fred815 Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 Are there any videos out here on rocket pressing. Geared to a newbie who wants to see exactly what he may be geting into. Ideally it would be nice to see exactly what I need, how much of what, to make a successful specific rocket. Say a simple 1 pounder. Nothing like cato's right out of the gate to discourage anybody. ???
fred815 Posted October 28, 2012 Author Posted October 28, 2012 Cool But Did I see or didn't see ungranulated fuel. fuel type? airfloat hardwood charcoal ball milled.??? and on and on Had a friend look at this video and started firing away with questions ?? and this was a press arrangement I haven't seen yet?? As usual too much guessing ??
Col Posted October 28, 2012 Posted October 28, 2012 You will get more consistant results with a press but you`d still need to dial in the motor, there`s no magic bullet against cato`s The press in the video is a pneumatic with fairly limited capacity, a manual hydraulic press will cope a lot better. If money is no object, buy a powered version
fred815 Posted October 28, 2012 Author Posted October 28, 2012 ok Now your scaring me. If I follow a set of complete and precise instructions ( including everything , pressures, chemicals/comp's, etc.) It still could cato?? In other words a crap shoot??
val77 Posted October 28, 2012 Posted October 28, 2012 60/30/10 for the black powder rocket fueldon't use the willow charcoal use just barbecue charcoal it's work for me !
Col Posted October 28, 2012 Posted October 28, 2012 (edited) Its less of a crap shoot with a press, a lot of cato`s are due to not consolidating the fuel enough. With a press and good quality tubes you dont have to worry about that too much. With smaller motors you have to be pretty careful not to put too much pressure on them...its easily done.I use ballmilled 75/15/10 with willow charcoal but it`d be too hot for standard 1lb rocket tooling Edited October 28, 2012 by Col
fred815 Posted October 29, 2012 Author Posted October 29, 2012 thanks guys I was pretty well convinced that willow was causing the problem. A simple burn test and I can easily the difference burn speed compared to simple airfloat. I picked up on your consolidation issue. Now we are getting somewhere!! Some real theory stuff not the ole try this or try that crap. Stuff us newbies can learn with. LET me see Poor consolidation means more and/or eratic air spaces in fuel. More air causes more explosive pressures during the burn process!! And this is much more of a problem with hand ramming than pressing. Kinda hard to measure and or consistently control a dead ball hammer?? Right?? SOOOO get a press?? But if gettin a press is out for whatever reasons. (like maybe I don't want to or can't get that envolved) What does the newbie DO? Nept tubes good tooling long ballmilling and WHAT? How does simple meal or whatever you call it right out of the mill. Messy but consistent good consolidation?? Am I right or wrong here? Or get a life guy and don't it so complicated. It's not rocket science here OR is IT? LOL
Col Posted October 30, 2012 Posted October 30, 2012 If its standard 1/b rocket tooling i`d use 60/30/10 as Val77 recommended. Make sure they`re all fine enough to pass 100 mesh and then screen them together. Keep the increments small and give each increment 8-10 good wacks with the mallet.
nater Posted October 30, 2012 Posted October 30, 2012 Use a mallet with decent weight to it to ram a 1 pound motor. I could not get rammed rockets to fly all that well before using a 2 pound mallet. 60/30/10 ball milled BP using Alder coal is my personal preference for standard 1 pound core burners. That is a hot enough mixture, it will CATO without real good consolidation. Simple screen mixed with commercial airfloat would be a safer starting point, but your motors wont have as much thrust as they could using other methods. Simple meal out of the mill is not the betst choice either, even in the ratios commonly used for BP rockets. Meal dust itself is difficult to compress and messy to work with because it is so fluffy. Whether you screen mix or mill your fuel, dampen it with water, form it into a ball and granulate it across a window screen or coarse mesh kitchen colander. Once dry, it will compress nicely and be much more pleasant to work with.
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