athlon Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 Just finished testing my rockets made with these tools.Self rolled 7cm long tubes from Kraft paper with 8mm I.D., 4mm hole in bentonite nossle and they fly beautifully! Gotta make me a few for new years eve.Unfortunately the Oak dowel doesn't seem to hold up, so I have asked a friend to make me a set out of aluminum instead and hopefully I'll get them before the weekend.I'll see if I can get someone to film next time...
Mumbles Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 I don't know how well it'd work with a square top, but one trick that really extends the life of wooden rammers is to wrap a number of turns of strapping tape around the top of it. It really adds a lot of reinforcing power and prevents the rammer from mushrooming and eventually cracking.
dan999ification Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 yes the problem with small od wooden rammers is that you lose a lot of the tensile strength and pounding resistance and they can split or mushroom as said, a few ways you can get around this are:using some tape tightly bound round the top of the rammer,covering the top in a copper pipe end cap,tapering the top of the rammer a bit to prevent the mushroom,covering the top with coin of your choice.i hope it all goes well with your new tooling and cant wait to see some video, just made some ali tools myself dan.
athlon Posted December 13, 2011 Author Posted December 13, 2011 The top seems to hold together so far (I'm using a small nylon hammer), it's the other end that's chipping unfortunately as can be seen in one of the photos. I made the top square to have some grip if the rammer jams in the tube. These small rockets seems to be a lot of fun and what incredible speed! I put a comet on one which lit nicely when the bp had burned through.
dan999ification Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 oh i didnt see the thumbnail i cant always view them, one more tip for this and your new tooling is to incorperate a "tommy bar" which is basically a hole drilled through the top of your rammer [horizontaly] that you can insert a smaller rod through to help you pull it out if you get stuck. dan.
allrocketspsl Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 my oak tooling for my one pounder is 4 years old still great shape,nylon hammer helps
dan999ification Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 my oak tooling for my one pounder is 4 years old still great shape,nylon hammer helps yeah you need good dense wood like oak, ive used pine but it does not hold up[ it almost bounces back and deforms the bp contact end ] i doubt most wood would hold up in small id rammers before they split i now use ali/brass tools. dan.
athlon Posted December 14, 2011 Author Posted December 14, 2011 Just got the new aluminum rammer that my friend made for me. Just a bit of polishing and rounding of edges and I'll be able to test it...
allrocketspsl Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 Just got the new aluminum rammer that my friend made for me. Just a bit of polishing and rounding of edges and I'll be able to test it... no worries now mate,lets see some rockets
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