My homemade rockets

[Maxim]

Hellow everyone. Those are my 9 mm rockets.

Here are the parameters that I use to make 9 mm rocket engines.

Diameter - 9 mm ( 0.3' ),

Nozzle - 2.5 mm,

Core length - 35 mm

Fuel without core ( I do not know how to say it in english ) - 15 or 20 mm,

Clay - 10 mm,

Diameter of the hole in the clay for the ingition - 2 mm.

Fuel - BP 70-20-10, ball-milled.

Those rockets can lift about 50 gramms.

I made the instrumets for rocket pressing myself with a hand drill and a dural stab.

 

 

 

First two rockets.

One is with +5% Titanium ( 0.15-0.25 mm ) in the fuel without core, in the shell - some Brocade Crown micro stars.

Second one : 0.8' Sunrise Yellow mirco stars ( 3 mm ).

 

First one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B70VP3ZSLU

Second one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlOkJt93_JQ

 

Here is some more:

9 mm rocket with 0.8' shell White Nitrate Strobe stars.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gJyJpKnbjY

 

This is the latest 9 mm rocket with 1' shell Brocade Crown stars, but some of them were crushed by the burst charge.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y43jgjA15N0

 

And this is my most prettiest 9 mm rocket with 33 mm C6 comet on the top. By some reason the 0.8' shell it did not ignite. But the spark tale was awesome.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODGTiWBI738

 

And I forgot to say about my burst. I use flash powder 50-30-20 NaNO3-Sulfur-Al powder.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Maxim

[Eric70]

Maxim,

 

Beautiful rockets! Very good flight and nice shells. Great show.

 

I enjoy seeing rockets from different parts of the world.

 

You guys like using NaNO3. I love the Sunrise Yellow stars and have the formula.

 

Burst with NaN03 I have never seen that. Humidity must be low where you live.

 

"Fuel without core ( I do not know how to say it in english ) - 15 or 20 mm," in english it is called "delay."

 

Thank you for the videos!

 

Eric

[Maxim]

Thanks!

What really matters is not how much humidity there is, but what quality your chemicals are. I am living in a rather dump place and I made some test with living some Sunrise Yellow stars and some burst flash in the open air, and it did not really soak any water. Especially the flash powder, because the Al powder which I use contains about 1% of parafin or oil and is protects the nitrate from soaking up any water. The same is for the NaNO3 made in the reaction between NH4NO3 and NaHCO3.

Also thanks for the translating.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Maxim

[Eric70]

Maxim,

 

That is interesting information, thanks! Again, beautiful rockets.

 

I am always interested in how people make homemade firework tools, it can save money or create tools that are not available.

 

We should always make sure we make them from safe materials. I think it is easy to focus on the design and concept of what makes a rocket fly but it is easy to ignore what material the tools should be made of.

 

Below I pasted some text that you or anyone else may copy/paste into a translation program.

 

This is part of a skyrocket construction article from1970 by M.P. Vander Horck, he was the founder of the Pyrotechnics Guild International:

 

"The same does not apply to rocket loading tools, however, and the
pyrotechnist with some machining ability and access to a lathe can profit
by making his own tools. These are illustrated in figures 2 through
5. It is essential that the spindle and drifts be made from non-sparking
materials such as brass or aluminum, since the greatest danger in
ramming black powder is from accidentally striking a spark. In factory
work, the spindle itself is often of steel or gunmetal for durability
and long wear, but this demands that the drifts be made of non-ferrous
materials. This writer prefers brass for both spindle and drifts, although
aluminum is cheaper, easier to machine and quite satisfactory
unless large-scale manufacture is planned. The spindle in particular
should be highly polished to facilitate ease of removal after the
charge is rammed."

 

This article is what helped me understand black powder rockets in 2003.

If I were asked what information about black powder rockets I found the most helpful, this would be it.

I think it is one of the best rocket articles ever, it covers design and safety.

 

Eric

Edited April 6, 2015 by Eric70

[MWJ]

Welcome to APC, I hope you stick around. I'd love to see and hear more from you. Those rockets are very nice! Thank you for posting them.

 

Mike

[Shunt]

Beautiful rockets Maxim, welcome to the forum!

 

I would like to make some rockets myself, but have no tooling, and can't afford any at present. You have inspired me to get started!

 

I look forward to seeing more of your work in action

[Maxim]

Well, if you do not have any metallic stabs you can use a 9 mm round pencil, just drill the graphite to make the core in the pencil, which you can then use as a rammer. It is the most common way to make 9 mm rockets in Russia, but the pencils some times crack, so i made my rammers out of dural. Thanks for the comments, you inspire m as well. Right now I am working on a visco fuse machine, and preparing for my school exams, one about math, another - chemistry, third - physics and the last one - russian language. So now time for rocketry right now.

[Maxim]

Some beez, first one is BP 70-20-10 + 5 % iron and secong 70-20-10+5% Ti. That wind turned the one with Ti and the last one to the ground.

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GmEW2twniI

[mkn]

Great rockets Maxim ! I have been having a lot of fun with that size lately as well. My size is 5/16" or 7.8mm, just a touch smaller. Tubes are 3" with whistle they can lift 70 -100g headers.

Keep posting videos, fun to watch !

Matt

[Eric70]

Maxim, nice bees. Call them beez, bees, buzzbombs, helicopters, whatever, they are my favorite.

 

I made a few 1/4" x 5" ones last fall using BP. I made a couple from left over BP "green" or "scratch" prime that had a little bit of KNO4 and those seemed to fly longer. I wished you lived up the street from me.

 

Attached a picture of my simple aluminum tooling I used. The yellow wings I bought some years ago, when those are gone I will use cardboard. The little one was bought, I like the simple design and it flies high for a little one. Might be interesting to replicate.

 

 

Edited April 7, 2015 by Eric70

[Maxim]

Yeap, I will use classic BP next time, 70-20-10 is not so strong.

[Maxim]

There was nothing to do...so I made a mini ( 3 mm ) cannon. Arrrr!! Used a 9 mm bolt.

O! I forgot, April 20 in Moscow: weather rules!

 

http://cs625623.vk.me/v625623851/30849/xKSp6FBT4Mg.jpg

 

http://cs625623.vk.me/v625623851/30850/J4D9oMGhN8g.jpg

 

http://cs625623.vk.me/v625623851/30878/t3xrrJOvpR4.jpg

 

http://cs625623.vk.me/v625623851/30870/BkLvd3doKyg.jpg

[Maxim]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ4HM5j7WCQ