All10Fingers Posted June 13 Posted June 13 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
Guernica Posted June 13 Posted June 13 (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 June 13 by Guernica to mention the hammer thing
All10Fingers Posted June 13 Author Posted June 13 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.
Guernica Posted June 13 Posted June 13 (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 June 13 by Guernica to include link
ThrownBiscuit Posted June 13 Posted June 13 The dead blow hammer I use is plastic and filled with lead shot if I had to guess.
All10Fingers Posted June 17 Author Posted June 17 Here's the other half of the solution. Quarter inch roll pin punch. Only 12 bucks and much heavier than the original aluminum
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