dagabu Posted July 11, 2009 Posted July 11, 2009 (edited) I use thick 1'' pvc pipes for my meal rockets. No problem at all, these very strong casings make very powerfull rockets and they only melt a little bit if you make a short burning core burner. No problems with fires or whatsoever. I still miss my dog after my last PVC CATO. Not worth it and the wife was PISSED! OK, she calmed down decided that it was time anyway. Oh, he didn't get hurt, he just died the same day and everyone blames the CATO. Any way, I still have a small shard in my thigh from 1998 when I blew up a 4 pounder in a test rig and the shield failed. I roll my own now or grab paper tubes up when someone stops playing pyro. I gotta say, I have never split a PVC in the press or lost a nozzle in one either, never! Edited July 11, 2009 by dagabu
Zmuro Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 I made 1/2" tooling from steel rod and bolt for the core. Tooling has removable core and works great. 7mm x 25mm core: Pusher core from this site
Stinger Posted July 27, 2009 Author Posted July 27, 2009 Very nice rockets! I recently made a 18mm rocket with a 3" header http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQKvzB9CJsg...yer_profilepage BUT my problem is that when I press some motors, they always screw up at the top when I am nearly finished with pressing the motor.The rammer is sitting crooked in the tube when I add pressure and it totally deforms the tube, so 3/4 of the motor are pressed excellent ( you can even see how much incremens are pressed) and the rest is totally fucked up.The rammer is made up of aluminium and I even use a case extender, but still no joy!I had this problem four times today and I am really really angry about it Some help is highly appreciated
Mumbles Posted July 27, 2009 Posted July 27, 2009 Use a better case extender Make a new clamshell/reinforcement sleeve, but make it an inch or two longer to accomodate both your rocket and case extender. This should solve all of your problems. Then again, it sounds like you're trying to press the rockets without any sort of external support anyway, so using one probably would have solved your problems in the first place. You could try using half the increment size on top as well. The other thing I've seen that causes this is when the case extender doesn't slide snugly over the top of the rocket body. Some give in the case extender, will cause these issues.
FrankRizzo Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 Very nice rockets! I recently made a 18mm rocket with a 3" header http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQKvzB9CJsg...yer_profilepage BUT my problem is that when I press some motors, they always screw up at the top when I am nearly finished with pressing the motor.The rammer is sitting crooked in the tube when I add pressure and it totally deforms the tube, so 3/4 of the motor are pressed excellent ( you can even see how much incremens are pressed) and the rest is totally fucked up.The rammer is made up of aluminium and I even use a case extender, but still no joy!I had this problem four times today and I am really really angry about it Some help is highly appreciated That problem is usually caused by your press not being square. You need to figure out where it's flexing, and apply straps or shims to square up the frame.
dagabu Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 That problem is usually caused by your press not being square. You need to figure out where it's flexing, and apply straps or shims to square up the frame. No, I agree with Mumbles, you need a case extender to keep from canting the rocket. You can use spade bits and oak for this. Just find a spade bit the same size as the outside of the case and another the size of the inside of the case. Looks like this...
FrankRizzo Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 No, I agree with Mumbles, you need a case extender to keep from canting the rocket. You can use spade bits and oak for this. Just find a spade bit the same size as the outside of the case and another the size of the inside of the case. Looks like this... Daga, He's already got a case extender. The issue is that as the distance between the pressing platform and the press carriage increases, if there is a misalignment, the amount of cant in the tooling also increases. You end up with banana-shaped rockets, or the tooling kicks out.
Stinger Posted July 28, 2009 Author Posted July 28, 2009 Thanks to all for those good advices! I do not know wether this is a good case extender, but I used a 1 1/2" long tube having the same ID of the rocket motor being pressed.The first increment it was doing a good job, but then, step by step the rammer got more crooked and totally deformed the tube.Then I just chopped of the deformed part of the motor having an whistle end burner The press itself is doing well, the pressing plate floats down automatically when I release the valve, but the rod of the bottle jack is very small ( 20mm outer diameter) so I have to move the bottle jack permanently to find the middle of the pressing plate, which is annoying, too. I hope you guys got the point I wanted to explain
cojonesm Posted August 1, 2009 Posted August 1, 2009 (edited) I'm sorry for this offtopic question but does anyone have nozzle/core dimensions for kclo3:benzoate whistle rockets? Edited August 1, 2009 by cojonesm
dagabu Posted August 1, 2009 Posted August 1, 2009 (edited) Daga, He's already got a case extender. The issue is that as the distance between the pressing platform and the press carriage increases, if there is a misalignment, the amount of cant in the tooling also increases. You end up with banana-shaped rockets, or the tooling kicks out. OOPs! Missed that one. Um, never had a banana in 20 years when using a reinforcing sleeve. When making my 4# rockets, weather whistle or BP, I sleeve them when pressing. One other thing is to keep the rammer as short as possible so that a misalignment is impossible. Edited August 1, 2009 by dagabu
Aneantis Posted September 6, 2009 Posted September 6, 2009 (edited) I made a batch of whistle today, but instead of using my good ol'd copperoxy I used synthetic ironoxide. Now my batch is black, I only used 0.5 grams in 50 grams of kclo4/nabenz. Is this ehm normal? Never saw any black whistle before... Edited September 6, 2009 by Aneantis
firetech Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 Red iron oxide produces the red color in bricks. It will change the color of just about anything it you DO NOT need much of it. Having said that I wouldn't be surprised that could change the color so drastically.
Aneantis Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 The thing is i've used black iron oxide in the past, but it turned out grey. But that was very bad whistle I didn't grind the nabenz or the kclo4. Hmm we will see when the whistle is dry.
dagabu Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 I have a question. Could I use HDPE pipe for whistle motor casing? I have a lot of 25mm ID HDPE tubes and I got an idea to use these tubes for motor casing. Is it god or bad idea? No, HDPE gets soft really fast and releases the nozzle. PVC is just plain dangerous, just ask my dog... Stay with paper http://www.hobbyhorse.com/pyro_tubes.shtml Jim has the New England Paper Tubes you need.
Seymour Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 No, HDPE gets soft really fast and releases the nozzle. But that is not really going to be the case for whistle rockets. For a start they have no nossle, and additionally the fuel should shield the tube from most of the heat until the cored section has burned out. They may still be too flexible, causing grain cracking and the explosive results entailed... The original post is almost two months ago. Perhaps Zmuro has done tests and can tell us.
Zmuro Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 I will stick to the paper tubes because plastic isn't very environment friendly and I would have to make another tooling just to test them. If I could get paper tubes for 3lb whistle in Europe I would definitely give them a try.
dagabu Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 I will stick to the paper tubes because plastic isn't very environment friendly and I would have to make another tooling just to test them. If I could get paper tubes for 3lb whistle in Europe I would definitely give them a try. You can! hobbyhorse.com Jim has NEPT tubes real cheap!
firetech Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 What factors can prevent a whistle from whistling?
KruseMissile Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 kinda off topic, but that salute sounds like this go to about 0:15 and i cant stop thinking about it lol
FREAKYDUTCHMEN Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 (edited) If you watch the other piro picnic movies you'll see lifting a 4" shell also sounds like a tremendous salute Edited September 9, 2009 by FREAKYDUTCHMEN
Sambo Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 What factors can prevent a whistle from whistling? Particle size and loading pressure have a big influence on whistle. You will get a different whistle when using benzoate compared to salicylate. I also believe the catalyst also effects the pitch, cu oxy has less whistle than iron oxide aparently. Taken from Here I have found that the spindle also effects the whistle (power and sound)
skyisthelimitinc Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 Finally i got some decent tooling from Wolter, here are my three first results: this is my third, also spherical Ti added to the top increments over the spindle, it carried a 3" 178 gram header with 6 comet stars and 6 spider stars, no fp only granulated BP and some whistle boost these are my first 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aifcSN4aKuQ the first un-headed rocket was a minor mistake in, the 4 first increments of fuel(1incr.=7gram) was with the slower 64/32 comp, but it turned out good anyway, it didnt whistle as much and long as the second one, nr 2 carried a light 3"header with only a few blue stars and some BP cheers skyisthelimitinc
NightHawkInLight Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 I'm still in shock at the sound of that first rocket...Way to cool :blink:
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