can old motors be salvaged?

Hi,

I have a few F40's left over from last year that I took them out of the pack to do some sub assembly expecting to fly them within a week or two, but then I crashed my rocket. Now the propellant has a 'skin' that doesnt burn. If I cut it away the underlaying propellant is ok, but you have to cut a fair bit off. So...can I do anything with these motors? Are they now totally dead or what?

Cheers.

Reply to
Impakt
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If you fly larger motors with a large core, you can cut slivers from them to attach to igniters to ensure sucess when lit.

Reply to
Charles

Sand 120-240 the ends and redrill the cores.

Drill by hand is fine.

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

Jerry, the F40 is a C-slot motor, not a core. You should have said to sand the slot. The ends don't matter, only the point where the ignitor is need be "clean".

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Reply to
Bob Kaplow

Now they know what grade of sandpaper to use. Don't they now have sandpaper "tongue depressors"?

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

Thanks for the replies.

You said the ends dont matter...but the ends dont burn burn very well at all...wont that cause problems? I tried cutting the dead stuff from the slot where the ignitor will go but there is a lot of material to remove. I will try and pack it with good propellant from an old 24mm motor...fingers crossed - I just boought my pml amraam 2, would hate to see it die on the 3rd flight!

Thanks guys.

Reply to
Impakt

No. Do not "add a bunch of propellant". Sand the gunk off the core with sandpaper and ignite with a quickburst or Magnelite or Igniterman.

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

Ok, I'll give that a shot then. But I am limited to copperheads because australia is not the place to live if you are into rockets.

Thanks again...reloads have become very hard to find over here and I dont want to waste any of them.

Reply to
Impakt

LOL! Yes, and they're great for hobby use. They're black and about an

1/8" thick. You can get them from the drugstore (women's nailcare section) or from a 99cent store. Just like sandpaper, they come in various grades of grit. Some are coarse on one side and fine on the other side. 
Reply to
raydunakin

Oh! haha, you mean the nail files that are like an icecream stick with sandpaper stuff on them. I was wondering what a "tongue depressors" was supposed to be :-P

Yes, sounds like the perfect tool.

Reply to
Impakt

Over here they're called 'emery sticks' or 'emery boards'.

I have a box of 'tongue depressors' for mixing epoxy, they work well for that. Beats me quite what their intended use is, my guess is something to do with oral/dental inspections but they're not in sterile packaging. Either way, they're cheap and great for mixing epoxy with :)

Reply to
Niall Oswald

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