Extreme Air Mail! Mailing Tube Rocket Project!

I was thinking drill rod just because it's smooth and well round. Also since it's harder than mild steel it should be a little more resistant to bending.

Also, in the interest of delving even deeper into uncharted territory, I'm thinking of doing a recovery baffle. What do you think of this design...

Baffle design.jpg


I drew it up a detail in OpenRocket. The aft section is the bulkhead already installed in my rocket. It's got eight 1/2" holes radially around the circumference. The forward bulkhead is a centering ring with only one hole in the center to which is glued a heavy paper tube. The gap from the aft bulkhead to the center tube is 1/4".

My thinking is that the gases would be forced to swirl around in a chamber before finding the path through the tube and out to the nose cone.

Any opinions?

If this doesn't seem good I'll probably make some kind of chute protector. I'm trying to get away from waddings.
 
No experience with baffles here! I'm baffled by this.
Robert
 
Haha, good one!

I think the idea is sound. It's kind of like a flowmaster muffler. Any design that takes the gases on a convoluted path should be effective at least to some degree. What I'm not sure of is if this design will build up pressure resulting in an explosion. The body tube should be hefty enough to handle some pressure.
 
I am not sure that convoluted path is enough to reduce the gas temperature. I would still use wadding (which acts like a plunger) or the parachute protector.
Robert
 
Did the fillets yesterday. Wood glue doesn't add much bulk but I'm sure it adds a little strength. I had to apply glue twice since it shrinks as it dries.

EM520397.JPG

EM520398.JPG

Finally a view of the big picture! It looks pretty cool!

EM520399.JPG

I'm still 50/50 on the baffle. I might just skip it in favor a Nomex chute protector. I'll do some more research.
 
@ Weldo it is looking great!

However, I've been thinking that you need a slogan for this build......

Something like:
When it absolutely, positively has to reach apogee in 2.4 seconds!
Click to expand...

:grin:
-brino
 
Haha nice!

I wanna put a big decal on it that says "Return to sender"!
 
This looks great! When you get the final mass, give us an update on the apogee prediction. We can take over/under bets.

Robert
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top