Hello!

This forum is for new members to introduce themselves and tell us how they got started in water rocketry.
bandsons
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Hello!

Post by bandsons »

Hi, new here from GA. Father and sons are enjoying this and have some unique ideas.
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bugwubber
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Re: Hello!

Post by bugwubber »

Howdy, welcome to the party!
Would love to hear your ideas. What are you currently launching?

I've got a crew of my own as well, and this has been a pretty enjoyable hobby to share with them.

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bandsons
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Re: Hello!

Post by bandsons »

bugwubber wrote:Howdy, welcome to the party!
Would love to hear your ideas. What are you currently launching?

I've got a crew of my own as well, and this has been a pretty enjoyable hobby to share with them.

Bugwubber

Thank you for the welcome!

My 3 little sons and I got into this while building a remote controlled mini rov... they wanted to add a torpedo on it powered by baking soda/vinegar. We had so much fun with that, we just moved onto some baking soda/vinegar rockets! Then we noticed we had a bike pump and extra schrader valves! I've watched just about every water rocket video i could find on youtube.

We actually haven't really launched anything yet... only static testing. The first 2 tanks we made had valves installed right on them... one has exploded...dang

I'm going to be getting more parts and will certainly post pictures of what we come up with and when we finally launch.

Safety first!
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bugwubber
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Re: Hello!

Post by bugwubber »

Here's a couple shots of my first launcher and a rocket we made in 15min when my nephews came for a visit.

Here's what I did to get going quickly. The rocket is 20oz bottle- good size for a manual pump. a piece of foam was rolled and then duct taped to the nose, the fins were cut from a plastic box lid and held in place with duct tape.

The launcher is just a short section of PVC pipe with a slip to threaded adapter glued on to the bottom. An air hose adapter or valve stem adapter can then be installed. about 8 inches from the top of the PVC pipe is a swell- I heated up a narrow section of pvc and then pushed it together. This creates a swelled section that can hold the rocket up to 50-60psi.

This set up at 50-60 psi is fairly safe since it isn't going over the design pressure of the bottles. They go about 60ft up which is a good height for yard launches.

Oh yeah, and the launcher design gets ya wet. really really wet. great for hot days...
The 15min Rocket
The 15min Rocket
KISSrocket.JPG (130.07 KiB) Viewed 11 times
PVC Stick Launcher
PVC Stick Launcher
KISSlauncher.JPG (98.25 KiB) Viewed 11 times
Air connection options
Air connection options
KISSairconnection.JPG (150.77 KiB) Viewed 11 times
Bugwubber

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bandsons
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Re: Hello!

Post by bandsons »

Thanks for the tips Bugwubber.