Recycled Engine Casings

To the experienced modeler, here's one of those: "We know how to do this already!" posts.
This post is aimed more to a novice enthusiast.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RE-LOAD A USED ENGINE CASING!

This post is about reusing a casing to make painting wands, centering rings and engine blocks.
Don't throw away all those used engine casings.
I might save one clean casing out of every ten flights.

You'll have to knock out the burnt debris from inside the casing.
Turn a flat blade screwdriver inside the top end of the casing.
You can see how much crud is left inside a used engine.
Do this over a trash can. Your wife will thank me.

Without knocking out the nozzle, the casing can be set over the end of a dowel for use as a spray painting wand. Use some masking tape to friction fit the casing on the dowel wand.




Again, without removing the nozzle, you can cut centering rings and engine blocks for engine mounts.
It's easiest to cut these using a fine toothed razor saw in a mitre box.

You can also cut a 1" long length off a used 24mm casing for a D engine "spacer" in a rocket designed for the longer E engines.

If you knock out the nozzle, expended casings can be used as (smaller) engine mount adapters.
A 13mm engine can be friction fitted inside an expended 18mm casing.
An 18mm engine can be friction fitted inside an expended 24mm casing.

Sometimes you'll have to peel a layer of paper off the inside of the expended casing to get the smaller diameter engine to fit.

NEVER PEEL OFF THE OUTSIDE LAYERS OF A NEW "LIVE" ENGINE TO GET IT TO FIT INTO THE LARGER CASING ADAPTER!