LarryBAR99

I've always been a huge fan of the movie, " The Right Stuff ", especially the segments about how Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 plane he named after his wife, "Glamorous Glennis".  Nerd that I am I've seen the original plane, which now hangs at the Smithsonian  (their picture below).  They even have a 3D rendering you can view to inspect all sides of this rocket/plane. I always thought it would be a cool rocket to build, and even better if it would actually fly, then I found a post on The Rocketry Forum by the user Starfire73 for an OpenRocket simulation of his flying X-1 model (also see his blog here ).  I also found a nice article describing a flying 1/20 scale model of the X-1 on RocketryReview s by Larry Brand.  The latter posting used a wider body tube and a boattail, like the V-2 or my Silver Comet, to give it a more rounded oblong look.  I decided to try modifying Starfire73's OpenRocket version to use a bigger body tube and...

Well, I finally decided to try merging my software skills with my new toy to try to recreate an out-of-production rocket, the 37 inch tall Estes Maxi Brute Honest John  (available 1975-1983; on page 31 of the Estes catalog at  https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0686/0220/0369/files/Estes_1975_Catalog.pdf ).  The nose cone is unique and no longer available, so I decided to try to take advantage of a new feature in OpenRocket version 23.09 that allows the export of parts of a rocket as an .OBJ file, suitable for 3D printing.  The OpenRocket team put together a great tutorial describing the process.   Luckily for me, someone posted a RockSim file for the Maxi Brute Honest John on RocketReviews.com in 2010, and OpenRocket supports the import of RockSim .rkt files so I thought I'd give it a try. OpenRocket displays the nose cone in two parts, a cone and a "transition" that inserts into the body tube.  Selecting each part in the OpenRocket design then choosing F...

Santa was very good to me this year!  I'd given my family a bunch of suggestions to pass on to "Santa" and I ended up getting several of the bigger items.  Among the rocket themed gifts I got this year were a Featherweight GPS Tracker and an Anycubic Kobra Max 3D printer .  I set up the printer in my office: It's big, 17.7" high x 15.7" wide x 15.7" deep, which will allow me to print tall rocket parts (nose cones, etc.).  It took a couple hours to set up, partly because I put the tower on backwards.  After printing the owl test print, I've built a bunch of things so far: - Owl (test print) - Grateful Dead cookie cutter bear - "Whirl & Hurl" spinner flying rocket - Tube cutting guides - Higher resolution Gemini capsule  than the one I got from the library - Bomb rocket parts - Featherweight GPS holder - Dummy Mercury capsule (so the fragile escape tower doesn't break) -  Bulbasaur Planter   Owl test print finishing 12/30 (2 hours...

No, I don't have a 3D printer but my local library has two Prusa 3D printers and allows patrons to upload files for remote printing .  I'd tried printing a camera holder a year ago but didn't use that for anything except to understand the process.  I found plans as an STL for a Gemini capsule on JimZ's site  and uploaded the file, Gemini_NC.stl, to my library.  A few days later I got an email that the part was ready to pickup and that I owed $2.77  for the printing! I noticed the stuff around the tip of the capsule was loose and would turn and came off, so started gently scraping off the excess and stuff inside the hollow bottom (at top of the paper towel below).  It actually looks great and will fit inside a BT-50 body tube after a little sanding.  The cleaned capsule weighs 5/8 oz (19 gms) without the cap I still need to print. I just uploaded the base cap that glues into the capsule and allows me to attach the shock cord and parachute (it was ready ...

My Super Big Bertha  was damaged during its first launch on 11/17/23 .  Because of the size of the body tube (2.6" diameter) I was unsure about how I could cut it evenly, since my tube cutting guides don't go that big.  Luckily, I came across a posting on the Facebook Estes group by Orestes showing he used an adjustable tube clamp as a cutting guide to repair his Super Big Bertha.   I bought a clamp at my local hardware store (2 ~ 3" diameter) for $4 and it fits!   I unhooked the swivel holding the elastic shock cord to the Kevlar so I could remove the nose cone and pushed the Kevlar down into the body tube so it was below where I was going to cut.  I put a new blade in my Exacto knife so I'll get a clean cut.  Okay, so it didn't cut exactly straight so I'll need to sand and probably use some filler to smooth the joint but at least I was able to make a pretty clean cut. The teeth from from the clamp left a few knicks on the body below the cut so I'll ...

I decided to try a one day build of my Loadstar II two-stage rocket in time to launch it at our last club launch of the year tomorrow.  In order to get it ready, I needed to rearrange a few steps in the instructions and do things in parallel.   I opened the kit around 10 am: I sanded and cut the fins, then assembled the two engine mounts and glued them into the booster and sustainer body tubes, coated the fins with wood sealer sanded after letting the fins dry for half an hour then used my Estes fin alignment guide to attach the three fins at once to the booster. After letting them dry an hour, I repeated the process with the upper body (sustainer) tube: After the upper stage fins dried, I attached the launch lugs (with balsa strips so the launch lugs stand off to clear the wider nose cone) and let that dry another hour.  I'll spray paint the nose cone assembly (on right, above) using black paint without separating it; I'll assemble it in the morning.  I then attache...