Surviving a construction project and building my Doorknob

It's been awhile since I've built or launched anything.  We started a home remodeling project that disrupted my ability to build anything.  The basement office remodeling project is finished though there are still a lot of boxes to unpack.  I finally cleared some space this weekend and have started a new rocket. First, a couple of words about some new future members of my fleet.

First, I decided that the Estes Doorknob sounded like a pretty cool 3" diameter rocket.  It had been out of stock since last fall but I wrote Estes and they told me when they were expected a small order so I ordered one at the end of January using a discount code that came with the 2023 catalog.  It's a cool rocket that only takes 29mm engines and comes with an 18" nylon parachute and can go 1100 feet on an F15-6 engine.  I'll definitely want to use my new JLCR to prevent this rocket from drifting away!  I decided to focus (mostly) on building Estes Pro Series II rockets this year since the 2023 Estes catalog showed they're adding three new PSII rockets this year (a total of six are available now including the newest member, So Long; 6/11/23 update: Estes brought back a "vintage" PSII rocket, the Ventris, from 2012).

In April Estes had a 65th anniversary sale with an amazing sale on the Estes Der Big Red Max, another 3" diameter Pro Series II rocket.  I've been stalking the DBRM for months after missing a sale on Amazon.  Surprisingly, they cut the price ($54.99) in half and then cut it in more than half again, allowing me to get two Der Big Red Max's for $25.50! I also got an Estes Baby Bertha to add to my Bertha collection and an Estes Red Nova which qualified me for free shipping (purchasing $50 at the time; recently upgraded to $100).  I knew the sale was starting at midnight Mountain time because of discussions on The Rocketry Forum so I stayed up late and placed my order. When I got up the next morning the Der Big Red Max was temporarily "out of stock" and later reposted at $27.49 each.  I'm happy to take advantage of someone's programming error and grab one DBRM to build and one to modify.

Today (June 4th) I had a couple of hours to start a new project so I unpacked the Doorknob and started building.  It's a great kit, with a red 18" parachute made of ripstop Nylon instead of plastic, through-the-wall fins made of 1/8" thick hard balsa and thicker than usual card stock centering rings.  I'd considered buying plywood centering rings and fins for durability but think these should last.  Surprisingly, the nose cone, listed as part 072695 on the Estes plans, is the same size and shape as the one I bought 20 years ago when I was planning on building a Patriot Pro (soon to be a Leviathan scratch clone).  I assembled the engine mount, cut and sanded the fins, 

coated them with diluted Elmers Wood Filler then sanded them again.

After so many months without breathing in sawdust and getting wood filler on my hands it's good to be building again!  Hopefully I can make progress on this rocket without waiting another six months. Stay tuned! 

By the way, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal recently about "Model rockets that carried us to the stars".  You can read the archived version here:

The Model Rockets That Carried Us to the Stars - WSJ
archived 27 May 2023 05:24:47 UTC

I haven't been able to find any pictures of my late brother and I when we launched rockets in Phoenix during the 1960s but I'd bet I looked as nerdy as the kids in that article!

June 15th update:

I went ahead and glued the engine mount in place (with fins to hold it in place) but then ran into trouble getting the fins to go fully into the slot.  I tried sanding the sides of the fin tabs and sanded the front of one tab to shorten it slightly.  Today I glued the fins in place using my Estes fin alignment tool

After the fins dried, I applied glue fillets, glued on the launch lugs and now it's ready for priming and painting.  I hope to have this ready to launch this weekend!

June 16th update:

Primed, sanded and painted today.   The body and fins are Rust-Oleum Sunburst Yellow gloss enamel and the nose cone is Rust-Oleum Sail Blue gloss enamel.  I'm going for the colors of the Ukrainian flag, and plan on adding the optional blue decals Estes mailed me (if I can find them!).

Tomorrow after it's dried I'll add the recommended nose cone clay (extra weight in front for stability), attach the shock cord, parachute and nose cone and glue on the engine mount then it's ready to launch (+/- Estes decals).  OpenRocket predicts this will fly 809 feet on a 29mm E16-4 and 1236 feet on a 29mm F15-6.  I will definitely need to use the JollyLogic Chute Release with this one!

The fully assembled finished weight was 10.25 oz.  It's ready for a Father's Day launch:

==> Launch report