The Thrifty Rocketeer weblog continues….
Normally, this blog tries to offer you some useful, optimistic suggestions.But immediately, we’ll have a look at a few issues To not attempt.
Just tonight, I used to be chatting with some rocketry buddies by Zoom, and one of many extra senior guys holds up a couple of pieces destined for his excessive energy rocket. He’s asking for assist and recommendation on easy methods to proceed.
He’s obtained a medium sized carabiner in his right hand, and in his left is a strip of what he is asking an elastic band. (It seems to be extra just like the headband that Spock wears in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, however regardless of.)
It’s a long length or skein of two inch large elastic band that looks like it would both go in a truss, a bra, or some form of back brace.
And he is asking, “How do I attach this to that?”
The dialogue begins and guidelines out sewing (cause the stitches will not stretch), rivets (cause they’re going to pop every time it stretches), grommets (for a similar motive) and glue, (as it will not “give” without cracking).
One rocketeer stated, “Dump it, simply get a nylon rope or related woven elastic webbing tube, and tie it on”, simply as you would in mountain climbing.
We all just about agreed that the 2 inch width of the elastic band [www.video-bookmark.com] will not allow for a tight knot to be tied around the carabiner, so we settle on the nylon tube/rope concept.
Now this started me considering concerning the time that I thought of making my very own shock cord out of elastic. I used to be doing a scratch build for a recycling display on how you could flip odd trash into a quite simple rocket and nosecone with plastic Wal-Mart bag parachute. For a shock cord, I had settled upon an outdated pair of men’s tighty-whitey briefs.
I satisfied my spouse to lend me her pinking sheers, and that i used a seam ripper to free the elastic band from the pair of shorts. In a short time, I bored with the seam ripper, and went for a straight sharp pair of fabric sheers, and just minimize as near the waist band as I could.
Now that I had the loop of elastic free, I don’t recall if I reduce throughout the appear or ripped it free, however I wound up with a single length of 1 inch extensive elastic that nonetheless had numerous stretch in it.
Deciding that the band was too wide, I took the fabric sheers and lower down the middle of the band leaving an equal width of elastic band on either side of the cut. What I hadn’t counted upon was the fraying, which began immediately. The two elastic strips, while about forty two inches long, curled and buckled, refusing to put flat.
This was symptomatic of how the elastic band would behave irrespective of how I cut it , stretched it, or steam pressed it. I discovered that you Can’t cut an elastic band lengthwise had have it work. (Now, for the needs of my poster board show of the parts of a rocket, it labored well enough, however for actually use in a rocket, my thought wouldn’t have worked.)
What WOULD work is the purchase of about 3 toes of slender 1/8-1/4 inch elastic from Joann Fabrics or related store. Aside from the run on this materials to make masks through the pandemic, this may work for smaller, low-energy rockets in the event you wanted to change a shock cord.