You know you've won when...

[rstaff3]

...your wife begins scrounging rocket components for you Recently while on a walk, she says "that looks like a piece of a rocket," and comes up with a plastic cigar tube. Not to deter future help, and not having and 'real' projects in the works, I threw together this thing, which I call Smoke 'n Lightning. 13mm rear eject, simmed on Rsim 8.

 

[Rob Fisher]

-What a Wife!, smoke em' if ya got em'
-very cool & original!

 

[tquigg]

Great odd roc!

 

[Micromeister]

Now that is really great Dick!
did you happen to put an LED in the top to make it a night flyer?
Way Kewl!

 

[GL-P]

Nice, got a cuban cigar tube from my dad lying around. I keep thinking nosecone!

 

[rstaff3]

Thanks for the good words guys, make sure y'all save those swizzle sticks No LED - wouldn't have been hard to do if planned for in advance.

 

[marvSRG]

Very nice! I did the same witha a Macanudo Portofino tube...I like the rocket more than I like Macanudo cigars, too, haha. I'm more of a Romeo y Julieta/Cohiba/Padron kina guy

 

[Garoq]

Originally posted by rstaff3
...your wife begins scrounging rocket components for you Recently while on a walk, she says "that looks like a piece of a rocket," and comes up with a plastic cigar tube. Not to deter future help, and not having and 'real' projects in the works, I threw together this thing, which I call Smoke 'n Lightning. 13mm rear eject, simmed on Rsim 8.

It looks like a flying electric hot dog!

 

[rstaff3]

LOL that would have made a good name too.

 

[ShieldWolf]

Originally posted by rstaff3
I threw together this thing, which I call Smoke 'n Lightning.

You realize that now you'll have to build Heavy Metal Thunder, and Racing with the Wind to go along with it...

Randal

 

[SwingWing]

Originally posted by ShieldWolf
You realize that now you'll have to build Heavy Metal Thunder, and Racing with the Wind to go along with it...

Randal

Skip right on to "explode into space"........
Oops, we don't say explode........

 

[Gus]

Dick,

What are the fins made of and what did you use to glue them on?

Also, what did RockSim 8 say about velocity and apogee?

I definitely want to see the flight pics on this one.

 

[rstaff3]

The fins are plastic swizzle sticks. I slit the tube at the roots with a dremel, glued them on with Gorilla Glue, then added 5-min epoxy fillets. It will come down fast so we'll see if they stay on.

504 ft on a A10 and 516 ft on an A3 per Rsim 8. Even with the A3 it says it reaches a stable velocity at about 2 feet.

 

[Gus]

Originally posted by rstaff3
(RockSim) says it reaches a stable velocity at about 2 feet.

Did it say anything about the stability of the designer?

 

[rstaff3]

That simulation would need non-linear dynamics and chaos theory

 

[rstaff3]

Well, I snapped a fin off prior to launch, but taped it back on. The boost was stable, but the remaining 2 fins and the motor pod stripped at ejection. The one that was taped on stayed on. I will repair it and may try again. No photos, sorry (donning Kevlar vest and underwear)

 

[richalex2010]

Just use duck tape, maybe (Hey, it's another of the few trillion+ uses for duck tape )

 

[rstaff3]

Yea in the new configuration I replaced the masking tape with duct tape. The lightning bolt fins actually have opposing faces near the root edge, which make taping them on work well. I have experimentally proven that tape is better in this application than Gorilla glue or epoxy, and this rocket doesn't warrant the procurement of anything.

 

[richalex2010]

Also, Gorilla glue needs a ton of pressure to work properly (Found that out the hard way with an egglofting experiment. All motor mounts that I had used the gorillia glue on lost the motor mounts (And I found out that Estes motors have a stronger ejection charge than Quest motors)

 

[rstaff3]

Gorilla glue has worked fine for me in mid and high power rocket motor mounts. Plastic to plastic is another thing.

 

[richalex2010]

It was on Quest Courriers, for some reason they all failed after around 4-5 flights (Of course, I was launching one of the 3 remaining every 15 min, or less)