Centurion Autopsy

My Semroc Centurion has been through the wringer!
A few years after the initial build, it got epoxy fillets and a repaint. Flights were good for a while.
Recently, after a bad two stage attempt it went horizontal and crashed into a tree. Rebuilt with three new fins.
The last flight broke off a fin on landing. After 15 flights it's time for a new build.
Before throwing it out, let's open it up and check the condition of the baffle. I always wondered how the thick card stock top and bottom would hold up to repeated ejection charges.

On the lower left is the bottom side baffle plate that faces the top of the engine.
The gray crud is all the ejection charge buildup.
Both of the punched disks got a good coat of white glue before gluing them to the coupler. The white glue seems to have protected it well.
There doesn't seem to be any degradation of the disk thickness. I would think the ejection buildup acts like an insulator, building up a little more with each flight.

Here's the top baffle plate with a little bit of the body tube still attached.
Above the exit holes there is gray discoloration on the inside of the tube, but no burning of the inside.






Cutting off the top disk you can see much of the same gray crud that was on the bottom.

Under that layer is the end of the elastic shock cord, the tail end glued flat against the inside disk.
I pulled off the shock cord and it was still stretchy!

I salvaged the nose cone and two 12" parachutes for the new build.
Those two parachutes had no melts in them after 15 flights and ejections through the baffle.