L1! (Along with finally getting to officially meet @hobie1dog, and Marty, why am i infamous! :))And was the first time actually using my altimeter, going to 723 feet, nothing crazy, but an easy recovery! C1E96971-1CF7-4C2B-A1A1-914D8D5DDCF0.jpegC0B8C4F9-323A-4C07-B350-EA4FE10EE5B7.jpeg
F8201B11-CC0C-4B5C-BA8E-93190B7BFB89.jpeg

Also flew my (small) Ecee glider, that went well. However, the Ecee Thunder didn’t have as good of a time…D73326C0-7600-4D5F-86DA-11D314C66473.jpeg
But it want my fault this time! The E12 I had CATO’ed, so I’ll send Estes an email and fill out a MESS. (And no, it’s not a 2011, it’s actually a 2022). It’s gonna be a challenge to fix it. But I’ll try…

Edit: (I think I) Forgot to say happy birthday to Donna! So do that for me @John Kemker ! And also good luck on your L1, and welcome back to the hobby!
 

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BrendanH69 said:
On the third attempt and after last month's lawn dart, have now successfully launched "Banana Republican", a cluster of 3 x Composite E20's!!! Altitude achieved was 1856ft according to the Micropeak altimeter.

Interestingly, although all three motors did light, two came up to pressure in quick sequence on the pad, but the third one didn't come up to pressure until about 200ft up. In the video you can hear the first two spit to life and then you can hear the third one "air-start" out of wonky iphone camera shot.
Click to expand...
Does the Micropeak have an accelerometer recording?

It seems like you guys had quite the gathering at ROSCO. If I remember right, that's where I met Gary Byrum all those years ago.
 
Last edited:
Voyhager3 said:
Attended the ROSCO launch yesterday, and got my L1! (Along with finally getting to officially meet @hobie1dog, and Marty, why am i infamous! :))And was the first time actually using my altimeter, going to 723 feet, nothing crazy, but an easy recovery! View attachment 585682View attachment 585684
View attachment 585686

Also flew my (small) Ecee glider, that went well. However, the Ecee Thunder didn’t have as good of a time…View attachment 585687
But it want my fault this time! The E12 I had CATO’ed, so I’ll send Estes an email and fill out a MESS. (And no, it’s not a 2011, it’s actually a 2022). It’s gonna be a challenge to fix it. But I’ll try…

Edit: (I think I) Forgot to say happy birthday to Donna! So do that for me @John Kemker ! And also good luck on your L1, and welcome back to the hobby!
Click to expand...

Congratulations, and that's a good looking rocket!

John Kemker said:
This morning, I'm waiting for the hotel's breakfast bar to be ready and I'll eat, take Donna to Great Clips for us both to get haircuts, then I'll be back at the field to try again. (I think the igniter fell out because the clips pulled on it, but if @Rocketjunkie is there, he said he has an igniter that'll ignite dirt, just to make sure!)
Click to expand...

Waiting for good news today!
 
Emailed Estes about my Cato and am filling out a MESS report. Engine: E12-4 date code: J 22 10 22, just FYI

Update:
Looked through MESS, there have been a bunch of failures with J221022 E12s, SO DONT USE THEM, well, you can, but I don’t recommend it.
 
Last edited:
tsmith1315 said:
Congratulations, and that's a good looking rocket!



Waiting for good news today!
Click to expand...
So...

1st flight attempt today resulted in a spit nozzle. At least two experienced fliers (other than myself, who has flown lots of snap-ring motors) think the snap-ring groove was too shallow. Cracked my #16 nozzle beyond use. Took pictures, will file a MESS report tomorrow when I get back to Atlanta.

2nd attempt was courtesy of @Pat Bunn and a CTI 29mm H135 and his 29mm to 38mm adapter, which fit in my 38mm to 54mm adapter. Great flight, VERY late deployment. I didn't trim enough time off the delay (9 second delay) and it stuck nose-first in the sod, THEN fired ejection charge.

After cleaning it up, @Pat Bunn loaned me ANOTHER CTI motor, this time a 38mm H110, which I trimmed to a 7 second delay. Great flight, beautiful recovery! I'm back to L1!

(Need to modify my .sig, now.) (done)
 
John Kemker said:
So...

1st flight attempt today resulted in a spit nozzle. At least two experienced fliers (other than myself, who has flown lots of snap-ring motors) think the snap-ring groove was too shallow. Cracked my #16 nozzle beyond use. Took pictures, will file a MESS report tomorrow when I get back to Atlanta.

2nd attempt was courtesy of @Pat Bunn and a CTI 29mm H135 and his 29mm to 38mm adapter, which fit in my 38mm to 54mm adapter. Great flight, VERY late deployment. I didn't trim enough time off the delay (9 second delay) and it stuck nose-first in the sod, THEN fired ejection charge.

After cleaning it up, @Pat Bunn loaned me ANOTHER CTI motor, this time a 38mm H110, which I trimmed to a 7 second delay. Great flight, beautiful recovery! I'm back to L1!

(Need to modify my .sig, now.) (done)
Click to expand...
:goodjob: :bravo:
 

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