Skycastlefish Posted July 10, 2010 Posted July 10, 2010 I've never made a rocket and I'm trying to figure out what would be a good first project. There's about a million variations and I could use some guidance. I presume a sugar rocket would be a good starting place. Any advice or links to construction would be much appreciated.Thanks!
apcqazwsx Posted July 11, 2010 Posted July 11, 2010 (edited) http://www.jamesyawn.net/ This is what I used to start. I especially like the micro rockets. Maybe not a good project to get into serious rockets, but it is easy is and fun. Edited July 11, 2010 by apcqazwsx
Ralph Posted July 11, 2010 Posted July 11, 2010 I would start with Bp rockets they are good and good fun and are a good place to start as it is something you are likely to continue using through out your time in the hobby 4oz rockets are a nice place to start dont use lots of chems are big enough not to require really energetic fuels 8oz would do fine to
dagabu Posted July 12, 2010 Posted July 12, 2010 I've never made a rocket and I'm trying to figure out what would be a good first project. There's about a million variations and I could use some guidance. I presume a sugar rocket would be a good starting place. Any advice or links to construction would be much appreciated.Thanks! Honestly? If you think that you will want to lift anything like a shell then go for a BP core burner set. If you are looking to experiment and then move on, Foxfire and Skylighter have a bunch of tooling options. If you are actually thinking of joining the dark side, Steve Ladukes Universal tooling in the 3/4" ID size will lift 700 grams to 400' LINK and will give you seven, yes seven different fuel types to choose from. You can do BP to strobe with this one set. Its pricy, Wolter has a set as does Ben Smith that are available right now and after talking with the Duke last night over a root beer or two, he told me that he is ready to quit making them so if you need a set from Steve, let me know and I will give him a call (Mumbles knows him too) and see if he will make one more set. I swear, this will be the finest set you will ever buy.
Skycastlefish Posted July 12, 2010 Author Posted July 12, 2010 Its pricy Hearing a firebreather say something is pricy makes me nervous :/To be honest, I don't know how serious I'm going to be about rockets. I won't know until I try it, I guess. What kind of price are we talking?
Mumbles Posted July 12, 2010 Posted July 12, 2010 Wolter runs around $114. Ben Smith runs around $103. The last I heard Steve's tooling was $140. Steve's are of the highest quality and design though. If you want to experiment with rockets a little bit, it might be easiest to try end burners. Drilling a small core by hand into BP isn't so dangerous.
Skycastlefish Posted July 12, 2010 Author Posted July 12, 2010 Drilling a small core by hand into BP isn't so dangerous.When you say drilling by hand do you mean holding a drill bit in your fingers and manually coreing the rocket?
Mumbles Posted July 12, 2010 Posted July 12, 2010 A drill press is easiest, but that would work too if you have some way to secure the tube.
dagabu Posted July 12, 2010 Posted July 12, 2010 I use a t-handle from a tap set to hold the bit and put the motor into a vice (carefully) and just give 1/4 turns. It works well that way.
aftertheaftershock Posted July 21, 2010 Posted July 21, 2010 Hearing a firebreather say something is pricy makes me nervous :/To be honest, I don't know how serious I'm going to be about rockets. I won't know until I try it, I guess. What kind of price are we talking? Oh man once you have your first successful rocket and just the sound it when lifting off in all its glory will keep you hooked! I started with sugar rockets, 65parts Powdered KNO3, 35parts Powdered Glucose, Mixed well in a container. And then dry rammed (powder not casted) with a mall hide hammer into a 1"Inner Diameter of tube(Width) by 4"(height) tube. I used a 1"nozzle a 2-2 1/2" fuel grain and a 1/2-1" top plug. I recommend using a 1 inch top plug for your first rocket. Nozzle material was finely ground (powder) Kitty Litter. Depending on what your tubes are made out of can determine the wall thickness of the tubes if you’re using computer paper I would recommend 5 pieces of paper 11" long and meeting the specifications of the tube above. Then tightly wrapping all four pieces of paper at once around a 1" wood dowel with 4 full wraps around the tube of duct tape.(This will enable you to really pound hard on the tube with out it spitting) If splitting occurs add more layers of duct tape. Then take the tube onto a hard flat surface and begin adding kitty litter and ramming until 1 inch nozzle is achieved the begin pouring in fuel and ramming until 1" of the tube is left. Then add more kitty litter until tube is almost filled; about 1/8" from the top of the tube is fine. Like said above, by hand drill a nozzle that goes 2 1/2" inches into the tube. As a basic rule of thumb the size of the nozzle should be 1/4 or 1/3 the ID of the tube, so for this scenario the drill bit use should be 1/4". The size Get a 1/4"x48" wood dowel and duct tape it to the rocket so that it is straight up and down with nozzle and the top of the dowel meets the top of the rocket.
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