The Tin

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

Recently we were talking about what sort of tackle box Rocketeers chose to carry their field gear and parts in.  And that has brought up another related topic.

Just today, a co-worker who has been working with me for a quarter century, resigned.  He's leaving the company for "other opportunities".  So I interpret this as either he's seeking better compensation, or better benefits...as in health insurance. Can't say as I blame him.

But the point is he's cleaned out his desk, and in the trash can set outside his office, I spotted a tin can.  Not just any old empty soup can, but a cracker tin can.  This short squat tin has a separate lid, and fits down over the lip to seal in freshness and keep rodents and bugs out.

It reminds me of the type of tins that coffee once came in, and later, hot chocolate.

Now, I'm not talking about Nestle's milk chocolate, that had a circle hatch in the middle of the top of the tin... You pried it off with a spoon before scooping the chocolate mix cocoa out and into your mug.  No, that's a cardboard-walled tin with metal top and bottom.   As kids, we sometimes played with the empty cans to put crayon stubs or small stones or pebbles in, and ran around with them rattling as we played.

My most vivid memory of this is when we dropped a lit firecracker in an empty one, and quickly slapped the lid back on it. When the firecracker went off, it blew the circle lid into the air about 8 or ten feet or so. We did this again and again, until one time the lid was on too tight, and the force of the explosion was enough to blow the entire square lid off the cardboard walls, permanently ending our little game.

 (For more on this type of can, see the spectacular 1972 movie "The Other" for a gothic horror tale set in autumn 1932 New England.  One of the main characters runs around with such a cocoa tin in his shirt with something rattling ominously within.  I recommend the tale, which I won't summarize here. Find the movie and watch it. Just go for the ride and watch right to the end credits for the twist reveal.)

No, this tin was about the size of a a jar of peanut butter, but apparently housed Stroop Wafels inside.  (I've never heard or seen them before, but it didn't stop me from plucking it out of the trash, dumping the crumbs out and then rinsing the tin out.)  I liked the short squat look of the tin, and especially the bright ORANGE paint.  It would be very hard to miss this tin in the bright green grass of a launch field.

My idea stems from the age-old question, what do you store your loose motors in?  A tackle box?  A field box? A shoe box? Some rocketeers had responded to an earlier question insisting on either a metal ammo can, or perhaps a static-free plastic ammo can.





But I got to thinking that there's a number of types of smaller Estes motors that rattle around loose, that should be protected inside such a tin can... to keep moisture out and keep them all together...possible padded with a paper towel wad or rag or something similar to keep them still.

And then it occurred to me that this might be a perfect place to store SPENT motors.  You know, those still-warm motors that we recover with our rockets, and typically throw into a trash bag reserved at the launch control point specifically for this purpose.

Now, I'm all for keeping things simple, and I think just tossing a spent motor casing into a plastic sack for disposal into the Subway dumpster on the way home is the best solution. But in a larger club launch, having a brightly colored "trash" tin for spent motors might be very helpful.

But to return to my original premise, I was thinking that fresh, assorted new motors packed into this tin would keep them "fresh".  

Recently, I scored about a dozen or so older single Estes motors, and have been storing them in a pencil cup. ( I also wrote about this type of tin earlier.)  And while this has worked to keep them together, it's not as convenient as I had originally thought it might be.  I NEVER take this pencil cup out to the field. It just sets on my desk.

But with the addition of this new tin, I'm thinking to press it into service and hold those various low power motors that came in a blister pack, but are now exposed to the air and moisture as they wait to be called up into service.

The down side is that all different values will be stored together. And the plugs and igniters/starters are all gonna be loose and separate, and could get lost. But the upside is that the motors will all be in one place, at least until they're called up.

Another upside is that any recovery wadding recovered from the blister packs could go into this tin to remain fresh and not get lost.  It could help pad the motors from clanking around.

I don't know.  What do you think?  Am I over-thinking this one?  Or was I just attracted by the bright orange tin in the trash?

The Thrifty Rocketeer wants to know your thoughts...



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