The Thrifty Rocketeer

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues.... I want to tell you about a recent score that I made, and how it came up unexpectedly. I was bored and decided to do a search of Facebook's Marketplace.  A search for "Rocket" turned up all sorts of other products, but "Model Rocket" narrowed it considerably. There were a few completed kits with drastically overpriced rockets (in my opinion), but then something caught my eye. A $50 listing for a collection of rocket supplies seemed to be an old range box. Clicking on it, I also noted that it was only 5 miles away from me in a small former coal mining town. (Shades of "Rocket Boys", right?) At first I was going to go past it, but I figured I'd ask about it.  So I sent the seller a message, asking if he knew the values and thermal history of the many motors that were in the picture.  He responded that he really didn't know much about them at all.  I was intrigued. I asked if I could come see them, and he s

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues.... This may be a bit adult for some of our younger readers, but bare with me.... if you get my meaning. Not long ago, a major rocket parts supplier introduced a new tool that Excel has introduced.  The owner made a blog entry and it was there that I first saw this startling tool. It is silver in color, and at first glance looked a lot like an Exacto-knife in shape and length.  In fact, it is about seven inches long, but the business end is startlingly different. It's a wheel. That is, it's a star wheel. That is, it's a wheel with a multitude of sharp serrated points around the outside of the wheel. And it looks quite vicious. Now, you may ask yourself, "What would a rocketeer want with a tool like that?"... and it's a fair question.  (***You may want to jump to the answer at the bottom, if you are squeamish.) In some ways, it looks a lot like a kitchen tool that would be used to run over pie crust dough to vent a pie or p

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues... Have I ever told you about the first rocket I ever built? Stop me if you've already heard this one.... but they say you'll never forget your first time...a nd although we're not talking about the same thing here, they're still right. I was on my way to the first club rocket launch to learn about the hobby (more details in an earlier blog entry, "Rocketing Right Past") when I stopped at a family-owned hardware store.  I had done an internet search the night before to find:  A source for rockets (hobby shops, stores, suppliers) in my state A local club to visit (and potentially join) A place to launch What I turned up was the hardware store ( that still had departments, including a hobby department)  directly on my route across the state to attend a rocket launch that was set for the very next day.  And so, without any other prep, I set off. When I got to the store, I walked up and down the aisles and asked for some advic

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues.... There is a landlord in my family who keeps their property up. This includes matching fire codes, whenever the city raises the bar and requires something else for inspection and passing their units. First, a smoke detector was required in each unit.  Then, since college kids were disconnecting the batteries when they wanted to smoke, a permanent 10-year lithium battery then was required. This meant replacing all those original units with the new 10-year units. Next, the requirement was for such a detector in each one of the bedrooms in each unit.  That created three times the demand, or four or five times, for new smoke detectors in our college town for each rental unit. Then, they required a smoke detector on each level of the structure, in each unit. And, they added a CO monitor outside the bedrooms, but not in the bathroom nor kitchen. Next, I am told they will require permanently wired units with battery back-up for ten years. No matter... t