Customized Compressed Air Rocket for original MAKE launcher

thingiverse

Customized version of http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:281036 Created with Customizer! http://www.thingiverse.com/apps/customizer/run?thing_id=281036 This model was made for use with the original compressed air launcher from MAKE v15 2008 using a 1/2" PVC pipe. My first print was at 100% with bridge nylon but was too small to fit onto the launch tube, However 105% worked perfectly. The rocket nose tends to get goopy even if the fan is turned on. The nose often develops a few small holes. At first I tried to plug these but found it they didn't seem to make much difference. The rockets dyed nicely in fiber reactive dyes in about 5% acetic acid. To get darker hues, overnight or longer dye times were needed. WARNING: These launch much faster at lower pressures than paper rockets. My first test launch was at 20psi. I thought it would barely get off the pad. I was wrong. Fortunately I was right about the nylon being tough and flexible enough to hold up to the usual nose first crash into the ground. The rocket landed on pavement and appeared to have suffered no damage at all. I have flown at up to 80psi and have yet to be able to destroy or significantly damage one by crashing it. Actually, accidentally stepping on it also didn't do much either. UPDATE: Lowering the print temperature to 245C and running the cooling fan at 100% when the nose tapers to about 8mm diameter resolved the nose cone goopiness and pinpoint air leaks. Instructions I printed on a PrintrBot simple metal, using Taulman Bridge Nylon filament extruded at 260C *(now 245C see update), bed heated to 45C covered with polyester film (Gizmo Dorks) and Aqua Net Super Extra hold unscented. Composed and sliced with Simplify3D. Printed with following parameters Nozzle 0.4mm Layer height 0.2mm Fan off until the last few layers Default print speed 35mm/sec Retraction 4mm, vertical lift 0.1mm, speed 30mm/sec Infill rectilinear 15% (doesn't matter much, very little infill) First layer at 50% speed Skirt 1 layer, 2 outlines (to prime extruder)_ Raft 2 layers, raft offset 3mm, separation distance 0.22mm, raft infill 55% The rocket was customized with these parameters body_height = 100 perimeter_width = 0.8 nose_height = 65 inner_diameter = 22 fin_height = 35 fin_width = 25 number_of_fins = 4