Pringles F-Bomb Model Rocket by Aslansmonkey

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

The F-Bomb (painting the "F" is optional) is a model rocket made from Pringles cans, 3D printed parts, and an Estes E motor tube (or about 4" of a BT-50 tube). I used a regular sized Pringles can on the bottom and a snack sized can above the coupler.
It's designed for Estes E motors (if you use an engine block in the motor tube, D motors (if you use both an engine block and a spacer), or Aerotech 24mm motors (Both 24/40 reloadables or the 70mm single use variety).
If you opt NOT to use the engine block in the motor tube, you could put both Aerotech or Cesseroni 24 mm reloadables in it.
WARNING: I've absolutely no idea how much actual thrust and pressure this rocket can sustain. 24mm Cesseroni reloads go up to G117 and I'd be real surprised if this thing could hold together under that. If you're brave/foolish enough to try, please PLEASE take a video and post it, as Damn, I want to see that. Also maybe do this launch from the safety of a bunker. Personally I'd like to be able to put E's in this thing, maybe an F.
See the enclosed diagram on how to mount the motor tube. As noted, the part labelled "Bottom" has a 5mm recessed portion on the threaded end. This recess is to accomodate the Aerotech motor thrust rings, so the motor tube should be flush with the edge of this recess and NOT the bottom of the part itself.
The best way to assemble the boat tail is to dry fit all the pieced together first, then mark on the motor tube where the top of the motor mount sits. Pull everything apart and then glue the motor tube into the motor mount, being sure to epoxy along the "fins" of the motor mount. Once this dries, put the motor mount in the boat tail lining the fins of the motor mount up with the fins of the rocket. You may need to sand these fins down so that they don't compress the motor tube, which would make it hard to fit a motor in. Be sure to apply epoxy to both the fins and where the top of the engine mount seats in the boat tail. Also be sure it's fully pressed down. Once all that is dry, glue the bottom piece on. The bottom piece and the engine mount are designed to "Sandwich" the boat tail in place.
Before gluing the boat tail into the rocket note there are holes in the top to mount a shock cord. These holes are deliberately small so they can be sealed if not used. I used kevlar string through these holes but a screw eye could be inserted instead. If you use kevlar like I did, you will need to put this in BEFORE assembling the boat tail.
The nose cone is designed to use an eye bolt for shock cord mounting. Put the eye bolt through the bottom and then put a nut on the inside. Epoxy this nut to the inside of the nose cone. When balancing this rocket for stability, you can add weight to the inside tip of the nose cone, but by using an eye bolt you can modify this weight later if you need to by adding washers. I put one washer on the rocket BEFORE balancing so that I can remove a little weight if I ever need to.
The boat trail and coupler both feature launch lugs for a standard Estes launch rod. I'm not certain how well they will hold up to repeated launches so you may wish to cut them off and glue on a regular lug.
I've not flown this rocket yet, so I cannot tell you how it performs. It should fly on a D or E just fine.
EDIT: 9/28/2018 - Added Large Lug ("LL") versions of the coupler and fins that will fit an Estes maxi rod. This rocket is large enough that it really should be on the larger rod type.
EDIT: 10/4/2018 - Added rings with large launch lugs. These aren't really necessary, but as I had already built mine with the small lugs and wanted to switch to large, I cut the lugs off and printed the rings to go over them. This also hid the seam where the coupler was. I also added some decals that are 100% authentic...ly made up.
FLIGHT REPORT:
Flew this on a D12-3 today. Very nice flight. Straight and true. Not super high, but then that's to be expected on a D. Maybe 200-300 feet. Nice deployment and recovery. The F-bomb flew so well I didn't need to...well...drop the F-bomb!
FLIGHT REPORT 7/5/2019: D12-5 this time, another great flight! Here is a (poor) video taken with my phone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_8hv6GV5v8