My first 2 nozzleless rockets. One BP and one whistle.

[jl88]

So I recently received a one pound motor support from Ben smith. What an excellent piece of workmanship. It has completely changed the way I will be making rockets. Fast and easy.

 

I made my first nozzleless rocket as a BP core burner on bens universal tooling. I used my mid speed willow powder and waxed tube. Took off like a bullet. Also had a small black powder charge to test when the delay would go. You can hear it pop at apogee. (Or close enough for me lol) next will be hot paulownia BP.

 

 

Next was my first whistle rocket. Using sali fuel with iron oxide. I made this fuel about three months ago and have been using it as a shell booster. I put about 10% titanium above the spindle. I feel as though this could have affected the whistle though because it didn't last very long. That or the old inferior whistle mix I hastily made. This one I put a 3" header on top just to see a bit of colour.

 

 

Basically I have 3 questions. I know further testing would probably answer my questions but I have 6 NEPT tubes left. Lol I want to make them count.

 

1) I have heard of several people who make nozzleless motors with hot bp that CATO. Does this mean that you can reach whistle power with hot BP fuels? Obviously some aren't built correctly etc.

 

2) Has anyone noted too much titanium being detrimental to the noise of a whistle rocket?

 

3) Has anyone got experience making a hot BP rocket with whistle mix above the spindle. Basically the safety and cheapness of BP with the shrill noise of whistle as the delay.

 

Thanks all

 

Jack

[mabuse00]

Nice rockets. What takeoff weight did they have?

 

 

1) I have heard of several people who make nozzleless motors with hot bp that CATO.

I think that this is nearly impossible with BP and universal type spindle. With a "normal" (-> longer) standard BP spindle it's more likely if you have extremly good fuel.

 

 

Does this mean that you can reach whistle power with hot BP fuels?

Depends on how you compare. Under most circumstances whistle will be superior.

 

 

3) Has anyone got experience making a hot BP rocket with whistle mix above the spindle. Basically the safety and cheapness of BP with the shrill noise of whistle as the delay.

Succesfully tried. I started with whistle 5mm above the spindle and the motor behave as you would expect. The rocket was nozzleless. A nozzle might kill some of the whistle.

Edited June 14, 2014 by mabuse00

[Bobosan]

Here is a 2oz using Paulownia BP and no nozzle, hand rammed. Haven't had a CATO yet, however, I have not tried any whistle.

 

 

[ddewees]

Titanium can make the whistle go away... I used 20% once in a kilo batch, and no whistle.

[jessoman]

Nice work Jack Pyro envy with the tube supports! My PVC supports work fine, but what you have is the bees knees

 

Ill go through the questions from MY experience. Everyone's experiences are different some are more common... and we all have our own weird theories, which I try not to talk about in public so I don't mislead. As some theories are really hard to truly prove in pyro.

 

Q 1. Yes I have had super hot BP nozzlesless motors CATO...It took me a while working out why, I did fix it. My technique was fine. I could write a long answer in the discoveries I made when working out why but I won't unless your interested I will PM. But yes, paulownia is great stuff. It's all I use.

 

Q 2. Yep as ddewees said, it will go away. However some fuels I have found are more tolerant as I run some whistles with high percentages of Ti in them... try coarser stuff also, I found you can get away with a bit more that way.

 

Q 3. I have not done that, I love the snort when a whistle with a nice long core takes off but as for economics, try it! I'm sure plenty of people have done it... maybe just continue the BP at least 1 or 1/2 ID above spindle.

Edited June 14, 2014 by jessoman

[ddewees]

I use whistle as the delay in my AP and IBP rockets... I like the distant howl. Although, the AP ones are often too far away to even hear it. Edited June 14, 2014 by ddewees

[jl88]

Hey all,

 

Not sure what the take off weight was, but I will be making an identical one today, probably with at least 2 x 3" ball shells as a header. I agree that CATO with universal spindle and hot BP is unlikely, but with a longer spindle... Probably. Guess I still just have my worries pressing whilstle. Lol

 

Jessoman I would love for you to send me a PM with your experience. I'm all for reading other people's accounts and taking what I can from it.

 

Thanks guys, I will try and get some more up tonight!

Edited June 15, 2014 by jl88

[jessoman]

Hey Jack,

 

Look forward to seeing tonights tests. What problems are you wanting to address? Or what are you next trying to achieve? I feel I could already write a novel one what I have learnt. It's a wonderful art!

 

Hurry up and press some whistle, just be damn safe!

On a side-fun- note. No pressing for me this week, I just gave my press a paint with nice red paint!

 

Make sure you weight everything mate, key to quality and knowledge is consistency. Write it down. You'll be supprised how much it will help. Especially I find in pyro I will focus on one thing for a few months and then I will merge it with a few other things and forget the nifty tricks I learnt along the way without writing it down.

 

Jess

Hey Jack,

 

Look forward to seeing tonights tests. What problems are you wanting to address? Or what are you next trying to achieve? I feel I could already write a novel one what I have learnt. It's a wonderful art!

 

Hurry up and press some whistle, just be damn safe! I press long spindle whistle, don't fret, just put a nice fuse on it.

On a side-fun- note. No pressing for me this week, I just gave my press a paint with nice red paint!

 

Make sure you weight everything mate, key to quality and knowledge is consistency. Write it down. You'll be supprised how much it will help. Especially I find in pyro I will focus on one thing for a few months and then I will merge it with a few other things and forget the nifty tricks I learnt along the way without writing it down.

 

Jess

[jl88]

Hey jessoman. Just wanted to know how you stopped your fast BP rockets from blowing up. Won't be posting tonight's vids. The rockets themselves flew great. One BP nozzleless was 450g and the whistle was 860g.

 

The delay was too long on both. The BP blew halfway down and the whistle hit the deck... I made the timing shorter. But obviously not short enough for the large payload. The whistle was excellent though lol

[Juiceh]

Post the fail vids! We love all rocket vids!