Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Blue Tube Advancing the Rocket Hobby


The Blue Phenix 4.0

In a recent post to an EX rocket group I belong to,
Randall J. Ejma of Always Ready Rocketry,
www.alwaysreadyrocketry.com made the following
announcements; [somewhat edited.]

Due to amazing demand and positive feedback, ARR has
drastically reduced pricing for Blue Tube! These are
NOT sale prices; these are the new regular pricing!
Check out your nearest dealer first at;
www.whatstyourrocketmadeof.com
Or order directly from ARR. New pricing takes effect
immediately and is almost 40% less expensive!

Also, ARR has recently released;
Six Electronics bays from 38mm to 6 inch, and four new kits
making 5 total.


The moment Randall announced Blue Tube on our group, in
March, I had to post back about whether it would make a
good liner for EX motor making.

The following is the recent post of his test results.
[again, some editing]

Hey guys,
I know a number of you have been asking.
We've gotten some 54mm and 75mm casting tube and liner
sets w/Blue Tube as the liner. We've static fired 2 motors
and flown 1 so far and it has proven to be a far less expensive
alternative to convolute phenolic, it just needs to be thicker
for it to workin a motor design where spiral wound phenolic
isn't good enough.  It just gets too toasty for it.
As a replacement for spiral wound, it seems to work so far,
but when you throw lots of Al and unusually high pressures,
the chance of burn through is fairly high. It would probably
need to be thicker.
I fired a K-550W clone in a Loki case and I could stand on the
liner after firing and it held me up.  Worked perfectly.
But, another test w/a high isp, high pressure, high temp
design that normally only workes w/a convolute liner,
burned through Blue Tube.
Randall

That's a pretty good description of Blue Tube's limits inside a
motor. It appears to fall between the capabilites of spiral
phenolic and convolute phenolic.
I'm curious enough to try some in a couple of my motors
when the sizes I need become available.

One final update; Balsa Machining Service has joined the growing
list of Blue Tube dealers, and is offering laser cut tube slotting of
Blue Tube.




3 comments:

  1. I like the design of that rocket. Now, if I find a C-note or two on the ground...

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  2. Agreed.
    Those fins are pretty neat. Laser cut,I'm sure.
    They make a nice match for that conical fiberglass cone. You could get a smaller one.

    Ken

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Margaret.

    BTW; It looks like you're the first female visitor to post a comment. Congrats.

    Ken

    ReplyDelete