Bourbon Posted August 4, 2020 Posted August 4, 2020 I am sick to death of going around the net and reading reviews to hopefully find a book worth buying on BP rockets and headings. Everything is inconclusive and non specific to rockets. I'm not looking for a book about everything. Just rockets and not Estes. Not something littered with regurgitated history. I'm looking for construction, diagrams, pictures and compositions. Does anyone have any favorites? I would greatly appreciate some recommendations.
justvisiting Posted August 4, 2020 Posted August 4, 2020 (edited) Bourbon, your best value is a membership to Fireworking.com. Yes, it's a forum like this one. But, there's much more. The host (Ned Gorski) has produced countless articles about rockets, especially black powder rockets. He also makes YouTube videos, and you can watch those without paying anything. Dave Sleeter has written 2 books on rockets, but he also uses damp propellant, which is unpopular with the 'dry or die' propellant people The words 'black powder rocket' are really not accurate. In a 'traditional' black powder rocket, the powder is black- but not black powder. There is coarse charcoal for tail, and the burn time is long, maybe 1- 1 1/2 seconds. Then there are end burners and nozzleless black powder rockets, with much longer and shorter burn times, respectively. Ned does an excellent job of explaining rockets in general. He also draws on the skills of other pyros to hone his craft. Ned promotes an atmosphere of mutual cooperation. You will get in-depth help with your questions. Every site has its 'personalities' though, and Ned's is no different. The articles ALONE are worth more than any book you could buy. My .02 Cohete-style rockets. Preparations for making BP motors Hand-ramming a 1/2" BP rocket motor Power-pressing a 1 1/2" black powder rocket motor Edited August 4, 2020 by justvisiting
Bourbon Posted August 5, 2020 Author Posted August 5, 2020 I have seriously considered Fireworking.com for some time now and I have seen all of Ned's vids (maybe even 2-3 times) . I thought it might be nice to have something I can throw in the book shelf but there seems to be endless books of things I'm not interested in, at least at the moment. And most being all talk and no show. I'm only into my journey with rockets at 80 motors or so, and only 5 failures right at the beginning. All others were fantastic. After our convo thee other day I will definitely be trying some moisture before ramming. I'm not pressing motors just yet. I hate annoying folks with my dribble questions and cluttering the forum. Thought maybe a couple books wouldn't hurt. I have lots of questions. Many I ask here, don't even get a reply. It's nobody's job to give me answers, so that's understandable. Thanks for the hints.
davidh Posted August 5, 2020 Posted August 5, 2020 There really isn't much to learn about making normal black powder core-buring rockets. There are variations on the 6-3-1 formula, most just changing the courseness of the charcoal. I suggest buying more tooling instead of trying to buy books on black powder rockets. You can always ask your questions here.
Bourbon Posted August 5, 2020 Author Posted August 5, 2020 I suggest buying more tooling instead of trying to buy books on black powder rockets. You can always ask your questions here.Thank you. I appreciate that.
kaotch Posted August 5, 2020 Posted August 5, 2020 @Bourbon, What size of rockets are you going to make?
Bourbon Posted August 5, 2020 Author Posted August 5, 2020 @kaotch - I've been making 1# shorty's, or I guess some would call them eco motors. They're consistent and work very well. I've only tried 40 gram dummy headers and I have no problems getting them 350 feet or so even with a small motor and commercial airfloat.
pyrokid Posted August 6, 2020 Posted August 6, 2020 Hey Bourbon, what core geometry, and motor tube length do you use for those eco-motors? I'm curious about the details.
Bourbon Posted August 6, 2020 Author Posted August 6, 2020 @pyrokid - Honestly, it's nothing more than Woody's commercial stinger tooling (skinny spindle) no tangential hole. They ring in at 3.75" length. Right now 'm using 65/25/10 w/commercial airfloat milled and granulated using 70/30 Denatured/Distilled water. No Binder.
kaotch Posted August 6, 2020 Posted August 6, 2020 @Bourbon Could you give the dimensions of the spindle (diameter/length) Thanks in advance.
Bourbon Posted August 6, 2020 Author Posted August 6, 2020 @Bourbon Could you give the dimensions of the spindle (diameter/length) Thanks in advance.It appears to be 8mm at the base of the spindle and tapers up to 6mm at top and domes (not flat) to zero . Looks like 47mm in length.
zoeymiler45 Posted October 31, 2020 Posted October 31, 2020 Have you read Spacecraft: 100 Iconic Rockets, Shuttles, and Satellites That Put Us in Space by Michael H. Gorn, its a great book with full of pictures, I read it so I have idea about this book, you can easily buy it from couponcodify because I also bought my one from there. Its a best book for beginners you will get much knowledge from this book.
justvisiting Posted November 1, 2020 Posted November 1, 2020 Here's an old booklet on making black powder rockets. It's a bit dated and hard to read, but a little reading between the lines shows that they understood the basics of pyro rockets for a really long time now https://archive.org/details/The_Making_of_Rockets_1696_By_Robert_Anderson
Bourbon Posted November 1, 2020 Author Posted November 1, 2020 Here's an old booklet on making black powder rockets. It's a bit dated and hard to read, but a little reading between the lines shows that they understood the basics of pyro rockets for a really long time now https://archive.org/details/The_Making_of_Rockets_1696_By_Robert_AndersonMan you're not kidding! Amazing what they knew at that time, and obviously enjoyed it. Pain to read but I think I'm going to give it a couple times through.
Bourbon Posted November 1, 2020 Author Posted November 1, 2020 Have you read Spacecraft: 100 Iconic Rockets, Shuttles, and Satellites That Put Us in Space by Michael H. Gorn, its a great book with full of pictures, I read it so I have idea about this book, you can easily buy it from couponcodify because I also bought my one from there. Its a best book for beginners you will get much knowledge from this book. Thank you for the suggestion. I'll have a look and see if it covers what I'm shooting for.
Piccaso Posted November 5, 2020 Posted November 5, 2020 American fireworks news or AFN sells books and they are very well priced. I found this a few days ago when I wanted to get a subscription.
Arthur Posted November 5, 2020 Posted November 5, 2020 The history of charcoal/sulphur/nitrate rockets is so long -perhaps a thousand years or so, that no-one could write a definitive book. Every modern tool maker has their ideas of tool sizing for nozzles, spindles etc no two can quite agree! There is a useful chart in Lancasters book about the change in compounding with changing size, (bigger rockets need slower comp.
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