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John Simmons' Model Rocket Stuff

Joined
Mar 20, 2019
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Yesterday I finished some nozzles for my "Lifting Rocket".

I designed the rocket from scratch. It's supposed to be a mixed bag of parts like you went to a rocket salvage yard and bought old used parts to build a rocket.

The nozzles are meant to make the (3) canted motors look like Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters.

I made the nozzles out of balsa by gluing (8) pieces of 1/8" thick to make 3/4" balsa plywood.

Since I cut them out I now have a wood lathe. So I built a fixture to hold them out of a BT-52 cardboard body tube, covered it with wax paper, slid the nozzles on and then applied wood filler to the nozzles.

I put this in the lathe and sanded the nozzles.

This resulted in visually round, uniform, nozzles.

Then these were glued to the cluster. Worked out pretty well.

SRB Nozzle.JPG 001.JPG 003.JPG 004.JPG 010.JPG 002.JPG View attachment 29606 TLR-0 DWG REV 7 Sheet 5 of 5.jpg011.JPG
 
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Joined
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Here's a few more rockets I've built since I last visited here. They are all scratch builds of my own design and all have custom turned nose cones.

The nasty looking primer grey nose cone I made from a piece of wood, the only piece of wood, I had left over from the sawmill my family owned back in the 1970's. It had worm damage... but I was able to make it work for this project.

These rockets, since they are short and stubby, need a lot of nose weight in order to be stable during flight. The Hammerhead has a 3/4" x 3" long bolt threaded into the nose cone.

To verify stability a string is tied to the rocket at it's center of gravity. It is then swung around a circle to see if the rocket points into the wind.

Here's a video of a swing test..
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN4m6DpoGG0
 

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Joined
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Windermere, British Columbia
Very cool and something you don't see on a woodturning forum very often! Is the video of the rocket being swung around on a string a test to see if it flys?
I believe the swing test is to see if it is going to fly straight or roll around when fired. The string is at the Center of balance then you test to see if aerodynamic. Cheap wind tunnel.
 
Joined
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Portland, OR
this is the coolest thing!!! I seem to say that a lot while browsing turning projects but I really mean it this time! I just shot off my first estes this past weekend with my 6 year old daughter and she loved it. I remember being really into rocketry 30 years ago. I'll be watching.
 
Joined
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Kingman, AZ
I just got into model rockets---haven't found anyone locally to learn from or launch at the same time but having fun anyway. Designing my own is a long way off.
 
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I may have missed this somewhere but what wood are you using for the body components? Balsa? Seeing the pictures got my brain turning about turning balsa wood for rocket parts...
 
Joined
Mar 20, 2019
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Location
Buena Vista, Colorado
Very cool and something you don't see on a woodturning forum very often! Is the video of the rocket being swung around on a string a test to see if it flys?

Thanks.

The swing test is merely a way to check the stability. It's not really foolproof since the speed is relatively slow and the angle of attack is steep, but it is a means of double checking.

Since I scratch build rockets (not building a pre-proven kit) getting the center of gravity in the correct location in relation to the center of pressure often requires adding nose cone weight.
 
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I may have missed this somewhere but what wood are you using for the body components? Balsa? Seeing the pictures got my brain turning about turning balsa wood for rocket parts...

I've used Southern Yellow Pine, Ash and Oak. For most of my scratch builds extra weight is needed in the nose cone anyway.

I do make centering rings and transitions though out of balsa and basswood. Often times I'll make plywood out of balsa or basswood, then cut those on the lathe.
002.JPG 003.JPG 004.JPG 005.JPG
 
Joined
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Buena Vista, Colorado
I just got into model rockets---haven't found anyone locally to learn from or launch at the same time but having fun anyway. Designing my own is a long way off.

I'd suggest you check out https://www.rocketryforum.com/

There are a lot of great folks there... great place to learn everything from the basics all the way up to high power rocketry.
 
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I'll be looking forward to, and reading your posts on model rocketry. I was into it in high school, but that's almost a 1/2 century ago.

Me too! I got back into it a couple years ago. Now that I'm retired it's a fun and relatively low dollar hobby.

Here's a 1976 photo of my world back in the day.

Pete California Hauler and Flatbed with Honest John Rocket and Pace CB Photo Circa 1978 or 1979.jpg
 
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The latest of my fleet of scratch build designs. This one was inspired by a "Shooting Star Columbine" a wild flower that grows here in Colorado at high altitudes.
 

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Roger Wiegand

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Very cool! Must be nice to be able to fly out west with some wide open spaces-- our field is huge by New England standards but still hemmed in by trees and power lines. Not to mention unhappy neighbors. I haven't flown anything for several years, this thread is re-activating the itch! My L2 rocket is about 80% built, but I'm thinking to redesign something that will be much more "low and slow" to try to keep it out of the bog. I'm sure there's a lot new in two-stage recovery systems that I'd need ot catch up on.

I've turned internal parts for my rockets before, but I can see I need to expand my horizons. That hammerhead is one wild looking rocket!
 
Joined
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Buena Vista, Colorado
Very cool! Must be nice to be able to fly out west with some wide open spaces-- our field is huge by New England standards but still hemmed in by trees and power lines. Not to mention unhappy neighbors. I haven't flown anything for several years, this thread is re-activating the itch! My L2 rocket is about 80% built, but I'm thinking to redesign something that will be much more "low and slow" to try to keep it out of the bog. I'm sure there's a lot new in two-stage recovery systems that I'd need ot catch up on.

I've turned internal parts for my rockets before, but I can see I need to expand my horizons. That hammerhead is one wild looking rocket!

The wide open spaces is indeed nice... but all the rocks and lack of nice soft dirt and grass tends to lead to "rock rash".
 
Joined
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Well, never built rockets, but did a lot of hand launched gliders, mostly patterned off of the first double surfaced hang gliders. I don't think I have seen the canard stabilizer on the nose of a rocket before. Interesting concept. Keep on posting.... My dad started in aviation, designing rocket engines. Part of why I have always found things that fly interesting....

robo hippy
 
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In the Pyrotechnic world there are a number of clubs across the country that build various "Fireworks" items including rockets with various types of headers in sizes ranging from bottle rockets to 1,2,3,5 and 6 pound rocket motors. The guild members involved in this craft use a lot of non-sparking tools, many of these are crafted on a wood lathe. Case Formers are one of the most common wood tools used by these guild members used for making the headers that top rockets and mortars that contain the stars and special effects that go off in the air in a typical fireworks display, these case formers range in size from 1" up to 24" in diameter in various lengths with a handle which is used to roll the former onto craft paper which is rolled into a tube in the proper
thickness to withstand the lift forces of the rocket or mortar. This is a set I turned for our guild club that they use for club events, many of the guild members have "wall hangers" that are made of exotic hard woods in various designs, colors and finishes. The tools shown below are basic pine utility tools, most of the production tools are usually made from hard maple.



Case Formers.jpg
 
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Another model rocket part... it's a ring fin. Basically a cylinder that replaces fins.

This one I made from printer paper, 11 layers glued around a 3-1/4" o.d. mandrel.
 

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That's cool. I haven't seen that before. But I guess rockets have evolved in the nearly 1/2 century since I last was involved. lol

A ring fin creates significant more drag, compared to regular fins. That's why you don't see them used much.

But on this rocket, the ring is on the booster, so as it falls back to earth the holes allow air to pass through which spins the booster and creates a magnus effect which actually slows the decent of the booster.

It's rocket science :D just on a smaller scale.
 
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This next rocket is based on The Cygnus Probe Ship from the movie "The Black Hole". Another scratch build / scratch design. I turned the components from pine and some plywood.

I launched the rocket twice and it sustained some minor damage at each flight, but it was easily repaired. It flies stable while under thrust but is unstable during the coast phase. I made an extension tube which should provide nice stable flights... we'll try that version in the spring.

001.JPG001.JPG005.JPG004A Launch.jpg
 
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This one is "The Luke and Vader Dog Fight". Vader's TIE fighter is made from a USA made Wiffle ball. It's a two stage rocket... so Vader tumbles back to earth and Luke continues on. We haven't launched it as a two stage... but the X-Wing has flown successfully, as a solo flight.

These are also scratch build / scratch designed. In case you're wondering what the clear disc is at the back of the TIE fighter... That is needed during flight to create base drag. Without it the flight would be unstable.

009.JPG003.JPG001.JPGX-WING~1.JPG
 
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How about a P-40 Warhawk oddroc? Oddroc is a term used for an odd rocket. Another scratch build / scratch design.

The nose cone is made from redwood. We demolished a wooden fence that was built in the late 70's and I salvaged all the 4x4 redwood posts. It's absolutely great for making rocket parts on the wood lathe.

I haven't had the opportunity to launch this one yet.

001.JPG004.JPG005.JPG Warhawk Dwg Sht 1 of 4 Rev 00.jpg
 
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This big boy started out using a 4" shipping tube. It's meant to look like a salvage yard build using Mercury and Apollo era rocket parts. That's why it looks like it's been rode hard and put up wet.

Nose cone is made from the trunk of a pinyon pine tree we cut down on our property about 7 years ago.

We haven't launched this one yet either... I can qualify for a Level 1 high power rocketry certificate with this rocket... or fly it on a mid-power motor.

001.JPG001.JPG006.JPG001.JPG
 
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And this is my current project, the most ambitious project to date. It is a 1/132 scale Saturn V.

Kits are available that use a single motor.... but what's the fun in that? This is another scratch build / scratch design and, just like the real thing, it has 4 stages. Also just like the real thing, the 1st and 2nd stages have 5 motors each, and the 3rd and 4th stages have 1 motor each.

The nose cone and transition are made from redwood. The engine ferrules were turned from a pine closet rod.

Should be an epic flight.

Saturn V Drawing Sheet 1 of 19 Rev 05.jpg

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You can also turn the nose cone out of hard wood and use it on a spinning lathe to form an aluminum nose cone off of the wood form. You can also polish and wax the wood form and make fiberglass and resin nose cones or carbon fiber and resin nose cones off of the wood form. I need to get back into building some rockets again, lately I have been busy working on a prototype 12000amp plasma torch.
 
Joined
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You can also turn the nose cone out of hard wood and use it on a spinning lathe to form an aluminum nose cone off of the wood form. You can also polish and wax the wood form and make fiberglass and resin nose cones or carbon fiber and resin nose cones off of the wood form. I need to get back into building some rockets again, lately I have been busy working on a prototype 12000amp plasma torch.
Pretty sure this is where that old adage "The Sky Is The Limit" came from. :p
 
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