GIGA IV – Apogee deployment charge test
Place eye bolt for shock cord 45° to head end igniter body. Place shock cord above eye bolt as the drogue fabric could get squeezed tight between eye bolt and d-shackle.
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GIGA IV – Nose cone construction
Lessons learned: Don’t take this route again using the M10 threaded section as a basis for concentricity. If going to machine on lathe, start with concentric mold before laminating / machining. Don’t rely on staightness M10 threaded section which can get close but slightly off straight M10 threaded section will result in a significant
KILO monolithic core burner – static test 21-02-2020
This write-up of the core burner test is condensed as it is very similar to the test performed with the hybrid finocyl / core burner test. On Friday 21st of February the KILO core burner motor was static tested on a 66/12 reload. This was motor was designed for maximum volumetric loading, lowest core mass
GIGA IV – Common bulkhead
One of the design changes for the GIGA IV is a common bulkhead to join the previously central avionics bay of GIGA I-III (in control of recovery) with the updated nose cone electronics (camera and GPS tracker). With this modification there is no longer space for a separate main parachute compartment as can be expected
KILO monolithic hybrid finocyl – static test 26-01-2020
On Sunday 26th of January the KILO hybrid finocyl core burner motor was static tested on a 66/12 reload. This 66/12 propellant is a modified version of the Slow White propellant where the 4%Zn was replaced with 4% AP resulting in 66% AP and 12% Al at 78% solids. The result is a very docile
GIGA IV – Airframe construction
The GIGA III was built completely from aluminium but heavy like a tank. That is probably the reason why it was so successful recovering from non-flight-critical failures. In order to shave some weight for the from the total rocket mass of the GIGA IV it was decided to replace the aluminium tubes with fiberglass (FG)
KILO monolithic hybrid finocyl – casting & set up
Some photos of the activities and casting of the hybrid finocyl core burner. Notes: Cylindrical foam core length: for simplicity 580mm / same length as the standard foam plate length. 580 is also approximately 1/2 of the liner length (but slightly less). Finocyl foam core will be trimmed to length in casting jig and also
KILO 4GXXL – Slow White static test 13-12-2019
On Friday the 13th, (an omen of bad luck?) JVDB & LD tested the KILO 4GXXL motor. This motor has an extended casing to hold more propellant when compared to the KILO 5GXL. The 4GXXL uses a Black Cat Rocketry 3″ phenolic tubing for liner and casting tubes. With its four XXL bates grains, the
GIGA IV – extended motor casing
“Black Cat Rocketry” liners are dimensional equivalent to PML phenolic tubes except that they come in 1225mm lengths whereas a PML tube is 916-912mm. This gives the possibility of an additional 310mm propellant without the need of splicing a liner. This BCR liner was already used in the BOOSTAR-ONE motor as a liner / casting
Ball milling AP
This post is a repository. Tried ball milling AP to get a bimodal AP particle distribution for a 80% solids (barely) pourable formula. Lortone 45C ball mill 1840gr of ceramic grinding media 20mm balls 500gr of 200um spherical AP 3 hours run time. powdered sugar like consistancy 20211017 – For BKNO3. Lortone 45C ball mill