Hi from the southwest of Germany!

[MB water-rockets]

I just wanted to say hi to all of you since I am new here.

I joined this forum because I enjoy reading about the water rocket projects of other people all over the world.

In autumn 2007 I discovered the water rocket stuff. Those days I launched a 1.5 liter bottle with NOAA recovery. (
It was great fun but did not work very well. So I put it aside for a while and started again with a 1 liter bottle and a tennis-ball nose (
This one worked fine and the idea evolved to build a rocket which can bring a camera beyoned the 100m limit and returns safely to earth.

Progress is slow since I can't work on the rocket as often as I would like. But I hope that the launch will be in spring this year. As soon as there is anything to report I'll post some pictures/ videos here.

Thank you for reading this and - keep them flying!

Roman
- MB water rockets -

[rockets-in-brighton]

Hi Roman, welcome to the forum. I remember seeing your videos before, I enjoyed the creative editing. I hope you find this forum useful, and like you, I am looking forward to better weather for launching.

[Tim Chen]

I just wanted to say hi to all of you since I am new here.

I joined this forum because I enjoy reading about the water rocket projects of other people all over the world.

In autumn 2007 I discovered the water rocket stuff. Those days I launched a 1.5 liter bottle with NOAA recovery. (
It was great fun but did not work very well. So I put it aside for a while and started again with a 1 liter bottle and a tennis-ball nose (
This one worked fine and the idea evolved to build a rocket which can bring a camera beyoned the 100m limit and returns safely to earth.

Progress is slow since I can't work on the rocket as often as I would like. But I hope that the launch will be in spring this year. As soon as there is anything to report I'll post some pictures/ videos here.

Thank you for reading this and - keep them flying!

Roman
- MB water rockets -

Hi Roman,

Welcome to the forum! I understand 100% how hard it is to balance life and this hobby. I am currently trying to go to school and work a part-time job and then also build rockets when I have free time. It is hard to balance everything!

I look forward to the summer when I do not have school and can spend more time on rockets. I have started numerous projects and need to get back to work on some. I miss working on them.

Nice to meet you!

[Brian]

to the forum

[MB water-rockets]

Thanks for the friendly welcome!

Here is a picture of the achievements during the last weeks.

Antares Ia sitting on the re-designed launch pad. The fins are not yet mounted and some parts are still not painted.

Preliminary technical data:

Volume: 3.1 L
Length: 925 mm
Diameter: 94 mm
Weight: approx. 400 g
Nozzle: 9 mm
Launch pressure: 10 bar

Cheers,
Roman

[reno1]

Great looking rocket!

[Mark Chen]

Thanks for the friendly welcome!

Here is a picture of the achievements during the last weeks.

Antares Ia sitting on the re-designed launch pad. The fins are not yet mounted and some parts are still not painted.

Preliminary technical data:

Volume: 3.1 L
Length: 925 mm
Diameter: 94 mm
Weight: approx. 400 g
Nozzle: 9 mm
Launch pressure: 10 bar

Cheers,
Roman

Welcome to the forum! Your rocket looks really nice. I like the pattern you painted on the side for visibility. That's a good idea because it saves half the eight of a solid paint job! That's an idea to remember! Thanks for showing the pic!

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Thanks for the friendly welcome!

Here is a picture of the achievements during the last weeks.

Antares Ia sitting on the re-designed launch pad. The fins are not yet mounted and some parts are still not painted.

Preliminary technical data:

Volume: 3.1 L
Length: 925 mm
Diameter: 94 mm
Weight: approx. 400 g
Nozzle: 9 mm
Launch pressure: 10 bar

Cheers,
Roman

Hello, and welcome to the forum. Can you say how stable this rocket flies? The fins seem to be behind the widest portion of the body and may not be getting enough air flow. How well does it work like this?

[MB water-rockets]

Hi,

I'm sorry but I couldn't gain any experience with this rocket yet. There is some experience with a small rocket shown in the picture below. It went pretty stable even though it has the same design as its "big brother" with the fins behind the widest part of the bottle. (Details: V = 0.5 L; M = 40 g)
Anyway thanks for the hint! I'll spent some more time thinking about the design.

I'll let you know once the rocket has been launched. But I don't expect to have enough time to complete the remaining work before April :-(

Cheers,
Roman

[Andromeda]

Hi,

I'm sorry but I couldn't gain any experience with this rocket yet. There is some experience with a small rocket shown in the picture below. It went pretty stable even though it has the same design as its "big brother" with the fins behind the widest part of the bottle. (Details: V = 0.5 L; M = 40 g)
Anyway thanks for the hint! I'll spent some more time thinking about the design.

I'll let you know once the rocket has been launched. But I don't expect to have enough time to complete the remaining work before April :-(

Cheers,
Roman

You should try and move away from coke bottles too. Any bottles with patterns or shapes cut into the sides make them hard to build with and easier to explode! Try to find simple bottles with straight sides.

[Cloud Dancers]

Thanks for the friendly welcome!

Here is a picture of the achievements during the last weeks.

Antares Ia sitting on the re-designed launch pad. The fins are not yet mounted and some parts are still not painted.

Preliminary technical data:

Volume: 3.1 L
Length: 925 mm
Diameter: 94 mm
Weight: approx. 400 g
Nozzle: 9 mm
Launch pressure: 10 bar

Cheers,
Roman

Welcome to the forum

Did you paint the red checkerboard pattern on the rocket or is it a decal?

Was it hard to do?

[Tim Chen]

Hi,

I'm sorry but I couldn't gain any experience with this rocket yet. There is some experience with a small rocket shown in the picture below. It went pretty stable even though it has the same design as its "big brother" with the fins behind the widest part of the bottle. (Details: V = 0.5 L; M = 40 g)
Anyway thanks for the hint! I'll spent some more time thinking about the design.

I'll let you know once the rocket has been launched. But I don't expect to have enough time to complete the remaining work before April :-(

Cheers,
Roman

Hi Roman! Welcome to the forum. I have a question about your launcher. I like how everyone puts those "caution" stripes on their launchers and I wanted to know if this is painted on or of there are colored tape I can use or if it's part painted and part tape. I want that look but I want it to be tough enough to resist wear and tear.

[MB water-rockets]

Hi Cloud Dancers,
The pattern on the bottle is hand painted. It was quite easy to do - just needed a lot of tape to cover the the area which should remain transparent. The paint is weatherproof acrylic paint.

Hi Tim Chen,
It is tape (already with black and yellow stripes) - I bought it for some other purpose in a hardware store. It seems to be a kind of PE-foil with very strong glue. If it sticks it is almost impossible to remove it completely again. I did not think about the robustness. Until now I had no problems (probably the only part ;-)

Cheers and thanks for being interested in my (still not launched) rocket,
Roman
-MB water-rockets-

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Hi Cloud Dancers,
The pattern on the bottle is hand painted. It was quite easy to do - just needed a lot of tape to cover the the area which should remain transparent. The paint is weatherproof acrylic paint.

Hi Tim Chen,
It is tape (already with black and yellow stripes) - I bought it for some other purpose in a hardware store. It seems to be a kind of PE-foil with very strong glue. If it sticks it is almost impossible to remove it completely again. I did not think about the robustness. Until now I had no problems (probably the only part ;-)

Cheers and thanks for being interested in my (still not launched) rocket,
Roman
-MB water-rockets-

Roman,

When you paint your rockets, do you have any issues with the paint cracking or peeling off when the bottles expand? We have used some flex additive to make the paint more flexible. You can get it in any automotive paint supply shop. It is typically used for painting flexible plastic bumpers on cars, and helps to keep the paint from cracking on bottles.

[MB water-rockets]

Roman,

When you paint your rockets, do you have any issues with the paint cracking or peeling off when the bottles expand? We have used some flex additive to make the paint more flexible. You can get it in any automotive paint supply shop. It is typically used for painting flexible plastic bumpers on cars, and helps to keep the paint from cracking on bottles.

Ah, that's a good point! Thanks for mentioning it.
Until now I couldn't discover any cracks in the paint. The bottles I use are of the "thick wall" re-use type which don't expand much at a pressure of 11 to 12 bar.
But I shall keep it in mind - pressure will be increased in the future.

Cheers,
Roman
- MB water-rockets -