The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues….
Normally, this blog tries to give you some useful, constructive suggestions.But at the moment, we will look at a few things Not to attempt.
Just tonight, woven elastic webbing I was chatting with some rocketry mates by Zoom, and one of many extra senior guys holds up a couple of items destined for his high energy rocket. He’s asking for help and recommendation on find out how to proceed.
He’s acquired a medium sized carabiner in his proper hand, and in his left is a strip of what he is looking an elastic band. (It seems more just like the headband that Spock wears in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, however no matter.)
It’s a protracted size or skein of two inch extensive elastic band that appears like it would both go in a truss, a bra, or some type of back brace.
And he’s asking, “How do I attach this to that?”
The dialogue starts and rules out sewing (trigger the stitches won’t stretch), rivets (trigger they’re going to pop each time it stretches), grommets (for the same motive) and glue, (as it will not “give” with out cracking).
One rocketeer said, “Dump it, simply get a nylon rope or comparable woven tube, and tie it on”, simply as you would in mountain climbing.
All of us pretty much agreed that the two inch width of the elastic band 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 about the time that I thought of making my very own shock cord out of elastic. I was doing a scratch construct for a recycling show on how you may turn bizarre trash right into a very simple rocket and nosecone with plastic Wal-Mart bag parachute. For a shock cord, I had settled upon an previous pair of males’s tighty-whitey briefs.
I satisfied my wife to lend me her pinking sheers, and that i used a seam ripper to free the elastic band; simply click the up coming article, from the pair of shorts. Very quickly, I uninterested in the seam ripper, and went for a straight sharp pair of fabric sheers, and simply reduce as close to the waist band as I may.
Now that I had the loop of elastic free, I don’t recall if I minimize throughout the appear or ripped it free, but I wound up with a single size of one inch large elastic that still had a lot of stretch in it.
Deciding that the band was too extensive, elastic band I took the fabric sheers and lower down the middle of the band leaving an equal width of elastic band on either aspect of the lower. What I hadn’t counted upon was the fraying, which began immediately. The two elastic strips, while about 42 inches long, curled and buckled, refusing to lay flat.
This was symptomatic of how the elastic band would behave regardless of how I reduce it , stretched it, or steam pressed it. I realized that you Can’t minimize an elastic band lengthwise had have it work. (Now, for the needs of my poster board display of the components of a rocket, it worked effectively sufficient, but for actually use in a rocket, my concept would not have labored.)
What WOULD work is the acquisition of about 3 toes of slim 1/8-1/4 inch elastic from Joann Fabrics or similar shop. Apart from the run on this material to make masks throughout the pandemic, this is able to work for smaller, low-power rockets for those who wanted to replace a shock cord.