cplmac Posted May 15, 2007 Share Posted May 15, 2007 My buddy was filming and he did do a good job tracking considering he had it zoomed in for some reason. I don't have a pre-flight picture but I might be able to pull a still off the HD camera. The fuel was 70/30/1.5/3 +10% Ti perch, salicylate, red iron oxide, vaseline. The first motor was pressed on 2lb strobe tooling, the second and third were pressed on 2lb whistle tooling. The concensus was that it would come apart and chase me down like a gazelle because it was pretty flimsy construction to allow the motors to be ejected easily. Pleasant surprise for all of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hst45 Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 I think this is the best rocket I've ever made. And it's spectacular! Excellent work my friend, excellent work. I've never done a home-built multi-stage rocket, how did you connect the stages? Were they sleeved one over the other like a model rocket? Also, I'm surprised that the trajectory seemed to go down wind. In my limited experience my rockets tend to turn into a strong wind, but perhaps that's because I use longer sticks, so I assume the weathervane effect turns them. In any case, congretulations on a fantastic rocket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 Thanks, it did weather vane, it's just that the rocket flew directly overhead and totally threw off the perspective. I just butted the motors together more or less. Held the final stage on with hot glue and strapping tape, and the other two with one turn of masking tape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hst45 Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 With the thrust that you generated with the first stage I'm surprised that the second and third stage junctions didn't bend/break/fold and tear apart. Did you have a stabilization stick on each stage, or just on the third stage? I seem to remember seeing a schematic of a two-stage rocket that had a stick on each stage (was it in Sleeters book??? damned brain cells). Well, it's dark now, so I'm heading out to light off a couple of my little 4 oz. BP rockets. They pale in comparison to your stuff, but anything with a fuse is worth lighting isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 Absolutely, if it deflagrates it's usually fun. There was a single stick for all the motors to share. The thrust actually helps keep it all together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 6lb Ti whistle to 3" cylinder salute. I pressed as much delay as I could fit in this tube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwezxc12 Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 Beautiful, as always! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 4" Hummer Mine This was supposed to be a three timed 4" cylinder shell, but the shell bottom blew out on lift and turned it into a mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fight fire with fire Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 The sound of those hummers was reallly cool shame it became a mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted May 20, 2007 Share Posted May 20, 2007 8" Lampare A buddy of mine made this 8" 15lb Lamp a couple of weeks ago and we fired it off at a club shoot last weekend. It is on the tail end of a 2.5" chain and homemade 4" salute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fight fire with fire Posted May 20, 2007 Share Posted May 20, 2007 Wow that was loud, do you know how much flash was in that? Did the guy use petrol or was it acetone or some other liquid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Straight unleaded. Not sure on how much flash, but chances are it was more than a pound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Hell, a 4" lampare uses almost a pound of flash. I'm sure less will suffice, but the people I've known to make them used about 400g of flash. Just off some assumptions, I'd say in the neighborhood of 3-4lbs of flash. I came up with two different theories thinking about how I would do it.. They both land in around 3-4lbs of flash. I think he either used an 8" bottom shot can (~7-8lbs), and a 2L bottle of gas(4lbs), or a somewhat normal 8" canister with sand or clay or some reinforcing material(3-4lbs) and a gallon of gas(8 lbs). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 I know for a fact he used a gallon of gas, I'll ask him tomorrow how much flash. The Lamp weighed 15 pounds so I'm sure there was a considerable amount of flash. I'm going to try and pull a still off the HD vid of the shell itself being loaded so you can see how huge it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fight fire with fire Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Shit 4 pounds of flash thats a hell of a lotta flash powder. Yeah i'd love a picture of the lamp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemo_Tenetur Posted May 27, 2007 Share Posted May 27, 2007 cplmac: your 6 lb Ti whistle to 3" cylinder salute seems to have a particular long lasting tail. Could you tell me please how much Ti of which grain size you used for this effect? Thanks, Nemo_Tenetur Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 I used 10% Ti Sponge 18-30 mesh, which is about as much as you can use before you start to lose the sound in your whistle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maximusg Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 cplmac, you continue to impress with your rockets. Keep up the good work, you videos keep me inspired while i battle through this pyro drought known as college. Cant wait for winter break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemo_Tenetur Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Thank you very much for explanation. Is there also a "lower limit" of the useful titanium grain size? I mean particulary the risk of CATO due to the use of very fine ti. Are these grain sizes also valid for other metals? Ti isn´t easy available in my country, spherical aluminum would be much easier to get - and cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Generally for rockets I find 5% plenty for a good tail, and I've used mag, FeTi, and straight Fe with some success. Al can turn your tail white and speed up the mix so I don't mess with Al in rockets to much. Haven't tried spherical yet though. I don't think metal will cause a motor to CATO but it might cause you to lose thrust and will cause you to lose whistle sound quality if you use to much. Glad you guys are enjoying the rockets. I should have some more built after our show at the end of June, but for now it's somewhat on hold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caramanos2000 Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Sterno and CuOFirst small bottle rocket Bp FuelCuO ThermiteBp Salute with electrical ignitionSmall ShellLarge rocket #1Large Rocket #2Best Rocket Looked better in personhttp://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/Caramanos2000/RocketwithStars.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquarius Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 I have some MgAl left, and brought a small batch with me to my ramming station. Does anyone know how much I shold use (5% is my best guess) and will it speed up the mix? My tooling is custom made, and I do not need a faster powder... Oh well, I'll give it a go tonite and see what happens. As for additives, I have tried the obvious coarse charcoal.I'll give it a go with the MgAl and I'll try Al powder at a later stage, but I fear it will speed up the mix so much it goes boom...Fe is also a possibility, but I will have to coat it first.Any other metals for good tails? Ti is hard to come by where i live, but what I have seen it's beatutiful.Go Cplmac! With BP it's hard to get any different colored tail at all, and I am thinking about ramming a slower delay mix on top with a KClO4 color comp. I bet that has been done before.. I'm not too good on filiming my rockets, mainly because the fair Scandinavian nights will not do justice. And it's a hassle editing and uploading le vid's. So, I'm lazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwezxc12 Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Quick video of a 4-shot 2in mine fan. It was supposed to be a 5-shot, but the last mine didn't light...the QM leader burnt but the stars/lift didn't take. Oh well...my 12yr. old nephew and his friend still approved Stars were 3/8" Chrys6 made with a mix of airfloat and coarser charcoal +10% 5μm spherical Al. 50g stars, 15g lift per mine...they really got up there for a 2in - I'm guessing 60-70ft. Frame grab from video:http://www.apcforum.net/files/4x2inChrys6mine.jpg Video Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cplmac Posted July 9, 2007 Share Posted July 9, 2007 Well I know it's been awhile, but here is a few videos I made last night. My buddy makes some really nice Creamoras, now if only we could keep the tree from jumping in the way. I just made some oxy whistle this past week, my first batch. Here is a 2 pounder. 4lb Oxy whistle Something went terrifically wrong, coolest sounding rocket I've ever made. It's a 3 pound red strobe. The Creamora man makes a mean gas bomb too. This is just a 1 gallon hit. Here is another 3 stage 2 pound rocket, this time red strobe to report on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocket Posted July 15, 2007 Share Posted July 15, 2007 Here’s some vids of some shells, Ti aerial salutes and a rocket I let off this weekend. All went to plane, had some very nice echoes of the surrounding hills which you may here in the vids. The shells where 40mm canister shells lifted with about 5g IIRC. 40mm Shell Spider 40mm Shell Reeper Silver 40mm Shell D1 Glitter BP Rocket With 1.5g BP Header 1" .5g Ti Salute 1" 2g Ti Salute Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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