BWR coupler construction video

I have uploaded a construction tutorial on the making of the coupler here is the link:

www.vimeo.com/25153173

Successful Tornado tube tests

Today saw the 1st tests of the BWR coupling in my last blog i descibed my new design on heat welding two bottle caps together, I tested four couplings on a 7L rocket i filled the rocket with 1800mls of water and pressurized the rocket to 120 psi and left it there for two minutes no signs of cracks or leaks only problem we had was a nozzle cap washer had not sealed properley and had a small leak occured i will have to give the couplings a flight test to really know how they will work but results look promising i will post a how to video on making the couplings soon.

New Tornado couplings and nosecones

As the UK today was covered by a blanket of wind and rain it gave us some time in the workshop first up i have been trying to come up with a tornado coupling that does not involve using bits like lamp rods or Tornado Tubes as your limited to 7mm-8mm opening with a lamp rod and the problems of leaks and cracking with Tornado ,so i read up how to heat weld different plastics and found how you can connect bottle caps by melting the top surface of the caps and sticking them together shortly after sticking them dunk them in cold water to cool them. When i get a bit more time i will post up a how to.

The pictures above are just after they have been stuck due to no testing i have no clue if they will withstand a 100psi or 120 psi pressure test so i took 2 of the couplings and sanded the sides and glued 1 with sikaflex with a PET wrap then used Gorilla Glue on the 2nd so once i have tested these i will update if they work.

Next up i wanted to try and find a way of making a lighter, cheaper nosecone so i tried using paper mache over a bottle i use for my nosecones the results were quite good i used a standard paper mache mix water and flour plus PVA for added strengh once they are dry they will be lightly sanded and filled to get a smooth finish then painted, for the inside i will coat the walls with apoxy adhesive to make it super strong when i get them finished i will update with some more pictures.

V3 b update and booster rocket mock up

As the weather across the UK has been very un settled over the last week it gave me time to progress with the V3 b a little more i attached the fins and realised they were a bit on the large size so i trimmed 50mm off the width and now they have a more sleek look also it took 40grams off the overall weight so thats a bonus. After a very tricky V2 and V3 flights i have done a bit of research on the German V2 and its original flight problems and i have found that they had weight problems with fins and also not enough thrust on take off which made the gyro guidance system fail. So i have now made a new nozzle and have bored it out to 12mm this should give it masssive acceleration but a short burn time maybe with foam it could be extended, another idea i have started on are having 4 small fins near the nose after seeing pics of a Hermes A1. The nosecone will be a replica of the last V3 just now with 2 small parachutes and hopefully il find some room for a on board camera.
Also i have started on a mock up of a booster rocket i have re used an older rocket as the sustainer an 8L mist jet motor and used some spare 4L rockets as boosters as nobody yet as made a rocket with just 2 boosters so i thought i would have a go im basing the design on NASA's Delta rocket im trying 2 different launcher ideas ( many thanks for sharing some ideas George) on my next update i will show the launchers and nozzles. For the nose cone and parachute deployment ive made a double side deployment system which can carry 2 parachutes im still using tomi timers for the release mechanism.

A Hermes A1 missile .

Another bad day at the office!!!!!!

After a week of bad rocket weather today saw perfect conditions light cloud cover slight breeze and sunshine we set up the new launcher and got on with the first launch the V3 was first up we filled the rocket with1500 mls of water and began filling the rocket to 130 psi the launch was successful left the pad fast and straight it reached around 60 ft then arced over and flew on its side the parachute was deployed but due to the downward speed it ripped the parachute cord and hit the ground hard most of the damage was done to the nosecone parachute bay and crumpled the top of bottle 3, V3 will have to be totally rebuilt!!!.
There wasnt much luck with launch number 2 with the rocket N there was a leak  which occured due to a cracked tornado tube on later inspection i had made the mistake of missing to put a washer on this side of the tornado tube so that was the end of our flight day.

Ideas for next time:
Make sure all tornado tubes have washers and are inspected for cracks before launching.
Make the V3 lighter and try to figure out what causes it to arc over constantly
Invest in some stronger parachute cord for the heavier rockets.
Try the V3 with 3 fins instead of the four to save some weight.
Heres some pics from the day:

V3 b developement and new rocket

Over the weekend more progress was made on the V3b the splices were pressure tested and connected together with Tornado tubes i added an extra splice to the rocket this was a 2L bottle so total capacity now is 10.8L i cant decide between a inline parachute deployment system or side deployment. I decided to keep the V2 fin design and kept with 4 fins i made a cardboard template and cut the fins out of corriflute these will be glued on over the next couple of nights.
 Also this weekend saw another rocket completed i had made a series of splices out of 1L bottles these had cured and were tested they are coupled together with Tornado tubes, total capacity of this rocket is 5L there is another 1.7L splice to be added i will use this after a successful flight we will hopefully be flying this rocket at the weekend depending on weather conditions.

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.