What is the Crazy-est thing you have launched?

One time some friends of mine took an Estes 'A' motor and glued some fins to the side, a piece of soda straw for a guide and an Elmer's Glue cap on top for a nose cone.

When I 1st saw it I didn't say "That thing ain't safe...", oh no- of course all I could say was "Oooooooh..."

So I set up my launcher....

It took off and promptly turned horizontal about twenty feet in the air, then cut back and forth all over our heads like a mad bumble bee.

Finally it flew across the local road and into the weeds never to be found again.

Of course it was stupid, but we experimented and survived.

TBerk

Reply to
TBerk
Loading thread data ...

On 6 Jun 2006 12:04:54 -0700, "TBerk" did carve unto the very living rock upon which we now stand:

While I personally have only launched "safe" kits, I have been present when a 7-Up bottle was launched.

Motor (don't recall which type, but probably a B6-4 or C6-5) inserted into the mouth, straw taped to the side and launch!

Max altitude: Probably 5ft.

Then all over the ground. Partially melted the bottle when the ejection charge went off. No fire (fortunately).

The closest I got to flying "dangerously" has been the launch of my Interceptor II. Built the kit, painted and decaled and then realized I left off the launch lug! Didn't realize it until I was at the alunch field and prepping it. Ended up using a two more launch rods to make a crude guide for one of the fins. I was hesitant to launch like that (and actually expected to eb chased around by the thing) but launched it anyway. THe guides worked and I got a nice flight out of it. Since it was already painted/decaled, I thought that I would just make this one a display only rocket and get another one. That never happened though. I did launch it a couple of more times the same way with similar (successful) results.

Steve Premier Personalization Personalized photo mugs, mousepads and more!

formatting link

Reply to
Steve Ruud

Ummm...think bigger. Ky has the market cornered on the Crazy-est with Our Stinkin' Rocket.

formatting link

-Booms

Reply to
Booms

When I was a very dumb kid...

M-80, taped to the top of a C6-5, fuse running down the side into a hole drilled just above the ejection charge (which was removed along with the clay retaining cap). Paper nose cone for drag reduction, stabilizing stick instead of fins. Made a VERY impressive boom even from ~1500 ft.

Reply to
Malcolm Reynolds

You just needed more nose weight.

Reply to
Bob Kaplow

I took a 60cc syringe and glued cut up CD's on it as a fin, it didnt fly too well cause it fell apart and stuff then hits the ground. I entered it into a DESCON contest back in the day, called "gone in 60 cc"

Reply to
tai fu

Strange. I've had one of the plastic cases form a 60cc syringe lying around to make a rocket out of when I get "a round tuit".

For plastics like that, I recommend hot melt glue as the adhesive of choice.

OMG, I've just started another glue thread!

Reply to
Bob Kaplow

I once before I knew what I was doing, I launched a Klingon Bird of Pray it went up 20 feet and it started to do loops, landed on her back and shot her motor out 20 feet at my mom.

Reply to
NASA

For me it would have to be the flights of the "Dudley Do-Right" foam cup rocket at NARAM 47 :)

This beast used over 130 cups and stood about 18.5 feet tall! It flew on a cluster of 4 D12-3 motors and flew 5 times at NARAM over the course of the week. It was a blast to fly and a hoot to see in the air!

You can see one pix here:

formatting link
My NARAM 47 photo album can be found here:
formatting link
As a kid, my wildest adventure was a 2 motor cluster rocket pack on the back of my G.I. Joe... Well, at least it taught me about stability... or, rather, IN-stability... LOL

jim

Reply to
jflis

I think I did use hot melt glue but you know CD's arent the easiest thing to glue, and I think syringes are made of PVC and therefore wont stick to epoxy. Maybe try chemicals that can dissolve both plastics and melt them together?

Reply to
tai fu

speaking of a weird rocket, I think I saw on the HPR magazine about some LDRS where this guy built a guitar looking rocket, called it purple haze or something had a picture of Hendrix on it, and I think it consisted of a bunch of motor that shot out the side at an angle. It was a while ago I might have confused it with something else. Perhaps has anyone ever gotten a REAL guitar to fly? Maybe try it on a cheap affinity squirer strat by drilling a hole and sticking a I or something in it...

Reply to
tai fu

Around 1967 or '68, I and a buddy down the street took an Estes BNC-60 drilled a hole up the middle of it, glued 2 fins on it, and a launch lug and glued a C6-5 in the hole drilled up the center (middle) of it. When we launched it, it remained stable until it reached the end of the launch rod. At that point, it began doing endos at an unbelievable rate. It probably spun end over end about a couple thousand times until it reached apogee of about, oh, 20 feet or so, and then landed about 10 feet from the launch pad. The ejection charge blew the engine over into my neighbor's front yard, and blew the BNC-60 apart into several pieces. As the "vehicle" spun end over end after it cleared the end of the launch rod, it made the most amazing zipper like sound as it spun out of control, sort of like a really loud ZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. I really wish I had a recording of that, because I don't think I want to repeat the experiment, at least not without being in a reinforced structure. As you said, it was stupid, but we experimented, and survived.

charlie turner

Reply to
charlie

In 76 three of my friends and I made a homemade motor. We cast a plaster of paris nozzle into a 2.5 inch dia x 36 inch long cardboard tube (spiral wound) a friend got from his mom's fabric bolt. We cast the nozzle around some nails we stuck through the tube to act as shear pins. There were no seals or orings. We took a pound of black powder a guy snuck from his dad's stash. We then added a little water to it and mixed it until it had the consistency of thick clay. After the nozzle dried we packed the black powder clay into the cardboard tube and stuck it between the door frame in his bedroom with a dowel and a jack to press the black powder into a hard cake inside the tube. We let it dry for 3 weeks. We then glued a nose cone on the top of the tube and fins on the bottom. We went out into the middle of nowhere to launch it on some farmer's freshly plowed land (did not get permision). We took about 100 ft of wire for the ignition system and connected it to another friends car battery. We all hid behind the car just in case something bad happened. 3-2-1 lift off. We watched as a ball of flame sailed into the sky and just disapeared. It was magnificant! Looked like the space shuttle flame going up. We waited for a moment and nothing came down. We then looked and there sat our rocket with fins crumpled and nose gone sitting right where we left it to launch. The nozzle had been blown into the dirt about 6 inches. The black powder cake had been shot up through the tube and into the air. That is what we were watching going up and the reason we saw nothing come down.

Now that I know a bit more about making motors I just laugh at what we did as 16 & 17 year olds and thank God none of us were killed.

KT

Reply to
kimballt

crazyest thing.........easy, I launched a chunck of poppycock in a supernova payloader Once recovered I measured it with calipers to calculate the expansion ratio.but I couldn't get a repetitve reading.

Reply to
spiff

Love it, scared of you, but love the story. ;])

And Charlie?, 'hear, hear' my good man.

TBerk

Reply to
TBerk

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.