13 replies to this topic

[Painter]

Thanks to Frozentechs help, I finally made and launched my first 1 pounder the other night!
Here are some links to construction pic's and a video.

Motor on spindle

Buisness End

Fusing Nozzle

Sticking the Motor

Completed Rocket

First Flight!

[karlfoxman]

Nice rocket you got there, whats your composition? Shame you left the camera on auto focus, try setting it to infinity and filming. I heard you or someone say 'it may cato like the last one.' What was different, the compositon or were you using different tooling?

Welcome aboard!

[Andrew]

Nice first post!!!!

Those dogs liked it!

[Painter]

Nice rocket you got there, whats your composition? Shame you left the camera on auto focus, try setting it to infinity and filming. I heard you or someone say 'it may cato like the last one.' What was different, the compositon or were you using different tooling?

It was Degan #1 with about 5% 80 mesh red oak charcoal.
The one that cato'd was a whistle mix that didn't get pressed good enough!
Made a HUGE boom! LOL
It was my breath (fog) that was messing up the auto focus (-20? out that night).
You're right, manual focus is better. Need to be farther back also!
They take off like a Bat outta Hell! heheh

Thanks for the welcome!

[Frozentech]

Thanks to Frozentechs help, I finally made and launched my first 1 pounder the other night!
Here are some links to construction pic's and a video.

Motor on spindle

Buisness End

Fusing Nozzle

Sticking the Motor

Completed Rocket

First Flight!

Heya Bro! Glad to see you speaking up on here. What's on for tonight ? I need my video pyro fix, since I can't launch until Monday. Oh and no complaints about -20F, it's been -40 for 4 days up here now !!! Awesome aurora last night though. Tell you about it later.

[Damp Squib]

nice rocket what you using for your nozzle? Looks like you could use some finer mesh clay ,looks pretty crumbly,if you cant get hold of good bentonite run the stuff you have got in the ball mill with some steel media for half an hour your nozzles will come out shiny and hard as a rock

Just a suggestion-Great work

[Painter]

nice rocket what you using for your nozzle? Looks like you could use some finer mesh clay ,looks pretty crumbly,if you cant get hold of good bentonite run the stuff you have got in the ball mill with some steel media for half an hour your nozzles will come out shiny and hard as a rock

Just a suggestion-Great work

Thanks for the advice! It's floor dry clay compound, ran it thru a coffee grinder.
I'll try the ball mill method. I didn't want to get it too fine. I also added about 2%
gun stock wax to the powder and mixed it in.

[Damp Squib]

Not sure what kind of clay that is but I have found the finer the clay the better the nozzle finer mesh shows much better adhesion under pressure,if you see any pond repair clay on your anywhere near the floor clay in your hardware store give that a try! Its some of the finest pre milled bentonite you can get

[Painter]

Not sure what kind of clay that is but I have found the finer the clay the better the nozzle finer mesh shows much better adhesion under pressure,if you see any pond repair clay on your anywhere near the floor clay in your hardware store give that a try! Its some of the finest pre milled bentonite you can get

Just had a thought. I wonder if Durham's Rock Hard Putty would work?
Dry that is, and rammed. Think I'll try that when I get off work tonight

[Damp Squib]

Just had a thought. I wonder if Durham's Rock Hard Putty would work?
Dry that is, and rammed. Think I'll try that when I get off work tonight

people in the rocketry community have been using Durhams putty for years for nozzles cast into pvc motors,it would be unsuitable for paper wound cases as there would be no end cap to hold it in and would have very little adhesion to the wall,it may work when pressed as a powder

Theres a simple reason why bentonite clay is used as nozzle material paper tubes rocket motors,its springy,often described as natures sponge,after being removed from the tooling the nozzle continues exerting force on the inside of the tube to hold itself in there,the addition of more coarse harder clay to the fine bentonite also gives the nozzle little teeth that grip the inside of the tube when the mixture is pressed

good luck with your putty experiments,I tried the same method a few years ago with 10 minute cement,putty ect. with limited success, the nozzles would get spat out, I manage to overcome this by drilling 4 holes in the paper tube in the middle of where the nozzle and end plug would be and inserting steel sheer pins into the drying substance,but this then weakend the end of the tube which caused the motor to fail,
I'd say I had about 50\50 success with those nozzles before using pressed bentonite which havnt failed once so far,wish I could say the same for my hand rolled tubes

Edited by Damp Squib, 10 February 2006 - 01:32 AM.

[GBthriller]

Thanks to Frozentechs help, I finally made and launched my first 1 pounder the other night!
Here are some links to construction pic's and a video.

O.K...That was cool. Nicely done. I'll bet that rocket was still assending when she blew, right?

As a side, I have a request, on your next video post, would you do another Bill Murray imitation? I just have this image of Bill in Caddy Shack launching that rocket. LOL!

GBT.

P.S. thanks for the reply on the Estes thing!

EDIT: I just watched it again! I'm still laughing!

Edited by GBthriller, 29 March 2006 - 05:17 AM.

[NUKE]

Can anyone give me info about how to make rockets.i have made lifting podwer but i dont know hot o design a rocket.Thanks

[Creepin_pyro]

What, specifically, are you looking for?

A tutorial complete with pictures can be found here

You really should be able to find ample information on many aspects of the construction of BP rockets by using the search facility, as others have allready suggested.

Edited by Creepin_pyro, 19 June 2006 - 07:59 PM.

[Phoenix]

Here are a few good rocket pages (not meant to be an exhaustive list - apologies to anyone I've missed!):

Alan's Site has a decent description of how to make small rockets. This particular design uses a slightly exotic propellant, but would probably function a plain BP mixture

Wouter Visser's Site has a good procedure for making a larger rocket, as well as a page on making the tooling for it.
Here's his "D3" sugar rocket design. Doesn't seem to be accessible from the main rocket page.

LadyKate's Site, which I've only just discovered (nice site!) has a very interesting page on various designs of rockets, although as is stressed at the top of the page, it is not a beginner's guide and you'd need to be familiar with rocket construction for it to be helpful.

Passfire has a very good article on 1/2" rockets and their tooling. I've followed these instructions and had good success with them.