Rocket #2 - "Oh Baby", scratch built 24 mm

• Scratch Built
• 32" High, 3" Wide
• 24 mm Motor Mount
• 10 oz unloaded at liftoff

After my first launch weekend with the Arreaux I just couldnt get it out of my system. As the following weekend rolled around, I finally gave in and decided to build a scratch built based on this 3" mailing tube I had laying around. However, I didn't decide to start building it until 6:00 on Saturday night, so I ended up building it entirely from things I had laying around the house!

I cut fins from a sheet of 1/8" mahogany veneer, made centering rings from some good stock cardboard, used the spring steel from a pipe clamp for the motor retaining clip, and rolled my own motor tube by rolling plain brown paper painted with diluted white glue around a "D" engine. I wasn't sure how well it would work, so chose a "D" engine to lower the risks, even though simulations showed this would barely get the rocket up to 300 feet.

I made the nose cone from a plastic drink bottle that just fit inside the body tube, snugged up with a ring of masking tape. By about 4:00 in the morning I finally painted it. It was all completed and ready to go on the kitchen table at 9:00 Sunday Morning!

This rocket flew so well that I was upset I had not made a bigger motor mount. The hand rolled motor tubes are at least as strong (although probably heavier) than the store bought ones. I liked this rocket so much, that I decided to more or less duplicate this design for my third rocket (the SPRS).

Here is the flight log for "Oh Baby":