Projects Update

Over the past months I've been busy with school and other non-water rocket projects, so I haven't had too much time to write in this blog. So here is a update of what we've been up to other than the normal water rocket flight days.

      FIBERGLASS ROCKET

 Since the last explosion of the fiberglass reinforced rocket, dad and I have been pondering weather or not to rebuild it. We've decided not to rebuild it, but to make a all fiberglass rocket. We chose that so we could directly control it's property's and hopefully make it able to withstand at least 400psi. Many of the building Technics are browwed from the model rocketry world and AircommandWaterrocket's Shadow build log. We are planning to use a 15mm brass nozzle. Overall the rocket will have a Capacity of about 4 liters.

Yesterday we made a small test roll of fiberglass to see how easy it would slide off of the 60mm PVC pipe and Glad freezer paper. Thankfully it slid off easily. We decided to make 2 test end caps to pressure test the tube. We glued the 2 endcaps to a 4inch long pvc pipe and glued the end caps to the fiberglass tube with PL Premium. We let it cure for 4 days before we pressure tested it yesterday. Thankfully it held up to 570PSI before bursting. It was loud even though it was in a old scuba cylinder and had pellows on top of it. That's the good thing about living in the country so we don't have neighbors complain! 

We went ahead and made 3X4 foot tubes today and let them cute for a few hours. We then coupled them together using PL premium. We then added another layer of Fiberglass bringing it to a total of 6 layers. The coupler is made out of 4 inch long PVC pipe. I found a 15mm nozzle in my 'junk' box. Ill use this for the nozzle. I cut a hole for the nozzle in a end cap then epoxied it in with 24 hour epoxy. I then glued it on to a peice of PVC pipe and glued that to the fiberglass tubes. Stay tuned to see more progress of the fiberglass rocket. Here are a few pictures:

11/18/13 Today we pressure tested the rocket today to 400Psi before the middle section sprang a leak. We let the rocket pressure drop down to around 50psi before we went to look. The tube cracked about a inch above the coupler. Sadly we are going to put this project aside to work on a Diffrent one we wanted to complete this year.