Sugar Rockets

Ever since I was a kid i've been infatuated with anything that flies, this includes rockets! I used to get the store models, build them and have to go buy engines and everything else. I recently have been looking for a cheaper/diy method, and stumbled upon James Yawns rocket page!!

http://www.jamesyawn.net/

I was overwhelmed at the amount of info on how to do virtually everything rocket yourself, from bodys, nose cones, ignitors, propellant, nozzles,, everything!!! and it was moderately cheaper than store brand, although no where near as good of quality! lol

Anyways 2 years ago I decided to try this diy rocketry for myself, although I made a goal to get done by thanksgiving, it failed! I blame that failure on lack of access to materials! I couldnt find any bentonite clay, or substitute, I also couldnt find any potassium nitrate, or substitute! Only this last week was I able to bring together 2 years of reserarch into finding materials, then I finally started to actually make and complete a rocket totally from scratch (minus testing, thats what the next post is!!!)
And make sure to watch the video at the bottom!

the group making rockets!

So some of my friends and I get together to try to launch a rocket!!

Drew trying out a nose cone

My rocket body with nose cone!

the work table

Testing if the nose cone ejects properly!

For just about everything, we used old (recycled) posterboard from flyers for my high school picnic!  They are 11 by 18inch, perfect size for engines and tubes cut long way!!  We used dowels and spray stick for the bodies, the engines we used a smaller dowel and dilluted wood glue.  For the fins some of us used balsa wood left over from my model airplane, while others just used more posterboard stacked to make it sturdier.  the fins were epoxied on to the bodies.

rockets are starting to come together

so far the rockets are coming together

we are gluing the fins on here and finishing the body.  we thought
about painting them but didnt have any time

we made the parachutes out of plastic bag and string!  we cut the bag
into circles and tied 4 strings to them

After we finished the parachutes, we tested them out outside on our deck by dropping them off and seeing if they break!  You can see this in the video below!

Its propellant time!

And now the fun stuff,, making the propellant!!

we all stare at the ingredients wondering how to make it

starting to form

our ingredients.....

The Stump remover is pure KNO3 and although its granular, it is pure enough to make fairly high quality propellant and since it dissolves in water, it doesnt matter what "form" its in The scale is nice, Although someone spilled corn syrup all over it so i have to get a new one, the sugar was $1!!

Dinner break

stiring and waiting for the propellant.

Note that we had to use the saucepan because the skillet was not meant for watery use, it had drainage channels and thus we had to come up with a "heat transfer device"  it was very inefficient, the batch took almost 2 hours!!  and we used the regular amount of ingredients shown on Jimmys skillet method page!!!

relax...

Here I am stirring it anxiously

While we waited, we finished our rockets, now were just waiting for the
propellant to be done so we can fill the engines and launch

Chris' rocket, nice fins on top!

the engines done, epoxy seals them

Now that the propellant is finally done, we stuffed our engine tubes and epoxied the ends.
We did not stuff our grains into molds, but stuffed the engines strait from the pan, we were running out of daylight!  When i was about to stuff the fuze in, i realized i had yet to drill the nozzle holes, I also forgot to drill holes in the propellant so i did it all in one fell swoop!!  I drilled straight through the nozzle

and into the propellant, i didnt really gauge how far into the propellant i went, just far as long as the drill bit was, all in all I think it will work out

the nozzle

By the way, we had to drill though ALL the engines!
After inserting the fuze all the way in, we used foil tape to seal it
I present to you the completed engine!

                   

.....inserted into the completed rocket body

.....to present the finished rocket 

quite a mess in the background!  But our rockets
are done!  and just in time, the sun had just set!  Time to
Launch!

Checking for broken stuff

 

Doug's 2 rockets

All of the guys with their rockets ready to launch!

Video of the parachute test, propellant test, and LAUNCHES!!!!

After 8 hours of work, about $10 of material, and a trip to Lowe's hardware, we finally launched rockets out of 8 launches, only 2 were successful, both Doug's!  In the video, you can hear his rockets 

going in the air!  They only went about 10 feet, and the second time it seemed to explode.  Upon further investigation, it seems as if the motor retention failed, and the rocket motor blasted 

through the body of the rocket, pushing the parachute and nose cone out.  you can see the parachute on the ground in the video!  Everyone else's rocket simply sat on the ground and made smoke!!!!  I cant really think as to why they didn't work, although i have an idea as to why,,,,  remember when i had to drill the nozzle, well i also drilled the propellant too,, not knowing how far in i had to go, i just let the whole bit go, this may have been too short of a grain core, thus burning through too fast and only end-burning the rest of the way, not producing anywhere near enough thrust.

As to the fun we had,,, well there was no shortage of that!