Model Rocket Engines

what size are they? the dimensions of them? I'm building a model rocket car for art class (yes i'm that guy) and I need to know what size the drill hood should be for a block of wood and how do you think I should hold the engine in?

I think thiers many sizes, and the diameter differrs.

The small ones are 18mm OD(thats a tight fit).
Best bet is to pick up the ones you need and measure that way you dont have to drill twice. Just my :2cents:

"Model rocket motors produced by companies like Estes Industries and Quest Aerospace are stamped with a code (such as A10-3T or B6-4) that tells several things about of motor."

"Motors are commercially available in many sizes. The Quest Micro Maxx engines are the smallest at a diameter of 6mm. The company Apogee made 10.5mm micro motors, but those were discontinued in 2001. Estes then comes in with "T" (Tiny) motors that are 13 mm in diameter by 45 mm long, while standard A, B and C motors are 18 mm in diameter by 70 mm long. Larger C, D, and E class black powder motors are also available; they are 24 mm in diameter and either 70 (C and D motors) or 95 mm long (E motors). Some motors, such as F and G single-use motors are 29mm in diameter. High-power motors (usually reloadable) are available in 38mm, 54mm, 75mm, and 98mm diameters."



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/79/WikiModelRocketMotors.jpg/388px-WikiModelRocketMotors.jpg
From left, 13mm A10-0, 18mm C6-7, 24mm D12-5, 24mm E9-4, 29mm G40-10.

Wiki

hmm, What would you use on a rocket car this small?

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/rocketcar.jpg

Note - wheels will be thinner, rocket bay may need to be lengthened.

better edit

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/rocketcar2.jpg

i used to love those things! too bad it took alot of time to get a few launchings.... id say the c should be big enough right? a d blasted a rocket 100's of feet in the air, so something on wheels........

C should be fine for what he's doing.

AlbanyCartel, how much thrust do those engines put out ?
I couldnt find any faqs on aproximate thrust.

Where I live you have to have a license to purchase those larger rocket motors. I was thinking 24 mm was teh biggest at hobey stores. You can order big monsters but you have to be a real rocket junkie. Sucks spending a year building it and 30 sec for things to go wrong(to explode) :shakehead

C should be fine for what he's doing.

AlbanyCartel, how much thrust do those engines put out ?
I couldnt find any faqs on aproximate thrust.

Where I live you have to have a license to purchase those larger rocket motors. I was thinking 24 mm was teh biggest at hobey stores. You can order big monsters but you have to be a real rocket junkie. Sucks spending a year building it and 30 sec for things to go wrong(to explode) :shakehead

How do you think NASA feels?

3D Design Project - Rocket Car
Pics of my progress (5 hours of work today)

The hardest part was sawing the pieces in half, because our teacher said he didn't want us cutting the wood in half (height wise) w/ the bandsaw because we'd cut our fingers off. So I used hand saws.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/old1.jpg
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/old2.jpg

I left class early with my friend and we picked up some supplies and came back to class. One of these was a 2-1/4 hole cutter drill bit, using the drill press, making the wheels was easy. Besides this girl was making a toy car and the way she made the wheels made me cringe. Work smarter, not harder.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/new1.jpg
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/new2.jpg
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/new3.jpg

Nice engines huh? guess who sells them, MICHAEL'S CRAFTS STORE. All that's left are the axels, sanding down/shaping, and gluing. Btw see all those fins? lucky scraps from cutting, save everything!!

those are some big rockets for such a small car.

it might just take fly with those babies :grinyes:

Looks Good Though !

1 day from completion, I made some changes.

First, I took the recovery of the rocket engine into account and will drill all the way through the block and remove the aero-wedge there, so it looks like a jet engine. Then I'm buying a piece that will hold the rocket engine in place so it doesn't work like a rocket launcher. In order to do all of this I raised the position of the block up from where it was, so it's even more taller in the back.

The front axles are just about done. Without using any metal, I cut short pieces of the dowel I bought and attached it to another small block (may prove to be bad for aerodynamics, but it adds some weight to the front. The Wheels roll nicely. Pictures when I finish.

I finished on sunday, but I may need to make some changes before I actually race it. The people in my art class especially liked how I talked about building it and how it works. It wasn't really 'art' though compared to crafts. So what?! It took a back seat to some other projects but I'm sure they'd change their minds when they saw it run.

Here's the final pics (before a possible video)

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/brandnewbag.jpg
Baby's got a Brand New Bag!!

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/comparo.jpg
It was a crazy transformation from the piece of pine wood to this, you know just by looking at it.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/front.jpg
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g117/DynographK/back.jpg

I'm going to go to a hobby shop and ask around to see who wants to race it. I need to lower the front right axle because only 3 wheels touch the floor.

thats pretty cool
i'd suggest making the rocket aim slightly up, pressing the car its self down.
otherwise, it'll probably just spin about in circles.


edit:
and i just saw the date...
sorry.

thats pretty cool
i'd suggest making the rocket aim slightly up, pressing the car its self down.
otherwise, it'll probably just spin about in circles.


edit:
and i just saw the date...
sorry.

The good news was that this wasn't engineering class, the bad news was that no one really cared in my art class...some people but not others, and I had by FAR the best project...pfft!!!! I didn't launch it, I actually need to reglue one axle. It's at home with my parents now. Frickin great fun to make.

you need to get video of that thing launching, that'd be sweet. in high school my physics teacher had a bunch of model rockets that we'd launch every once in a while, they were sweet. we never got a good measurement on the highest one of them flew but it was over 400m(1,300ft) in the air. that one was a bigass one with i believe an F but it could have been a G. we launched alot and most of them got to about 200-300m but it wasn't uncommon for us to get a bunch around 400m in one day.