RocketFeller
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- Joined
- Sep 15, 2009
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That is a 1970's Estes or Vashon cold power engine. It's designed to utilize R-12 Freon as a compressed gas propellant. Currently, there are no known equivalent substitutes, but a few people have found some "acceptable" substitutes. I'm currently working to try to build and launch one of these myself.
Very few people will even bother with these now days. I'm kind of a glutton for punishment. I may find that I waste a lot of time and get very disappointing results.
If you decide you want to part with it, let me know. I'd buy it just to add to my ability to experiment farther.
What did I do? Start a cold power revival? Not complaining, just interesting.
Burn ban? We don't worry about no burn ban. Our rockets are cool. Down right cold. Ok cold powered anyway.
Yes, but if we can make them viable again, there may just be a true revival. After all, this is the age of alternative fuels, right?
These jokes are cold. Just plain cold, man.
I just realized that my user name doesn't have my last name... it is Feller. (And yes, my first name actually does have a stray capital letter in the middle.)
I built and flew the Estes Shark cold power rocket around 1973-74.
Three flights. First time worked as advertised. Cool....literally!
Second and third flights, the little rubber bumps that were suppose to deflate and allow the spring to eject the chute must not have worked, as there was no chute ejection. Been a while, but seem to remember that it was very humid and the model was getting frosted around the motor area, perhaps enough to interfere with ejection.
Rocket got shorter each time.
Put it on the shelf and went back to normal Estes motors. The cold power unit disappeared over the years.
Ok. Things are looking up. I have a lead on a possible propellant. Leo shows one that looks nearly perfect, however, I cannot seem to locate that brand anywhere. I'm going to have to investigate the other I found.
Next I need to figure out a fueling method, possibly. The fueling valve they supply does not seem like it would connect to modern propellant canisters. I could be wrong and I seriously hope I am. A quick test will fill in the questions.
Source?Well, I'm thinking that there could be a way to do that. I'm also thinking that if he gets caught doing it, the EPA would fine him $10,000.
Actually the EPA fines can be up to $37,500 if the .pdf I read from EPA is applicable to an individual releasing R-12 to the atmosphere, it was targeted at people maintaining/working on refrigeration systems mainly but who knows what using it for a cold powered rocket would constitute. One guy got a 20k-something fine and 31 months in prison for venting R-22.
Source?
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