Gorilla Glue

I was in my local DIY store over the Easter break and saw a new polyurethane glue its been around in the US for a while and has been introduced over here in the UK so i was itching to try it on the spliced pairs initial tests look promising, glue seems to be stiffer then Titebond you have to still use polyfilla as a thickening agent as it is very runny, i have found once you have mixed with polyfilla let it sit for 8 to 10 mins before applying to the splices this stops the glue from expanding as much and is easier to handle i have not pressure tested any of the splices using this glue so we will have to see what the glue can handle.

Splices Splices and more splices!!!!!!!!

Over the Easter break saw the BWR team making the next lot of spliced bottles ready for new rocket projects 1st we started with a spliced pair of 3L bottles for the V3 mk3 total capacity of the 2 pairs combined is 8.8L,
 Next up was 5 spliced pairs of 1L bottles 20 bottles in total was used!!!!! 2 pairs with a total capacity 1.7L each, medium 1pair capacity1.4L, small 1 pair capacity 900mls these bottles will be used for a updated older rocket called N i decided to use 3 different sizes as a test to see how the rocket will behave i can swap these bottles around in any configuration, Last of all is a new bottle size which is hard to come by in the UK 1.5L so i stocked up on this size for future rockets and spliced 2 pairs each have a capacity of 2.2L.

V3 spliced pair
N splices
sustainer splices

New rocket new challenges

Earlier this week saw construction of a new rocket H1 this is a booster of a multi stage rocket it has a spliced pair of 2 litre bottles total capacity 6.4L a larger fin set, a Katz mk3 stager (many thanks air command) 9mm nozzzle , and a60cm main parachute. The sustainer is my daughters rocket K1 this will be used until the new sustainer is built intial tests were promising with no leaks but only one problem we had was the sustainer did not lock into the stager and at 80 psi it jump the gun so next launch we will use a locking tab. I have sanded 1mm off of the gardena connector to make sure the nozzle locks in properly i will update on the next launch day.

V3 MKII AND K1 Test flight

Finally got round to editing a short video of yesterdays launches we launched V3 MKII 1st after a rebuild from last years explosion we had no such this time as we had two crash landings post video analysis suggested that there was not enough weight in the nose which caused it to arc over  and possibly the fins acted as a wing also the launch speed didnt look great maybe larger nozzle or a spliced pair might help ideas for future mods. K1 got its maiden flights 4 launches 4 successes it showed promising signs that our splices can handle 120psi we played with nozzles to and found 9mm worked very well heres a short video of the days highlights enjoy

http://vimeo.com/22510291

Glad to be back!!!!!

After a long break from all things rockets due to work and family commitments yesterday saw the BWR team out launching some rockets the whole purpose of the day was to test the V3 mk2 rocket which last year exploded on the launcher on its maiden flight, and also we flew my daughters newest rocket K1 which is a 3.2L spliced rocket all photos and a short video will be posted up soon.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the BWR Team

Pressure tests and nozzle developments

Ive finally got round to pressure testing some re enforced bottles and a spliced bottle the results were better then i expected i started by testing the re enforced 2L bottle im not sure what pressure it actually failed at as my gauge i was using on the test goes no higher then 160 psi it filled for another 10 secs once it hit 160psi so i reckon 180+ psi so i think a safe launch pressure will be 115-120 psi.

This pic shows the destroyed bottle after the test the bottom of the bottle shows no stress as this was glued with sikaflex the neck of the bottle was not so good as this was not glued maybe glueing the neck will help out next time.

The test was put on a spliced bottle with re enforcing at the neck and bottom the bottle failed at 140psi which was more then i had hoped for i used a mixture of sikaflex 11fc and titebond glue for the splice and for the sleeve i used sikaflex again the failure point was near the sleeve and it looked as the bottle was sanded too much here are the destruction pics.

Ive been working on a new nozzle system as putting gardena nozzles in caps can be tricky and time consuming to make. The only draw back with this nozle is its weight 37 grams compared to just a nozzle and cap. But for people who dont want to much work and are not bothered about weight this will be perfect i will use this for small rockets only as larger rockets have to be on a very strict diet!!!!