37 replies to this topic

[raiderzone]

These are simply large comets hot melt glued on the top of the rocket for added rising effect at launch. You're right, Tom does use either 39 or 39J as his delay comp but that is rather sparse by the time it kicks in. The comets leave a nice big bright tail all the way up.

Thanks for clearing all that up and verifying. Would love to see some videos of your projects if they are available. You have an unfair advantage over us fellow rocketeers of having Rebenklau as a mentor.

[Pretty green flames]

Succes, i have succesfully launched a 2 inch ball shell weighing at 45-50grams. I have used my own fuel which consists of
8.5grams - Sulfur
27.5grams - Hardwood charcoal
64grams of potassium nitrate

This is ball milled for 45minutes for a quick lift. Works great.
6:3:1 just didn't cut it.

Thanks for your help all.

[Damp Squib]

The mini rocket motors I have developed have lofted a 100g plank of wood around 75 feet 'three times the height of the building I was using for rough calibration',the total motor weight is 17.6 grams '0.6 ounces' with 8.5 grams of propellant,10mm ID tube.

It in theory would lift a 50g shell 150 feet-but I only use them for model rocketry ,with a 2 ounce motor I bet I could get a half pound shell on its way

[ProfHawking]

that sounds very impressive!
will you be able to share the design?

[Damp Squib]

that sounds very impressive!
will you be able to share the design?

Ofcourse they arn't that far from the motors described here:),once I can do some static tests to measure the thrust and compare the results with regular old estes black powder motors I will,I doubt mine are anything special though estes motors are designed to get the theoretical maximum from black powder and my specs or propellant isnt far from either

It doesnt seem that impressive to me,an estes C motor will push out around a pound of thrust for 1.8 secs using only 12 grams of black powder enough to get a 50g shell up a good few feet

PS- I use the term develope lightly,I am just filling tubes with powder and igniting them

[karlfoxman]

Just so you all know my 1lb rocket lifted a 4inch plastic ball 350g shell to appx 150-200feet, the tooling was 3/4in Greg Boyd with my own rocket bp:

KNO3 - 63.5
Sulphur - 13.3
Willow charcoal 23.2

Milled for 90mins and rammed hard

A 10mm delay of:

KNO3 - 56.67
Iron filings fine - 20
Sulphur - 10
Charcoal 60 mesh - 13.34
Spherical Al 325 mesh - +10

The shell was a half and half peach/purple burst with kp on chrispies 3:1

Im chuffed to bits and am going to try get the rockets to go higher by milling the rocket propellant for longer.

Please note the delay is milled minus the Iron/Aluminium and 60 mesh charcoal which is added after milling for 45 mins.

[Creepin_pyro]

Mmmm... peach and purple - that's one of my favourite combinations : ) Was the peach Mr Veline's formula?

Sounds like that 1lb motor is very capable - how was the acceleration from launch? That delay comp looks very nice - I'm noting it down to try out myself. I don't suppose you captured the rocket on film?

[karlfoxman]

Yes it is a lovely combo, no its not its a calcium carbonate star. The formula is:

Potassium Perchlorate 68
Red Gum 12
Calcium Carbonate 11
Dextrin 5
Charcoal Airfloat 2
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) 2

The lift was quick and then slowed as the core had burned up, i did not catch it because my dv cam is having its head replaced as we speak. The delay is like glitter, do try it because its really lovely and looks nice in the air

I love the roar of these beasts as they lift almost 0.5kg in total!

[Frozentech]

Yes it is a lovely combo, no its not its a calcium carbonate star. The formula is:

Potassium Perchlorate 68
Red Gum 12
Calcium Carbonate 11
Dextrin 5
Charcoal Airfloat 2
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) 2

The lift was quick and then slowed as the core had burned up, i did not catch it because my dv cam is having its head replaced as we speak. The delay is like glitter, do try it because its really lovely and looks nice in the air

I love the roar of these beasts as they lift almost 0.5kg in total!

Sounds excellent ! I also love the 1# rockets, and I agree, they easily lift a nice header, although 3" is the largest I've put up with a rocket so far. I also add 7% firefly Al to the rocket propellant, for a silver trail all the way up. I like your color choice too LOL.... I've got a batch of Veline Orange, and Veline Magenta, waiting to be made into some rocket headers and shells next week when I return home. Sure wish you had gotten the video though, it's seeing other folks' work that feeds my pyro addiction while I am away on business ( 50% of the time ). Speaking of... Mike, are you going to shoot tonight ? I'll catch ya on icq in a bit.

[karlfoxman]

Yeah it was a nice half and half, the peach lasted longer than the purple and that gave a nice effect. I bet the firefly al looks nice in the tail. I am going to see how far i can push these motors so i can get them just below the point of CATO. I was suprised at how much lifting power these have, it roared up with a huge plume and when the glitter delay took over it looked soooo nice!! Yeah i will have to make another one so i can film it, Father has said the hes fitted the new head now and its working good as ever so vids will be on the way. I do have a video of a test rocket with flash header, still using the glitter delay so ill post that when i can

[Plays with Fire]

Speaking of rocket lift capacity, my question involves the lack thereof. Would it be possible to make a rocket whereas no residue/rocket guts fall when it's done? By this I obviously do not mean having it go into space, but rather having it be very small, without any payload, and a rocket tube that burns up at the same rate as the fuel burns? Maybe a flammable cone/head that would burn just as the motor burn reaches it?

The purpose would be to have an impressive tail, and not have any falling parts, or have to worry about anything once it goes up. Sounds like a good idea in theory, but input on theory and possibly materials used would be much appreciated...

-Plays with Fire

Edited by Plays with Fire, 03 March 2006 - 02:57 AM.

[Pretty green flames]

Well you will always have falling parts, namely from the guidance stick. But if you would attach some fins and put a nice salute header on it....well the wouldn't be any falling stuff except for some confetti.

But without any header there will certanly be stuff falling from the sky becouse you can't just make a thick walled tube disappear into nothing. Maybe a hot burning propellant would be ok and no nozzle but then loading the propellant would present a problem becouse the tube would probobly not withstand the loading pressure.

[karlfoxman]

I got a vid of my 1lb rocket with 3inch ball shell, the specs are the same as my previous ones (see above) but the shell was loaded with purple stars. The vid cuts out right at end because Father pressed wrong button. But see what you think guys.

Select 'VIDEOS' then 1lb rocket file

I have a vid of one with no header too, ill upload as soon a Sony vegas stops being a muppet

Edit: I shouted at Sony and it works now so here is the other vid, just click link above but select 1lb_rocket no header.

Went quite high!

Edited by karlfoxman, 06 March 2006 - 03:40 PM.

[JamesH]

Beautiful rocket there Karl, good work! The glitter tail delay was fantastic too, just the right delay time.

[sasman]

Yes very NICE!!..How was the header constructed? was it a round or cylinder shell?.. Please upload some more vids if you have them...