What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
the model rocket show
The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
prfesser said:
Drove to Nashville, which town continues to be incapable of anything resembling reasonable traffic flow. Interstate 24 to I-65 is always, always a mess.
Click to expand...

That is because of I40. That I65/I24/I40 is one of, if not the most congested interstate interchanges in the country.

All the times I drove to Huntsville or Pensacola it was a mess, and if you flipped Channel 19 on, you could hear "Shame on the Mess" 😂
 
(Yesterday) More fun and games at airports. Plane to PGH was delayed by over an hour. Okay. And moved to a different gate. Okay. Finally got on the plane. Waiting. Captain "I'm sorry, we have a couple of issues to fix, and we'll have to turn off the air conditioning while we fix them." Passengers grumble loudly.

After ten minutes or so, the Captain: "We're going to have to move to a different plane." More grumbling. Everyone exits to yet another gate for yet another hour+ delay.

We finally board. Lots of p**sed-off people on board, more grumbling, nerves are on edge. Prfesser stands up, turns around. "I know you're all wondering why I asked you here today." Some laughter. Pause.

"I want to talk to you about your car's extended warranty."

Plane erupts in laughter. Stunning blue-eyed redhead Irish (lovely brogue!) stewardess comes by; "You get a free drink" :)

Made it to Mom's a bit before midnight.
 
Desperately trying to get in best form for cycling event next Saturday with 8000 other masochists. There is no such thing as cramming, but there is a balance to peaking at the right time. Even if I peak on race day, I don't think I can finish this one in the time limit...312 km (194 mi), 5,050 m (16.6k ft) climbing in 14h20m. I'm treating this attempt as a bench marking exercise. Figure out where I am versus this beast, and what aspects need more work. I'll complete this thing someday, but probably not this year. I think the intermediate cutoff at 220 km by 10h will get me. Too much climbing before that and I'm not an aggressive/skilled enough descender to make up what I need to there.

1713379370991.png
1713379444446.png
 
Cl(VII) said:
Desperately trying to get in best form for cycling event next Saturday with 8000 other loons. There is no such thing as cramming, but there is a balance to peaking at the right time. Even if I peak on race day, I don't think I can finish this one in the time limit...312 km (194 mi), 5,050 m (16.6k ft) climbing in 14h20m. I'm treating this attempt as a bench marking exercise. Figure out where I am versus this beast, and what aspects need more work. I'll complete this thing someday, but probably not this year. I think the intermediate cutoff at 220 km by 10h will get me. Too much climbing before that and I'm not an aggressive/skilled enough descender to make up what I need to there.

View attachment 641108
View attachment 641109
Click to expand...
Is it a mountain biking or regular?
 
Cl(VII) said:
Road, I only do road and gravel. My noble steed for the effort. Maybe my bike being Spanish, well Basque, will give me some home country advantage.

View attachment 641112
Click to expand...
Ok but why the fear of going fast down hill, I mean I mountain bike (if you’ve ever visited the Appalachians you’ll know that even biking is mountain biking) and I’ll zoom down hill and try to not fly if the mountain or hit a rock. Both of which aren’t really a thing on roads?
 
NTP2 said:
Ok but why the fear of going fast down hill, I mean I mountain bike (if you’ve ever visited the Appalachians you’ll know that even biking is mountain biking) and I’ll zoom down hill and try to not fly if the mountain or hit a rock. Both of which aren’t really a thing on roads?
Click to expand...
There are plenty of opportunities for chaos and mayhem while descending on a road. Tight turns with sharp dropoffs, oncoming traffic, you name it.
 
NTP2 said:
Ok but why the fear of going fast down hill, I mean I mountain bike (if you’ve ever visited the Appalachians you’ll know that even biking is mountain biking) and I’ll zoom down hill and try to not fly if the mountain or hit a rock. Both of which aren’t really a thing on roads?
Click to expand...
I believe you are still young and immortal, and I am relatively old (45) and have had multiple surgeries to reconstruct me after cycling accidents...been in a wheelchair before from a cycling accident: 1 star, would not recommend.

Seriously, the thing is there are little rocks, sand, grit on the road and those are the really scary things. I can see a ROCK coming and avoid it, but grit in a hairpin is often invisible until your wheels break free. Also, straight line my nerves are good to about 45 mph, but these kind of descents are full of switchbacks, and you could easily hit 60+ mph without pedaling (you basically have to push a MB off a cliff to hit those speeds). I did a descent in the Alps last year (off Col de Joux Plane into Morzine) where I could literally smell my brakes as I slowed through the switchbacks. I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, and this is a very different experience. Keep in mind also that my front tire is a 28 mm wide slick and my rear is a 30 mm slick (and those are considered wide on a road bike) running at 80 and 70 psi respectively. Compare that to a 2" or wider MB tire running in the 30 psi range and my contact patch with the ground is probably about 1/4 of what you got or less.

Also, goats! Like really, in Mallorca goats can just kinda appear on roads. Some friends were on a trip there last month and someone in their tour group hit a goat on a descent. The goat did not survive, and the cyclist is not expected to. They described the aftermath as "soup."
 
Cl(VII) said:
I believe you are still young and immortal, and I am relatively old (45) and have had multiple surgeries to reconstruct me after cycling accidents...been in a wheelchair before from a cycling accident: 1 star, would not recommend.
Click to expand...
your right I’m 15 and I think I’m immortal (and so far it’s true) but I have had a bad accident though not as bad as yours (mine just involved a doctor who kept telling me how it was like a orange)… not judging just curious!
 
Cl(VII) said:
Seriously, the thing is there are little rocks, sand, grit on the road and those are the really scary things. I can see a ROCK coming and avoid it, but grit in a hairpin is often invisible until your wheels break free. Also, straight line my nerves are good to about 45 mph, but these kind of descents are full of switchbacks, and you could easily hit 60+ mph without pedaling (you basically have to push a MB off a cliff to hit those speeds). I did a descent in the Alps last year (off Col de Joux Plane into Morzine) where I could literally smell my brakes as I slowed through the switchbacks. I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, and this is a very different experience. Keep in mind also that my front tire is a 28 mm wide slick and my rear is a 30 mm slick (and those are considered wide on a road bike) running at 80 and 70 psi respectively. Compare that to a 2" or wider MB tire running in the 30 psi range and my contact patch with the ground is probably about 1/4 of what you got or less.
Click to expand...
I used to ride on 23mm tires (I was about 170# then), then went to 25mm or a bit wider, running 110psi+ then.
There are descents around here that will easily get you 55mph, mostly straight line. You have to keep your cool and don't do anything stupid. I did a windy descent into Zion canyon on a rental road bike and stayed conservative for many reasons. I did a long descent one time with a 90 degree turn at the bottom, I didn't keep my cool and didn't make it. I've had a few bad crashes due to things hitting me and don't ride anymore.

I think a part of racing is pushing the limits and taking chances, at least in a solo race. In a team race like TDF the leaders take a more conservative approach so they can survive all of the stages. I read a story about car racing that said you weren't driving at your limit unless the officials stationed around the track were sending radio requests for emergency vehicles because they thought you were going to crash.
 
We added 4 more rivets to our turbocharger inlet scoop and splitter. Two rivets on each side near the big red X.

The first photo shows how we improvised a jig to clamp the pieces tightly. We drilled a hole in plywood and shaped it with a bandsaw. Then put a piece of steel on top of that to add rigidity. Then we used a C clamp to mash everything tightly. We put a rivet in the hole and slid everything on to a bucking bar clamped in a bench vise. Frank used a rivet gun to drive the rivet as I rocked the assembly back and forth to keep the rivet from bending over. We need to create these weird clamping techniques because the steel parts we made don't fit together as nicely as we would like. Regular Clecos just can't pull the steel parts together as tightly as needed. They work well on aluminum, but steel fights back to much.

The second photo shows where we put the other two rivets. These were much harder to drive as they are inside the assembly and we basically have to guess where to put the bucking bar to smash the shaft of the rivet. Obviously, you can see the head of the rivet, but the shaft is inside the assembly and you have to estimate where to position everything to successfully rivet. None of the bucking bars we had worked on these rivets. I eventually found an extruded steel hexagon rod that worked. We clamped it into a bench vise and slid the assembly onto it and sort of felt our way onto the rivet shaft.
 

Attachments

  • Turbo Inlet Scoop 1.jpg
    Turbo Inlet Scoop 1.jpg
    3.9 MB · Views: 0
  • Turbo Inlet Scoop 2.jpg
    Turbo Inlet Scoop 2.jpg
    3.8 MB · Views: 0
Took one of the girl cats to the Vet. An hour before I wanted to put her in the carrier I walked up to her and her sister and was petting them. When I went to get her I tried to do the same thing. Pet one and then the other. As soon as I went to pick her up she bolted. Then it was 30 minutes to catch her. After that I went back to Quick Care. The doc put in a prescription for something for the cough the nausea and some steroids and ordered a chest x-ray. He told me that what I have is going around town. Glad it's not Covid.
 
Cape Byron said:
Like I always say, you can do a lot with six inches and good technique.

View attachment 641179
Click to expand...

Ai: Hello Mal, what can I do for you today?
Mal: I need a picture of some cut logs with a Ryobi trimmer in it.
Ai: I don't think that's going to convince anyone Mal. They'll, you know, just have to look at it
Mal: I really need some cred with this new trimmer I spent money on. The rocket guys are still laughing at me.
Ai: Here's the best I could do. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Mal: Switches power off....................
Mal: Posts picture on TRF. mumbling...... They'll never notice, They think Lakeroadsters rockets actually fly.....
@lakeroadster
:)
Edit: Mal switches computer on again and apologises to Ai.
Ai:YES MAL WHAT DO YOU WANT THIS TIME?????
Mal: Could you create some narrative so that people won't think I used you to create the image/ photo?
Ai: Here is something amusing and slightly self deprecating so your rocketry friends might find it believable......
Ai:
If I wanted to post an AI pic it would be on Tinder.

Cue more six inch jokes. :D
Mal:Thanks, that should work.
Ai:Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Mal:Switches off power again. Fuse blows......
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HaHa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.......
 
Last edited:
I finished 10 donation boxes for the local non-profit animal shelter.

I cut the plywood, glued them together, painted them and put the vinyl stickers on them,

Randy at eRockets had Eric laser cut the plexiglass tops for me.

Gloria at the local library printed the vinyl stickers.
 

Attachments

  • Donation Boxes.jpg
    Donation Boxes.jpg
    1.5 MB · Views: 0

Similar threads

Wayco
Wayco and Hardline's Northern exposure
Replies
13
Views
474
Wayco
Wayco
DAllen
Show me your multi-tools!
2
Replies
40
Views
2K
stealth6
stealth6
MarsLander
Did I somehow let the smoke out of my featherweight mag switch?
Replies
2
Views
165
MarsLander
MarsLander
StreuB1
30th Anniversary
Replies
1
Views
369
Hobie1dog
Hobie1dog
B
anybody use pinstripe tape?
Replies
19
Views
699
lr64
L

Latest posts

Back
Top