58 replies to this topic

[dr thrust]

ive got to say,.. the heading on the whistle rocket in the pic looks beautifully made, something i found hard to replicate, was old school tapering conical shaped headers as found on early "standard rockets" so i knocked up this

and with a bit of paste and a few turns of paper you can make,.. well rockets that look like rockets

Edited by chris m, 21 May 2010 - 10:19 PM.

[dr thrust]

found this vid looks like the same maker as the pic i posted, starts at 7.00

[Vic]

I think the best looking rockets are the ones that have the nose cone headers,
if I remember rightly Chris you made some for last years shoot?

[dr thrust]

er?,i made so many over the years cant remember now! where they about 2"cylindrical headers with a cone on top,
if so they where old mastic tubes from work (card) with the cone again formed out of multi layer of kraft on the former, ive made cone's by hand out of a circle of paper, there ok but these are a perfect fit.
i could do with desiging a former for these where the header meets the motor

[BrightStar]

We clearly have some dedicated machinists in our midst - that former should last a lifetime

found this vid looks like the same maker as the pic i posted, starts at 7.00

The rockets are quite amazing in performance too later in the videos. The builder mentions 57/34/9 80-mesh screened as his core-burner mix which seems a bit slow given the size of the headers. I'm guessing that it's quite a reactive charcoal.

Great to see such attention to detail and skill coming together so well.

[seymour]

We clearly have some dedicated machinists in our midst - that former should last a lifetime



The rockets are quite amazing in performance too later in the videos. The builder mentions 57/34/9 80-mesh screened as his core-burner mix which seems a bit slow given the size of the headers. I'm guessing that it's quite a reactive charcoal.

Great to see such attention to detail and skill coming together so well.

That is what I find most amazing, the headers are only 2.5" canisters on most of them. The effect that he fits in to such a small volume...

[Potassium chlorate]

It's really a piece of art. The spirals are simply marvellous.

[rocketpro]

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Edited by rocketpro, 06 August 2010 - 09:19 AM.

[Potassium chlorate]

What i found a bit puzzling is that he says on his DVD that his rocket mix looks like salt and pepper, that seems to suggest that his kno3 isn`t all that fine, and if so then his charcoal must be pretty hot.

The quality of BP depends more than anything on the quality of the charcoal. I use Swedish BBQ charcoal made of birch, alder and willow, and it works terrific.

Anyone using pure alder or willow or poplar would get an even more superior BP.

[dr thrust]

agreed, willow is kick @ss in the nozzle less motors i use, but im not sure if that's what hes using in his motors, as hes fusing them with quick match to get them to launch straight away, any fast propellant would cato( or close to it) under these conditions

[Potassium chlorate]

Well, I'm a newbie at rockets. I'm familiar with the importance of the charcoal from my lifting powder for shells.

Though I'm going to experiment with rockets on rainy days during spring and summer or in the autumn.

[Vic]

For all my core burners I use apple wood not really out of choice it just happened I had the chance of a large trunk
so ideal for a constant supply of charcoal of the same quality and I use 58/33/9 for 1lb rockets.

[Mumbles]

It's the charcoal that isn't very fine. He uses 80 mesh charcoal only. No airfloat. I do believe it's standard run of them mill hardwood charcoal available all over. It's known to not be all that fast. His rockets don't take off all that fast. I believe the spindle is wider than normal, so that may be part of it.

[dr thrust]

found this vid on timed reports, timed report casings and the casings prepared with primed chinese time fuse ready to go

[rocketpro]

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Edited by rocketpro, 06 August 2010 - 09:20 AM.