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Posted

I lost the solid rammer for my mini bottle rocket tooling. I have a wooden dowel if the same diameter. Will I be able to get sufficient compaction with this?  

My current method is to us a plastic hammer to pound plain bp into a 3inch bottle rocket tube.

This is mainly used for spolets for canister shells.  I like to bottom fuse them and am concerned they might blow thru during lift, if not compacted sufficiently.

Does anyone know if it's possible to buy just a replacement rammer rather than a whole new tooling set? Or a better way than im currently doing. I have a small arbor press and a big hydraulic press but no real workshop. I usually work just standing in the front yard so nothing too fancy

Posted (edited)

Compaction or no compaction, at the very least it seems like a 1/4" diameter wooden dowel will be very fragile, although I wouldn't be surprised if it kinda works for a short while. Since it takes so little material to make a spolette or 2, maybe just make & test some taped down to concrete or whatever? Better yet, would it be possible to take the tubes you use to a hardware store and test fit some 1/4" rod (metal) that you would then cut to length? 

(edit to say you'd probably find a proper deadblow hammer to be superior to your plastic mallet)

Edited by Guernica
to mention the hammer thing
Posted

I did make a couple with the wooden dowel. Put them in shells. One worked perfectly and one flowerpotted. Not certain if it was because of the spolets or some other factor.

I guess I don't know the difference between a "proper dead blow" and a plastic mallet. Because when I googled dead blow hammer, I got a bunch of images of plastic mallets. 

Posted

This is what I useIMG_20240613_113300639.thumb.jpg.b2f0999c471ef7fbfee28d5de5f929db.jpg

Posted (edited)

A deadblow hammer has a hollow head filled with... actually I'm not sure what they're filled with, it sounds like sand maybe. This deadens each strike significantly and reduces bounce versus a normal mallet. 

(I happen to use this one, I'm sure many would work fine though https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V1JW1WB/ref=dp_iou_view_item?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Edited by Guernica
to include link
Posted

The dead blow hammer I use is plastic and filled with lead shot if I had to guess.

 

IMG_0432.jpg

Posted

Here's the other half of the solution. Quarter inch roll pin punch. Only 12 bucks and much heavier than the original aluminumIMG_20240617_152653833.thumb.jpg.e7eabcda9c630c0a73fcc10e59d09243.jpg

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