so i bought a 1 pound rocket tooling kit....

[missile_man]

...but how can i make/buy/obtain tubes to make these size of rockets???

I tryed to roll my own tube which took me ages and in the end turned out a catostrophic failure.

Im currently thinking of making some sort of mold in which i can make tubes out of epoxy but i'll need to think about that one.

 

Any thoughts/ideas are appreciated

 

Edit: Here is my idea, http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/3207/tubepreprk3.jpg

 

to incease the image size, move the coursor over the image and click on the bottom right icon that will eventually appear.

[al93535]

If I were you I would stick to paper tubes. I used to roll my own tubes, they are not that hard, just takes a bit of time. Then of course they need to dry for a day. Just get yourself a 3/4" dowel and start practicing! Make the wall as thick as you can though.

 

I rolled this tube: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/nozzle.jpg

 

But I now prefer to just buy tubes premade with 1/4" thick walls. Its soo mcuh easier to reach into a bag and just pull one out. With shipping I paid 1.20$ per tube. Which for me was worth it

[Silverturk]

First of all, I think a tube made of rolled paper is much stronger than your second alternative.

 

You might think rolling your own tubes is hard, but it really isnt. You just need some practice, I have probably made over 100 tubes since i started playing with this shit (April), and rolling 10 tubes takes about 20-30 min for me, depending on if im whatching TV at the same time.

 

For my 1/2 inch ID rockets, im using about 1 meter of craft paper that I am rolling on a round stick with the same diameter. I also use wood glue. Then I put them in the oven for about 5-6 hours. Then they are done, and they are very hard!

 

Enjoy!

[shadopyro]

Molding a tube from epoxy?! i can tell this is gonna be hard. Rolling tubes does take a while to make tubes to the right size. I dont really roll tubes at all with wetglue etc, i simply roll up the tubes to the right inner diametre around a dowel of the right size, then stick it together with a piece of gaffa tape, it works fine for me so long as the the tube is thick enough (in my case about 1.5-2 mm thick).

Buying tubes is not a proble either, if your in the USA then skylighter and firefox will sell stuff like tubes and shell casings. If your in the UK then try Inoxia. All these suppliers are in the suppliers section of the forum.

[missile_man]

I'll look into purchasing some from a supplier if its that cheap. Thanks for the replies!

[ltf]

I use white paste (flour+water+sugar+CuSO4) for my tubes, after rolling I just put the tubes in the oven for 10-15 minutes, sometimes they are so hard that I can stand on them..

I use realy thick kraft paper, I don't know the size, someone gave it to me...

[missile_man]

I think i'll buy 25 tubes from firefox, reasonable price. Worth the money as opposed to rolling your own i would think.

[itwasntme]

If I were you I would stick to paper tubes. I used to roll my own tubes, they are not that hard, just takes a bit of time. Then of course they need to dry for a day. Just get yourself a 3/4" dowel and start practicing! Make the wall as thick as you can though.

 

I rolled this tube: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/al93535/nozzle.jpg

 

But I now prefer to just buy tubes premade with 1/4" thick walls. Its soo mcuh easier to reach into a bag and just pull one out. With shipping I paid 1.20$ per tube. Which for me was worth it

How do you make your tubes look so good? Mine look like shit. If I can find my camera I'll take a pic. I've read many tutorials on it, how can I make them look neater?

Dude, I think you should just a buy a dowel for about $2 and some kraft or some brown grocery bags.

[missile_man]

I have bought a dowel and tryed it. I came across multiple problems such as the tube sticking to the dowl and the tube spiraling off the end even though im keeping it strait and pulling it towards me (like the tutorials say).

Id rather just spend a little for some tubes instead of taking ages on making my own and makinga mess in the process, lol

[al93535]

Try this:

 

http://www.geocities.com/picricsalt/tubes.htm

[itwasntme]

Thanks, maybe it could be that I'm using to much glue. I'm gonna try in a few minutes and report back. thanks

[Mumbles]

It's rather important not to get glue on the dowel itself. Another possibility for shorter and smaller tubes(say 1/4 to 3/8" ID) you can use gummed tape. Just roll them dry, and you can make them flat from there. Lick or glue the outside edge shut. Put it in a steamer or something and it will activate the glue and harden it. Unfortunatly, they don't make 12" gummed tape. Make sure to get the water activated stuff.

 

Another trick is to use chipboard, or manilla folder, or poster board or something to bulk it up. This allows shorter lengths, and harder tubes.

[missile_man]

On the topic of propellant, i was thinking the good old 65:35 KNO3:Sugar candy propellant with 1% iron oxide. It has prooved to be very successful in my smaller rockets and never CATOS. However im thinking of melting it down and putting it in a blender while its still maleable to powder it.

I really want to use this rather than blackpowder because i have an endless supply of KNO3 and icing sugar is easy to get. I simply dont want to go to the hassle of hunting for willow and making charcoal yadda yadda yadda, plus i dont have any sulphur so that would mean i would need to order some. I also dont have a ball mill, only my food processor which i use to powder down my KNO3 for candy propellant.

 

oh and the last time i powdered charcoal in my food processor, the dust was that fine that it was EXTREMELY difficult to wash off.

 

Has anyone used this propellant with success in 1lb rockets?

[Mumbles]

One small problem. Your tooling is designed for blackpowder. It won't work for sugar propellant. Also the blender powdering idea won't work. You'll just get a sticky mess. For blackpowder propellants, you don't always need to ball mill. Perhaps you should tell us just what kind of tooling you got. There are a lot of them. I assume it is a core burner BP.

[ActionTekJackson]

One small problem. Your tooling is designed for blackpowder. It won't work for sugar propellant. Also the blender powdering idea won't work. You'll just get a sticky mess. For blackpowder propellants, you don't always need to ball mill. Perhaps you should tell us just what kind of tooling you got. There are a lot of them. I assume it is a core burner BP.

Thats... not entirely accurate, if I just want a 1lb sugar rocket that flies with no payload I can use my black powder tooling set. I could lift a 10g payload if I wanted but for a 1lb rocket thats not even worth it. So for the best performance with ur sugar mix you're not going to want to use the tooling set. Also, missile man, adding the Iron Oxide never improved my results, not sure why. The powders you get from your food processor won't be entirely fine enough, you will need to sift out the extremely fine dust, and throw the coarse powder back in the blender, keep doing this until you get the desired amount to pass through the screen (very fine dryer screen works best for me). If you do end up using the tooling set, I would not recomend melting the mix, it'll be nasty, and very hard to get off the spindle and press rods. If everything is finely powdered *same constitution as store bought powdered sugar* it'll work just fine.

[missile_man]

I have a 1lb core blackpowder tooling set. Iv blended and powdered this mix b4 for my smaller rockets and iv also melted strait into rocket tubes. My plan is to pack this powdered candy mix into my 1lb tubes just as i would with bp, whats wrong with that?

This mix in powdered form is fast burning and with a catalyst (which iv not yet tryed) im sure it will be a suitable substitute for bp.

The only thing i can see wrong is if the candy propellant is heavier than bp propellant?? Or can you pack the same mass of bp into a tube as you can with candy?

[ActionTekJackson]

From what I've done the overall weight of a finished rocket is about the same, while BP is lighter it also packs to a greater density than Sugar Mix, so they work out about the same *at least for me*. I've only recorded this with sugar rockets without Iron Oxide. Also,

missile_man: My plan is to pack this powdered candy mix into my 1lb tubes just as i would with bp, whats wrong with that?

ActionTekJackson: If everything is finely powdered *same constitution as store bought powdered sugar* it'll work just fine.

[Boomer]

Why is epoxy/... weaker than paper/glue?

 

He could either use fast epoxy instead of white glue (to skip drying time) while rolling up paper, or use epoxy + glass fibre cloth instead of paper, which will take much more pressure for a given wall thickness.

 

Or epoxy/carbon fibre mats for the ultimate casing!

[al93535]

Its not a weaker case, In fact far from it! However, when lighting a rocket you do not generally hide like its a frag grenade, which is exactly what it will become if it does CATO with an epoxy case!

[moonshot]

Here's a trick I do to keep my my rolling dowel from getting all sticky. Just put about one and a half wraps of wax paper tightly around it and secure it with scotch tape. It keeps the glue off your dowel and makes it easy to pull it out of the tube. Also when your tube starts to spiral just stop and cut across your strip, line your tube back up and finish rolling as usual. Like everyone else I had to practice before I could roll a decent tube.

[dagabu]

I was forced to roll some tubes this weekend and BOY do I hate rolling tubes, so after much swearing I went for help. (Yes, I know that this post is REALLY old but its good to do some review every once in a while so lets do this!)

 

Start with heavy kraft paper, 70# is may favorite, you can get a roll of it from packaging places or you may have a paper goods wholesaler by you that will cut paper to size, they will have the best paper.

 

Take white glue or wood glue and add 50% clean water to a small tub of glue, mix thoroughly and paint BOTH sides of the paper brushing away from you. Use a very stiff bristle round brush, they work the best with glue.

 

Hang the paper up to dry and start on a second sheet, an so on...

 

Once the paper that you spread all the glue on is dry, apply a second coat to ONE side and start rolling the paper. What this does is it keeps the paper stiff and it will not stretch as much leaving a tube that is closer to the size you wanted and wrinkle free!

 

Try it.

[nater]

I have thought about trying that method to roll tubes, but have not got around to it yet. So far I have had good luck with tubes rolled from manilla folders and 50/50 wood glue and water, then finished with a few layers of kraft as described in the Passfire archives.

 

I have had better luck with NEP tubes bought from Hobby Horse, but that misses the point of doing it yourself.

[dagabu]

I have had better luck with NEP tubes bought from Hobby Horse, but that misses the point of doing it yourself.

 

Heeeel yes!! Much easier but Jim wont buy me couplers for some reason...

[allrocketspsl]

I can roll the easy way,so easy its almost rediculous 1# 2# 3# tubes strong as hell in minutes,letting the paper (get it free at Lowes since I work there) soak up the glue is the longest part of the process.Cost pennies!

TIP: wall paper paste noting else