Acquiring Parts

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

Now, we've talked about this before...

How some of us save tongue depressors, or other small wooden implements to add to our rockets or aide in their creation as applicators or otherwise.

Recently, I posed the question on a number of Facebook pages and asked if other saved these items in the hopes of reusing them.  I was genuinely surprised not only at the number who said "Me too", but at some of the additional items and things that they save (or scrounged)!

First, it seems that fudgecicles are a very common source for wooden stir sticks.  Some said they save them for reinforcing struts and supports for a fin repair.   I have used the same stick for mixing epoxy multiple times before finally tossing it and the paper favor cup that I used to mix in/on.

One person posted that they appreciate being left alone in the doctor's exam room, as they help themselves to tongue depressors, Q-tips, swab sticks, and more, including nitrate gloves and breathing apparatus. (Don't ask me about that last one, cause the only thing I can imagine they meant was a cardboard tube that is changed out when measuring lung capacity... and since they're going to toss that tube anyway, I don't see why they would object to a patient taking it home.)

But others came up with some unusual items.  For instance, the small flat wooden paddles that we use as ice cream scoops when eating a cup of frozen ice cream at school.  Or for that matter, yogurt or custard too.  As I recall, those double ended paddles came individually wrapped in a long stream of cellophane packages that were all attached until torn apart.

Some suggested flared straws from McDonald's that doubled as scoops could be used, but I'm not sure just how.  I have tried a plastic straw cut up into a launch lug, but found it resisted glue and quickly sheared off a rocket when pressed into service. 

On the matter of Nitrate Gloves, I have never felt the need to use them, so I've not gone looking for them.  But it seems to me that helping yourself to most of a box in a doctor's exam room leans towards theft of property, when only one or two might suffice.  I don't know, what say you?

For some reason, I don't hold the same for tongue depressors or an extended cotton swab on a stick.  They somehow seem more disposable, and not as valuable or even counted in a bulk supply box.  So, who would miss a few? A FEW, I say.

One of the weirder items someone suggested was the cap on a tube of toothpaste once the tube is used up.  The person suggested that they make nice decorations on a rocket as a fake tail cone when glued on, flared end out.  I would never have thought of that, but I suppose it works.

Others had suggested using half a L'Eggs package as a nosecone, but you'd have to get the dimensions just right to be snug on a body tube.

I think we've all thought about toilet paper tubes, but I've been more attracted to the hollow tubes at the core of a roll of paper towels.  Where I work, the inner cardboard tube is thicker and tougher. In past years, they had a plastic liner on the inside of the tube to make it spin better too.  In fact, I just measured, and discovered the tubes that are currently in use are 8" long and exactly 2" internal diameter.  I haven't checked to see if I could find a coupler nor nosecone to fit that yet.

Somehow, I think that the thickness of the tube, and the added weight of a couple of couplers would move this out of the realm of model rocketry and more in the realm of boat anchors.

So what additional items to you scrounge?  Share them with the Thrifty Rocketeer and we'll all profit from your insight.