School Supplies? Rocket Building Stuff!

Save some money - School supplies can are cheaper now than any other time of the year.

This is the nozzle on a bottle of school glue. I wouldn't recommend the water soluble school glue for model rocket building. 

Replace the wide applicator nozzle on your wood glue bottle with this orange, fine point nozzle for more control of the glue flow. 

Unscrew the nozzle at the white collar, wash out any school glue and replace  the wood glue nozzle. It will fit the threads on the wood glue bottle.

I've used glue sticks for cardstock adapters and in carded rocketry.

Using a glue stick can give your more control on a cardstock adapter "glue tab".

Sharpies come in handy for black paint touchups, line details and Saturn V masking. Go to my Saturn V build for more details.

Back To School Rocket Items

Back to school sales often include supplies that can be used in model rocket construction.

That glue nozzle came off a 50 cent Elmer's School Glue bottle. 

I don't use school glue in rocket construction, but the round small tip nozzle fits a wood glue bottle, both the Elmer's and Titebond types. It replaces the flat wide nozzle found on wood glue.

The modeling clay was found at a Dollar Tree store. $1.25 is cheap for this much clay nose weight.

Real Shock Cord Rubber Supplier

On TRF, Caveduck referred a website with the old style shock cord rubber:

"The white rubber has additives and colorants in it that reduce the life. For a longer lasting shock cord, ditch the Estes stuff and replace with model airplane rubber motor stock. It is tan color, much more pure and lasts a really long time by comparison. In the old days Estes actually used it. 

Check out www.faimodelsupply.com - they have 1/16 through 1/4" width, and it's not that expensive, 32ft of 1/8" for $3 and change. Or you can buy a 1 lb. box for a near lifetime supply. 
Or try decent sewing elastic which also has pretty good life and fails more gracefully by losing its stretch rather than abruptly breaking. Some people don't like it but I've always had good luck with it, and it will not zipper your model."

For the 1/8" x 32' package, here's the web page: CLICK HERE
32 feet of 1/8" real rubber shock cord for $3.65. Not a bad deal.

My New Gloss White Paint

After all the bad luck I had with the Rustoleum 2X Gloss White paint I may have found a new white.

This is the generic Duplicolor Gloss White available at auto supply stores.
I'm calling it the "generic" white - smaller cans of gloss white are sold that match individual white tints from different car manufacturers.

This paint goes on smooth and dries very fast.
I don't think I can lay it on as thick as I normally would on the final coat for a wet gloss. I'm still getting used to the way this stuff coats. This paint is meant to be buffed and polished and right out of the can may not dry quite as glossy as the Rustoleum once did before.

I tried Valdspar and found it takes WAY too long to dry.
I've sent a email to Rustoleum with pictures and the batch numbers off the bad cans.
I'm still waiting on a response.
The other Rustoleum 2X colors seem to be okay - for now.

Good Shroud Line Thread

Here's a great shroud line thread available at most craft and sewing supply stores.

100% cotton thread is hard to come by. This thread is 74% Polyester, 26% Cotton.







It's comparable with parachute shroud line sold by many vendors and supplied with their parachute kits.

Just be sure to look for:
HEAVY BUTTON AND CARPET THREAD

Cheap Sandpaper!

This sandpaper pack sells for $2.59 at Harbor Freight.

Seven sheets of 9" X 11" comes out to $.37 a sheet.

Much cheaper than what I find at Home Depot or Lowe's at $1.00 a sheet.

I don't ever remember seeing 500 grit sandpaper before. I go through a lot of 400 grit. It felt close, I thought I'd give it a try.

So far, results are good. I've used the 500 grit on some dry sanding between white coats of paint. It didn't load up when smoothing up some clear dope on balsa.

The surface is almost as consistent as the Norton brand.

For the price difference I can deal with it.

Newest Launch Accessory TIP

Here's my newest piece of launch gear. I picked them up on clearance for $1.00 each.

I had bought them for working in the yard.

Continually kneeling down to connect up an igniter can over work a touchy knee joint. These garden pads help soften the job.

At the last lone-wolf launch, the ground was wet. If for no other reason, when connecting up the leads, these kept my pant legs dry!

I am working on a tripod launcher now!

Cheap Rocketry Supplies

Years back, I'd been to dollar stores but they weren't part of a national chain. Before today I wasn't impressed. These "wanna-be" stores sold things in multiples of a dollar and many of the brands looked questionable. The cashier spoke broken English.

A new Dollar Tree store opened up this week.

The 3 pack of Super Glue, 50 yard roll of masking tape and 3 pack of break off blade knives are for my range box. The gloves and foam brushes (8 pack) are for finishing.

Five items, Five bucks plus tax.

Next door to the Dollar Tree is a Home Depot. Home Depot's foam brushes were $.50 each. HDs gloves - $1.98. Snap off blade knives, $1.49 each. A three-pack of CA glue was $1.98. the only comparably priced item was the masking tape, a "utility" brand for $1.00.

I know this is nothing new to some, but I honestly haven't been in a Dollar Store for years. I was disillusioned by my previous experience and didn't see any need to go back again.