Gottcha!

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

We've all done it before... rushing a little too fast... or forgetting to double check...

Suddenly we step back and realize that we've assembled that rocket kit wrong!

Now, it's not that we don't understand how kits go together, but sometimes, you're just not thinking it all the way through and see the error before you make it.

It seems like there's always been a practice of posting a picture on line and asking "Can you spot what I did wrong?"

Usually, it's fairly obvious, and most of us have been there.

But there's a new wrinkle that seems to have reared its head recently.

All too often, it's that we've glued a fin onto a body tube along the wrong edge.  That is, the proper edge is termed the "root edge", and it usually involves the wood grain running perpendicular to the root edge.


If you glue along the wrong edge, specifically along the wood grain, your fine is not strong in the right dimension, and can be VERY prone to snapping off, parallel to your glued edge. We've all done it. And if you catch it before the glue dries very much, it's reversible and correctable.

But the latest wrinkle appears to be a subset of rocketeers who delight in posting picture of their "mistake" and somewhat innocently post the question "What have I done wrong?"

It's a reasonable question for newbies to ask, but usually, the answer is SO obvious, that it appears that the rocketeer is either incredible thick, or baiting us with a glaringly obvious mistake that should not have been made.

In at least one instance, it was a HEAVY fillet of glue that was beginning to run.

In another, the grain was CLEARLY running the wrong way, and only one fin was attached.

In yet another, someone had glued the nosecone into the body tube, sealing it permanently so that a recovery system cannot be deployed. 

I don't know about you, but I find these types of "baiting posts" to be incredibly irritating.  I'm not talking about the admittedly new rocketeer who is asking for help on the simplest of subject.  We ALL were newbies at one time, and we should be tolerant and supportive to help these new-to-our-hobby people learn from our experience.

It's the photos that are so incredibly obvious and the question to patiently ignorant that rankles me.  (I don't understand what kind of a pay-off or kick these types of posters get.  I suppose you could call them a troll and not be far off.)


How do you deal with these postings?

The Thrifty Rocketeer would like to know.

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