WSM Posted August 4, 2011 Posted August 4, 2011 Rumor has it, Steve will be at PGI and has an SBR tool set he'll be using. You may be able to convince him to make one (an SBR) to show and shoot if you are there. His set is old and shop worn; not new and shiney like the one's he sells. See if you can get him to extend the APC offer if you see him there ! WSM
californiapyro Posted August 6, 2011 Posted August 6, 2011 just did a 1/4 inch bp coreburner nozzleless today, was able to lift 15 grams to 40 feet. going to keep working on the design
Mumbles Posted August 6, 2011 Posted August 6, 2011 Hate to burst your bubble, but a real rocket needs to go several times higher than that.
californiapyro Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 I understand, that's why it's a work in progress. Seeing as I can probably only lift a 1 inch shell with these motors, what would you reccomend as an optimum height?
dagabu Posted August 15, 2011 Posted August 15, 2011 Rumor has it, Steve will be at PGI and has an SBR tool set he'll be using. You may be able to convince him to make one (an SBR) to show and shoot if you are there. His set is old and shop worn; not new and shiney like the one's he sells. See if you can get him to extend the APC offer if you see him there ! WSM It was good to meet you and Steve at PGI. Although you two are about as polar opposites as they come, it was funny to see you both laugh at your own jokes. -dag
WSM Posted August 17, 2011 Posted August 17, 2011 It was good to meet you and Steve at PGI. Although you two are about as polar opposites as they come, it was funny to see you both laugh at your own jokes. -dag True, us quirky guys need to stick together (Oh! There I go again ). It was good to see you there, too! Fun times. WSM
WSM Posted August 17, 2011 Posted August 17, 2011 (edited) I understand, that's why it's a work in progress. Seeing as I can probably only lift a 1 inch shell with these motors, what would you reccomend as an optimum height? The SBR with weak propellant goes a couple hundred feet and I've seen them reach 600' (when I saw them ; they're fast!) when using meal D. The kit is a bit pricy but when you consider the machining time involved in making them, it's not so bad; especially since you can also use them for whistle rockets, strobe rockets, metal fueled rockets, color driver rockets and even hybrid rockets. Steve LaDuke's design is amazing, even in such a small size. In fact, one of his (Steve Majdali's) first customer's lifted a 2" festival ball to a hundred feet using 7Fa powder, then bought a thousand more tubes. Pretty amazing. WSM Edited August 17, 2011 by WSM
dagabu Posted August 17, 2011 Posted August 17, 2011 Naw, I have seen the prices for the NEPT tubes direct from the factory, $100.00 is a steal! I have a 3" UT tooling set coming next week that will take about 8# of BP to make one rocket! I just want to see the Safety guys eyes when I bring a 2x4" to the rocket line with a 16" shell mounted on top! -dag
Givat Posted August 19, 2011 Posted August 19, 2011 I didn't want to open a new thread,I launched today 2 0.5 inch BP core rockets, one with 35 gram shell and one with 5 gram flash on it.In both you can see a lot of power lost in because the rocket didn't launched straight.http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h479/questl/Rockets/P1010720.jpghttp://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h479/questl/Rockets/P1010721.jpg http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h479/questl/Rockets/th_05inchBProcket15inchballshellpayload.jpg http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h479/questl/Rockets/th_05inchBProcket5gramMgAlflash.jpg Do I need to use bigger sticks to make them launch straight? maybe some other idea?
dagabu Posted August 19, 2011 Posted August 19, 2011 It looks like you don't have enough delay to get the height you may want. As far as the sticks go, you need rigid and straight sticks to keep from spiraling. Reeds are light and work well but they do spiral a lot. -dag
dagabu Posted August 19, 2011 Posted August 19, 2011 what sticks do you use? 1/4" cedar, cut square, x 6 the motor length. -dag
nater Posted August 19, 2011 Posted August 19, 2011 I have been using 1/4 square dowels cut in half at 18 inches. A regional big box store had them marked for 10 cents each, I bought all they had. Now they're marked about 75 cents each.
Givat Posted August 19, 2011 Posted August 19, 2011 1/4" cedar, cut square, x 6 the motor length. -dag How much does it weight? sound heavy for a small 0.5" rocket.
FrankRizzo Posted August 19, 2011 Posted August 19, 2011 Naw, I have seen the prices for the NEPT tubes direct from the factory, $100.00 is a steal! I have a 3" UT tooling set coming next week that will take about 8# of BP to make one rocket! I just want to see the Safety guys eyes when I bring a 2x4" to the rocket line with a 16" shell mounted on top! -dag Baby steps, dag. A few of us were on the rocket line when every one of your motors/shells CATO'd.
WonderBoy Posted August 20, 2011 Posted August 20, 2011 What kind of spindle are you using G? My 1/2" motor tubes are about 5" long for my standard BP cored tooling, yours only look to be about 3" long. I too use a stick approximately the same size as Dag, just depends on the header. Also, when attaching sticks I used to just use 2 turns of masking tape, but a trick I learned from an Old Snort at PGI this year is to put a fillet of hotmelt along the edge of the stick where it is touching the motor tube in addition to the masking tape. Prior to using this method I was having issues with my sticks getting bumped out of line while they were in the ready box. In this photo of another 1/2" motor, if you look closely, you can see the small fillet of hotmelt in between the masking tape holding the sticks to the motor. Ps. What was happening with those motors Dag? I sort of remember you giving a reason, but I can't remember now.
Givat Posted August 20, 2011 Posted August 20, 2011 I built my tools according to passfire tutorial for 1/2" rocket.It is 36 m"m long, and 4 m"m wide. it is not a cone shaped core rocket.http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h479/questl/Rockets/05inch_rocket_tools.jpg and you are right, I make my rockets only 3" long. (0.5" nozzle, 1.5" core, 0.25" more BP, 0.5" end plug)I don't understand why people make this rockets with 2" more fuel, I don't thinks it helps a lot in thrust like in endburner.
dagabu Posted August 20, 2011 Posted August 20, 2011 Baby steps, dag. A few of us were on the rocket line when every one of your motors/shells CATO'd. Only telling half the story... I cleaned out 63 unused motors from my magazine and matched them up with shells made from commercial stars. I got a super duper deal on a dozen 6" long 3/4" NEPT tubes that I couldn't pass up so I decided to pretty much eliminate the delay and rely on the fuel burning out radially to give me a half second delay before the shell popped. I drilled through the clay bulkhead and must have gone to far on ALL 12! Every time I lit one, It CATO'd on the pad and showered the bystanders with stars. Now, if one were to here this out of context, one would think that lighting these again and again was in bad taste and dangerous but I SWEAR that there were several in the crowd including a wave over by the safety guys to come closer and light the rest! It was fun and harmless, the headings would have looked great from 200' but we got what we got. There were LOTS of CATOs in the mass rocket launch, lots of guys (and gals) throw the over the red line rockets that they know will CATO into the launch for anonymity sake, I know that is where I got rid of several that I had myself. -dag 1
dagabu Posted August 20, 2011 Posted August 20, 2011 Ps. What was happening with those motors Dag? I sort of remember you giving a reason, but I can't remember now. Which ones? I haven't made any 3" ones yet, that is months away I would think. -dag
WSM Posted August 20, 2011 Posted August 20, 2011 Which ones? I haven't made any 3" ones yet, that is months away I would think.-dag I saw the fuse powder in an experimental 1/4" end burner work great. The core burner (SBR) CATO'd. I imagine if 80 mesh charcoal were added to the fuse powder, it would work great in the SBR's too. That fuse powder is hotter than I thought it would be. Like I said, fun times . WSM
Mumbles Posted August 21, 2011 Posted August 21, 2011 Fuse powder is only a touch less hot than meal D. It might work in the SBR tooling if made in a nozzleless manner.
WSM Posted August 21, 2011 Posted August 21, 2011 Fuse powder is only a touch less hot than meal D. It might work in the SBR tooling if made in a nozzleless manner. I suppose so. The strange thing is I've gotten meal D to work in the past, but the fuse powder just popped the casing up there in ND. That's it! SBR's don't like North Dakota !!! Naw! Maybe it was the humidity or something? Who knows...? WSM
WSM Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 So you've got a Nifty SBR set and tubes and make a few to shoot off, but wait... no sticks! No problem, you just go off to the local grocery store to get some bamboo skewers to use, but HEY, where are the skewers?!! "They're seasonal, Sir" is the reply. No Way, Man; I barbeque all year long! "Sorry, they're seasonal" is all you get back . Don't worry about it. If you have an IKEA (I think it's Swedish for "ValMart") store in your vicinity, you're covered. The last time the better half dragged me along shopping, I found one item of interest, a bamboo place mat. It cost 99 cents plus tax and is built from small diameter, round bamboo sticks about 12.5 inches long. The best part is there's roughly 120 sticks in each one ! These photos show how the mat looks in the store, then opened and also taken apart. These sticks are so much like commercial bottle rocket sticks, that all they need now is being dipped in red liquid dye for 60 seconds and then dried, and they'll look perfect . The other parts can be used for girandola struts and even the string can be used for something (if you're so inclined). WSM
dagabu Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 So you've got a Nifty SBR set and tubes and make a few to shoot off, but wait... no sticks! No problem, you just go off to the local grocery store to get some bamboo skewers to use, but HEY, where are the skewers?!! "They're seasonal, Sir" is the reply. No Way, Man; I barbeque all year long! "Sorry, they're seasonal" is all you get back . Don't worry about it. If you have an IKEA (I think it's Swedish for "ValMart") store in your vicinity, you're covered. The last time the better half dragged me along shopping, I found one item of interest, a bamboo place mat. It cost 99 cents plus tax and is built from small diameter, round bamboo sticks about 12.5 inches long. The best part is there's roughly 120 sticks in each one ! These photos show how the mat looks in the store, then opened and also taken apart. These sticks are so much like commercial bottle rocket sticks, that all they need now is being dipped in red liquid dye for 60 seconds and then dried, and they'll look perfect . The other parts can be used for girandola struts and even the string can be used for something (if you're so inclined). WSM Dang WSM, sorry to say but they have been discontinued in the USA. They still carry them in the UK and Aus and if you are inclined, the Abu Dahbi IKEA has them as well. -dag
WSM Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 Dang WSM, sorry to say but they have been discontinued in the USA. They still carry them in the UK and Aus and if you are inclined, the Abu Dahbi IKEA has them as well. -dag Whoa! I guess I better go back and buy the rest of them at the local IKEA store (the Wife will think I'm planning a BIG party with all those placemats). WSM
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