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Estes Model Rockets are fun

OutHouse

OutHouse

Lifer
I built them when i was a kid and had a fun doing it. So last week i was wondering around walmart looking for somthing for his bday and saw a kit with two rockets with the launcher for 20 bucks. Thats cheap, i remember when i was a kid the launcher alone was like 20 bucks.

we built/painted the two rockets togther and just got back from the field across the street from launching them. he had a really good time.
 
i've got a ton of those stuffed into a closet in my parents' house. that and the plastic ww2 models
 
Yeah I wanted launch some rockets with my 6 year old the other day but didn't know where to find a launcher.
Used to dabble in that stuff as a kid myself.
 
I spent all my allowance on those things when I was a kid.

from my experiece:

1) the plastic parachutes are crap. I made my own out of nylon fabric (bright red- easy to spot) and nylon string. MUCH, MUCH more durable.

2) the wadding material they tell you to use is crap too, and you have to go pick the crap up. a better solution is to get some fiberglasss fabric and glue a small piece over the hole that the little blast from the engine comes out of. it's enough to protect the parachute from hot crud, and you don't have to replace it for each launch.

3) the best ones are the big ones that fire multiple "E" engines at once. louder, more smoke, generally cooler.
 
Originally posted by: Dubb
I spent all my allowance on those things when I was a kid.

from my experiece:

1) the plastic parachutes are crap. I made my own out of nylon fabric (bright red- easy to spot) and nylon string. MUCH, MUCH more durable.

2) the wadding material they tell you to use is crap too, and you have to go pick the crap up. a better solution is to get some fiberglasss fabric and glue a small piece over the hole that the little blast from the engine comes out of. it's enough to protect the parachute from hot crud, and you don't have to replace it for each launch.

3) the best ones are the big ones that fire multiple "E" engines at once. louder, more smoke, generally cooler.
Click to expand...

I have never had the problems you listed. I have launched many many rockets and have never had to replace a parachute. for wadding i use toilet paper and have never had a chute burn or get holes in it.
 
Originally posted by: Dubb
I spent all my allowance on those things when I was a kid.

from my experiece:

1) the plastic parachutes are crap. I made my own out of nylon fabric (bright red- easy to spot) and nylon string. MUCH, MUCH more durable.

2) the wadding material they tell you to use is crap too, and you have to go pick the crap up. a better solution is to get some fiberglasss fabric and glue a small piece over the hole that the little blast from the engine comes out of. it's enough to protect the parachute from hot crud, and you don't have to replace it for each launch.

3) the best ones are the big ones that fire multiple "E" engines at once. louder, more smoke, generally cooler.
Click to expand...

Great suggestions. I started doing this with the grandsons and found the parachutes to be a problem also. Gave the whole thing up because of it.

I used to do these as a kid and don't remember the problem of melting chutes and shock cords, etc.

 
I used to build these all the time. I still have a bunch in my parents' basement.

Once I cut fins out of spare scraps of wood and glued them straight onto an engine, with a nose cone from an old fireworks rocket - that mfer didn't come down for like 5 minutes 😀

 
Originally posted by: Citrix
Originally posted by: Dubb
I spent all my allowance on those things when I was a kid.

from my experiece:

1) the plastic parachutes are crap. I made my own out of nylon fabric (bright red- easy to spot) and nylon string. MUCH, MUCH more durable.

2) the wadding material they tell you to use is crap too, and you have to go pick the crap up. a better solution is to get some fiberglasss fabric and glue a small piece over the hole that the little blast from the engine comes out of. it's enough to protect the parachute from hot crud, and you don't have to replace it for each launch.

3) the best ones are the big ones that fire multiple "E" engines at once. louder, more smoke, generally cooler.
Click to expand...

I have never had the problems you listed. I have launched many many rockets and have never had to replace a parachute. for wadding i use toilet paper and have never had a chute burn or get holes in it.
Click to expand...

I used toilet paper or tissues for a while as well, but I just got sick of running around to pick the crap up (don't want to litter....) The fiberglass trick is nice because you do it once and then never think about it again.

parachutes were a problem after lots of launches or if it came down in a tree. string starts to tear through the little paper reinforcement things, I had more than a few that went to crap after a dozen launches or so. The nylon ones were quick to make and still worked great no matter what torture they went through.
 
Originally posted by: Black88GTA
Once I cut fins out of spare scraps of wood and glued them straight onto an engine, with a nose cone from an old fireworks rocket - that mfer didn't come down for like 5 minutes 😀
Click to expand...

hah, always wanted to try that
 
These are fun. In my High School General Technology class we had to build our own but we used the same rocket engines from the kits. It was quite fun shooting off the rockets in the field and having them land in the middle of someone's gym class.
 
Only thing is that these things are expensive! $30 for a cardboard tube + $15 Level 3 engine or whatever + $60 launch platform = 🙁
 
I had the rocket that had a clear "payload" section in it and let me tell you, anything that would fit in there got sent for a ride. We used to grab large grasshoppers and load them in there and shoot them.
 
Originally posted by: FleshLight
Only thing is that these things are expensive! $30 for a cardboard tube + $15 Level 3 engine or whatever + $60 launch platform = 🙁
Click to expand...

um... iirc i used a straightened coathanger and a 9v and made my own freaking launchpad
 
Originally posted by: Rogue
I had the rocket that had a clear "payload" section in it and let me tell you, anything that would fit in there got sent for a ride. We used to grab large grasshoppers and load them in there and shoot them.
Click to expand...
Heh, I had one of those. Good times. No insect or small reptile was safe 😀
90% of the time, our unwilling astronaut made it back alive, too :Q

Also fun was building small rockets and gluing the nose cone on so that the chute ejection charge in the engine would cause the rocket to explode...or loading the body of the rocket up with small explosives tied to another fuse, so that the thing would blow apart / catch fire on the way up (or down)..

Once my friend built a rocket with a glued in, weighted nose cone and two engines in it. He timed the engines to fire a certain distance apart.
The end result was that the rocket would go up...no chute would deploy, since the nose was glued on (he vented it so that it wouldn't explode when the charge went off). The weight in the nose would cause the rocket to turn over in mid-air, after the first engine had expired, so the nose was pointed at the ground....and then the second engine would fire, sending it to the ground at ludicrous speed.

That rocket worked TOO well. Quite a scary experience - it almost took my head off when it came down, and COMPLETELY exploded when it hit the ground.

We never did that again. Quite a stupid idea, although it was cool as hell.
 
I had a 2-stage rocket with a booster, but I placed the wrong engine in the 2nd stage. Booster brought up the rocket to about 100 feet or so, but the second stage had a delay in it. Rocket turned downward, and that's when the 2nd stage motor fired. It was like a cruise missile gone astray 😀 Luckily it didn't hit anyone - went straight into the ground and so deep, there were only fins left above the ground!!
 
I used to have a blast with those. I even got bored and experimented with making a rocket launcher with the help of the larger engines, pvc, etc. Ah, childhood.
 
I got bored shooting off the rockets and started unwrapping the engines, pulverizing the propellant and lighting it on fire. Made a nice whoosh and a big flame for a second.

Then there was the day I couldn't get it lit because it was so windy. Got my body all hunched over it to block the wind and as I lit the match I kinda lost my balance and set it off with my face right over it.

Burned off my eyelashes, eyebrows and moved my hairline back about a 1/2 inch. I was truly lucky. I had second degree burns but no third degree. It didn't hurt at all right after I did it. I went in the house and my mother took a wet washcloth to my face to wipe off the soot and she said my skin started peeling off. On the way to the hospital, it starting hurting really bad. Cleared my acne right up.

No scarring. As I said I got lucky.
 
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