al69

right, i know that most people tend to ram their rocket motors, i also used to do this.

but i was thinking of buying a press so that i would be able to press my rocket motors.
Has anyone had any experience with pressing rocket motors?

is it worth it?

does evryone do it damp or can you press dry?

also what types of pressure do you ram at?

any help would be appreciated as well as experiences with pressing propellants, in particular i was thinking blackpowder based propellants

i was wondering what type of rocket would be best for lifting headers. i have made two types.
one type is where the rocket is long burning and continues to accelerate throught the burn but stops rising right after the rocket has finished burning
the other type is a fast burning rocket that burns very quickly but continues to rise a while afterwards, obviosly when its rising without propulsion its less stable.

so which one do you guys think is the best to use with a header?.
thanks

Tonight i thought i would try a new rocket propellant.

The propellant consists of 65/35 KNO3/Sucrose plus x%glycerine.

The normal propellant was made and then glycerine was added in the following amounts: 0.5,0.5,1,1 ml.
Upon addition of 0.5ml there was little change in texture or burn speed.
Another 0.5ml increased the burn rate very little.
Addition of another 1ml of glycerine produced a rather noticable effect on the burn speed of the propellant as well as the texture.

Upon addition of the final ml of glycerine (totalling a concentration of 3ml/100g, or 3%). A reasonable increase in burnrate was evident (about 15% faster than that of 65/35 KNO3/glycerine), and the texture was changed from powder to more of a putty.

No more than 3% of glycerine was added as this could have resulted in a useless composition that has too much glycerine and so doesnt light.

Upon friction testing the mixture did not ignite (as is expected of a KNO3/sugar based composition).
Friction testing consisted of the mixture being roughly scraped along the floor with a knife as well as impact testing; primitive but effective.

As i understand it the potassium nitrate and sugar dissolved in the glycerine thus creating a more intimate (sp?) mix. This caused the burnrate of the mixture to increase much like melting the propellant, in which the potassium nitrate dissolves in the molten sugar. Also because glycerine is flammable, it doesnt slow down the burn rate.

The composition was used in a rocket which i will complete tomorrow by drilling the nozzle and coring about half way. the nozzle will be 4mm, the tube is 3/4ID 1/8 walls and 3 1/2 long. There may even be a video if its any good, if not i will still post the result.

Any questions,comments will be appreciated. I dont know if this is actually a new formula so dont batter me if it isnt