Bounce Rockets Take Flight

thingiverse

Air rockets for use with the AirRocketWorks.com (ARW) launch system can be created from a variety of materials including paper, plastic, and 3D-printed components:https://sites.google.com/view/air-rocket-works-llc/homeFor example, Jeffry Turnmire has described the use of interchangeable 3D-printed tail sections and hard nosecones in conjunction with rolled paper tubes:Tail sections: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1729214Nosecones: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1729183This posting presents an approach that uses 0.5 mm wall thickness plastic body tubes along with the squishy foam nosecones available from ARW, a 3d printed nosecone adapter and 3D-printed interchangeable tail sections. The plastic body tubes available from ARW are 10 inches in length. Body tubes 5 inches in length can be created by sliding insert_2.stl to the center of the body tube with two 3D-printed rods (insert_1.stl) inserted into the opposite ends of the tube holding everything in place.Gently rotating and scribing the body tube using the blade of a standard PVC pipe-cutting tool should cut through the 0.5 mm tube wall in one rotation around the circumference of the tube. Please note:The nosecone adapter must be attached to one end of the plastic tube using a fast-setting adhesive such as Loctite Super Glue.The tail sections are designed with an aggressive friction fit so that they stay in place during launch but can be readily interchanged.The infill density should be set at 100% to ensure the maximum strength of the thin-walled parts used to fabricate the squishy foam nosecone adapter and fin sections.Excellent quality has been achieved using the Flashforge Finder 3 set at 80 mm/sec print speed.The 0_fins.stl file can be used as a starting point for creating new tail sections in design programs such as Tinkercad.See https://youtu.be/4WRXaVxoAuE for bounce rockets being launched at 20 psi using the ARW launcher.