All Rocketry Blogs

Rich's Rockets: Building the (scratch) R13 (2016-02-14)

I’ve started building the R13, an oddroc I conceived of almost a year ago. I’ve been referring to it here as RX, but forget that. I decided last year to build a smaller, less odd ... [Read More]

Rich's Rockets: Building the (scratch) R13 (part 2) (2016-02-16)

Next I kludged up a long BT-50 to ST-115 centering ring. I cut another short piece of ST-115 and cut out a strip to make it a slip fit into the body tube; then I added three layers of 90# index ... [Read More]

Rich's Rockets: Building the (scratch) R13 (part 3) (2016-02-17)

The launch lugs are going to have to stand off the ST-115 just slightly, because there’s this ridiculous tiny piece of BT-55 going in at the front. Only a tenth of an inch larger diameter, but ... [Read More]

Rich's Rockets: Building the (scratch) R13 (part 4) (2016-02-20)

That little piece of BT-55 forms the middle of a barrel-shaped transition between the main body tube and the “nose cone”. I glued in BT-50 to -55 centering rings. Then I cut out the upper ... [Read More]

Rich's Rockets: Building the (scratch) R13 (part 5) (2016-03-06)

Having come away from eRockets with ten 3″ long 3/16″ launch lugs, I’d say it’s time to finish (for now) work on the R13. On the upper lug I used a scrap of balsa for a ... [Read More]

Rich's Rockets: Building the (scratch) R13 (part 6) (2016-06-25)

I also painted the R13.Next comes the interesting part. I don’t have a Buffet R13 clarinet but I do have a Buffet-made Evette,* which, let’s be honest, is kind of like saying I d ... [Read More]

Rich's Rockets: Building the (scratch) R13 (part 7) (2016-07-28)

The “keys” were cut from silver trim Monokote. What I ended up doing was pulling my “unrolled clarinet” photo into GraphicConverter, using the Edges effect on it, and flipping ... [Read More]

Rich's Rockets: Building the (scratch) R13 (part 8) (2016-07-29)

Here’s the nose cone. The finest clarinet mouthpiece money can buy anywhere, if by “anywhere” you mean “from Chinese eBay merchants” and by “money” you mean ... [Read More]

Rich's Rockets: Building the (scratch) R13 (part 9) (2016-08-04)

Hey, what’s this? My rocket has holes in it!Question is, though: Does it play? Sort of. Badly. But it plays. I neglected to try out the cheapo mouthpiece on a real clarinet before gluing it to ... [Read More]

Rich's Rockets: Building the (scratch) R13 (part 10) (2016-08-07)

I have a cheap metal ligature to go with the cheap mouthpiece, but a strict reading of the NAR Model Rocket Safety Code would prohibit using it. I might get away with it but why get into it? Instead ... [Read More]