The Thrifty Rocketeer

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues.... Have I ever mentioned how hard it is, coming up with new topics all the time? Well it is.   I usually just let my mind wander, and it's a combination of what strikes my fancy and what I happen upon in discussions with other rocketeers, or on zoom meetings with them. Speaking of which, here's something that I stumbled upon on Facebook, when the author/host posted a couple of his training videos. Now, training videos on Youtube aren't anything new, since you can find something advising you how to proceed on anything from replacing an oven heating element, to tearing up your bathroom floor, to re plumbing the kitchen sink, to opening up your car door to replace a defective switch. I've even found them on conducting Foxhunts and Ham Radio techniques. But this time, it deals with rocketry stuff. There's a guy who has started a series of at least six videos on related rocketry tips and techniques. He posts under the umbrella title

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues... One of the biggest hassles is when your cords get tangled, or you pull the wrong one out, thinking it was another. I saw on another blog entry a tip for labeling your cords. We all eat bread and muffins, buns and rolls.  And  how do we keep them fresh? No, not the lowly bread tie... but the plastic clip. Instead of throwing those little white labels away, or recycling them, now re-use them to label your cords! You're welcome!

The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues... When it comes to assembling small low power rockets, there's not much call for clamping.  When we do need some pinching, the  most obvious solution is either a professional wood clamp from your Home Depot or Lowes or hardware store. But there's a simpler solution that is already in your household.  The common clothes pin for the wash line will often be just enough to hold to items together either to glue, or to position for gluing. But this week, I stumbled upon another simple clamp. You know those hangers that stores display their pairs of pants on the rack?  They normally have two pinch clamps on either end, along with a plastic label identifying what size or length the item is.  Some stores will remove those hangers when you buy the item and recycle them.  But during the pandemic, or with the advent of "self-check out", it's  not uncommon to wind up with such a hanger at home. I find they are durable, and we keep them a

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues... You know, not so long ago I posted about my attempts to re-purpose used umbrella skins as parachutes. I got a response from someone who said they had just successfully stitched their own chute from scratch, and I applauded them.  I suggested that they make a "How-To" thread, explaining to the rest of us how to do it. Their response was that there has already been such an article, and he posted the link to it.  It turns out that it's part of the Apogee website archives. Believing in giving credit where it is due, I'm sharing that link here, so that you may go to the original site and learn from the Master.  https://www.apogeerockets.com/Peak-of.../Newsletter491... Perhaps I will try this at a later date. Lord knows, I have enough umbrella skins by this point that I could probably make several myself, if you didn't mind the color clashing. Don't forget to save your old umbrellas, even if they no longer work, or you find

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues... You may have heard that there is a world-wide shortage of balsa that has been impacting the rocketry kit community. It's my understanding that to combat this, several of the major manufacturers have switched to either blown plastic nosecones or 3-D printed nosecones.  I can't comment on 3-D, cause I've only run into one so far, but the point I joined in making rockets seemed to be the transition between balsa to blown plastic. In some of these kits, the plastic made sense, especially as you got to larger sizes, where a wooden block might be extremely difficult to ship, let alone whittle down. Recently, I saw a tip from another rocketeer that I thought I would pass along  (even though it is not my own). When slicing a blown plastic nosecone free from its tail section, or from an unused transition, I typically have used an Exacto knife... very sharp, and firmly held... it will slice the white blown plastic with precision.  However, if

The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues... Here's a blast from the past.  Forgive me if this seems too rudimentary, but it's tinged with nostalgia for me. Frequently, as you advance into medium or high power rocketry, you're called upon to assemble an electronics bay or an altimeter or something that requires electronic soldering.   Without getting too far into that, I want to present something that has been with me for more than 50 years. When you buy a pencil soldering iron, you need someplace to park it when it's hot and/or plugged in. Usually, there will be a very cheap square of sheet metal or aluminum, with a A frame "stand" to rest the iron on. Metal conducts heat, so this isn't always the best, but at a bare minimum, it will do to start. A better idea is to purchase one of those simple stands that consists of a rest made from coiled metal wire, bolted onto a small square stand, with a depression for a damp sponge on it.  These usually work very well,