How to Remove Piston from Cylinder

Dan wrote:

Looking back I can see several occasions where I should have been
injured or killed with some things I did. I proved launching a plastic
model Saturn V is possible with off the shelf C engines. I also proved
that didn't include going in the intended direction.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

I found that you could use the charge portion of the model rocket engine
that is supposed to pop the parachute to set off firecrackers. I'd make
the body of the rocket out of a cardboard tube from a roll Christmas
wrapping and cut the fins and nosecone out of a shoe box lid. My plan
was always to blow them up before they came back down.

I would also light them with homemade fuses made from heavy cotton
string soaked in a solution of black powder and watter then rolled in
fine black powder. I got fuse instructions out of an old book on
armaments.

Tony

Anthony W wrote:
Dan wrote:

Looking back I can see several occasions where I should have been
injured or killed with some things I did. I proved launching a plastic
model Saturn V is possible with off the shelf C engines. I also proved
that didn't include going in the intended direction.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

I found that you could use the charge portion of the model rocket engine
that is supposed to pop the parachute to set off firecrackers. I'd make
the body of the rocket out of a cardboard tube from a roll Christmas
wrapping and cut the fins and nosecone out of a shoe box lid. My plan
was always to blow them up before they came back down.

I would also light them with homemade fuses made from heavy cotton
string soaked in a solution of black powder and watter then rolled in
fine black powder. I got fuse instructions out of an old book on
armaments.

Tony

Fingers? We don't need no stinking fingers.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

On Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:26:56 GMT, Anthony W
wrote:

Dan wrote:

Looking back I can see several occasions where I should have been
injured or killed with some things I did. I proved launching a plastic
model Saturn V is possible with off the shelf C engines. I also proved
that didn't include going in the intended direction.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

I found that you could use the charge portion of the model rocket engine
that is supposed to pop the parachute to set off firecrackers. I'd make
the body of the rocket out of a cardboard tube from a roll Christmas
wrapping and cut the fins and nosecone out of a shoe box lid. My plan
was always to blow them up before they came back down.

I would also light them with homemade fuses made from heavy cotton
string soaked in a solution of black powder and watter then rolled in
fine black powder. I got fuse instructions out of an old book on
armaments.

Tony

I used to just glue balsa fins and nose right onto the rocket engine.
I also made a hand held launcher for non-vertical deployment
I Wish I had of thought of using the engine to light firecrackers a
cherry bomb would make a great finish to a flight.

Drew Dalgleish wrote:

I used to just glue balsa fins and nose right onto the rocket engine.
I also made a hand held launcher for non-vertical deployment
I Wish I had of thought of using the engine to light firecrackers a
cherry bomb would make a great finish to a flight.

Back when I was a kid, model rocket engines were hard to come by, now
they can be mail ordered. It's the firecrackers that are hard to come
by these days or at least in socialist Oregon.

Tony

Dan wrote:

I would also light them with homemade fuses made from heavy cotton
string soaked in a solution of black powder and watter then rolled in
fine black powder. I got fuse instructions out of an old book on
armaments.

Tony

Fingers? We don't need no stinking fingers.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Making fuse is dangerous? It was all out in the open and the worst I
could have gotten was a burn. I used the same black power that I used
with the muzzle-loader pistol that I had back then and it was way more
dangerous than my exploits in home made fuses.

Tony

Anthony W wrote:
Dan wrote:

I would also light them with homemade fuses made from heavy cotton
string soaked in a solution of black powder and watter then rolled in
fine black powder. I got fuse instructions out of an old book on
armaments.

Tony

Fingers? We don't need no stinking fingers.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Making fuse is dangerous? It was all out in the open and the worst I
could have gotten was a burn. I used the same black power that I used
with the muzzle-loader pistol that I had back then and it was way more
dangerous than my exploits in home made fuses.

Tony

An unexpectedly fast burning fuse can toast one's fingers while
testing. If you want to see a test of relative burn rates between
smokeless and black powders burn a spoonful of each. Use a blowtorch to
ignite the black powder. It will burn fast enough to extinguish the torch.

It was also a commentary on some of the other clever moves I have
seen and done. I have a series of photographs of one fool using his
buttocks to launch an oversize bottle rocket. The last picture shows a
significant amount of charring.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Dan wrote:
An unexpectedly fast burning fuse can toast one's fingers while
testing. If you want to see a test of relative burn rates between
smokeless and black powders burn a spoonful of each. Use a blowtorch to
ignite the black powder. It will burn fast enough to extinguish the torch.

It was also a commentary on some of the other clever moves I have seen
and done. I have a series of photographs of one fool using his buttocks
to launch an oversize bottle rocket. The last picture shows a
significant amount of charring.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

I for most of my home spun fireworks, I didn't roll the fuse in black
powder only soaked them in a 50/50 black power/water solution then hung
them up up to dry. This made for some very slow fuses. I put a 24"
fuse on one of my first homemade devices and I waited several minutes
for it to go off. Watching it through binoculars was like watching
paint dry until the end. ;o)

For the rocket motors, I had to roll the motor end in black powder
before drying to get reliable ignition. I only rolled one test fuse for
the full length. It was too damn fast for my tastes. I like to be able
to get back aways before things go boom. I guess I'm just enough
fearful to keep from blowing my self up...

If I ever play with model rockets again, I'll use the electric igniters
that come with the engines. There was a certain level of simplicity
using a welding rod and fuse to do the launch when I was a kid...

Tony

"Anthony W" wrote in message
...
Dan wrote:
An unexpectedly fast burning fuse can toast one's fingers while
testing. If you want to see a test of relative burn rates between
smokeless and black powders burn a spoonful of each. Use a blowtorch to
ignite the black powder. It will burn fast enough to extinguish the
torch.

It was also a commentary on some of the other clever moves I have seen
and done. I have a series of photographs of one fool using his buttocks
to launch an oversize bottle rocket. The last picture shows a significant
amount of charring.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

I for most of my home spun fireworks, I didn't roll the fuse in black
powder only soaked them in a 50/50 black power/water solution then hung
them up up to dry. This made for some very slow fuses. I put a 24" fuse
on one of my first homemade devices and I waited several minutes for it to
go off. Watching it through binoculars was like watching paint dry until
the end. ;o)

For the rocket motors, I had to roll the motor end in black powder before
drying to get reliable ignition. I only rolled one test fuse for the full
length. It was too damn fast for my tastes. I like to be able to get
back aways before things go boom. I guess I'm just enough fearful to keep
from blowing my self up...

If I ever play with model rockets again, I'll use the electric igniters
that come with the engines. There was a certain level of simplicity using
a welding rod and fuse to do the launch when I was a kid...

Tony

We had a rocketry club in my high school, of which I was a member. As it
happened, none of us had a clue about the structural materials involved,
including our faculty advisor; but a couple of the members did at least know
the names of the chemicals needed for reasonalby high performance
propellants.

In those innocent days, you could still buy just about anything you knew the
name of, so each of our attempts was sufficiently grandiose to fully
compensate for the abject failures which preceeded it. Fortunately, we were
sufficiently safety coscious to stay well back from the intended launch site
and behind a small berm.

Of course, when ever more grandiose attempts don't quite succeed, there can
be ever more grandiose failures--the last of which destroyed our ignition
and launching equipment. That's probably just as well, since we made made
our last rocket of steel which we believed would sufficiently robust....

Clearly, a little more knowledge and/or advice would have given at least as
much entertainment from the successfull launch of cardboard rockets that
would not have attempted to duplicate those clever hypersonic nozzels that
we copied from the space program.


Peter

In article , Dan
wrote:

An unexpectedly fast burning fuse can toast one's fingers while
testing. If you want to see a test of relative burn rates between
smokeless and black powders burn a spoonful of each. Use a blowtorch to
ignite the black powder. It will burn fast enough to extinguish the torch.

And the amount of black powder that you light up can affect what it does.

A bigger pile can blow up in your face instead of just a little puff.

Peter Dohm wrote:
"Anthony W" wrote in message
...
Dan wrote:
An unexpectedly fast burning fuse can toast one's fingers while
testing. If you want to see a test of relative burn rates between
smokeless and black powders burn a spoonful of each. Use a blowtorch to
ignite the black powder. It will burn fast enough to extinguish the
torch.

It was also a commentary on some of the other clever moves I have seen
and done. I have a series of photographs of one fool using his buttocks
to launch an oversize bottle rocket. The last picture shows a significant
amount of charring.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired
I for most of my home spun fireworks, I didn't roll the fuse in black
powder only soaked them in a 50/50 black power/water solution then hung
them up up to dry. This made for some very slow fuses. I put a 24" fuse
on one of my first homemade devices and I waited several minutes for it to
go off. Watching it through binoculars was like watching paint dry until
the end. ;o)

For the rocket motors, I had to roll the motor end in black powder before
drying to get reliable ignition. I only rolled one test fuse for the full
length. It was too damn fast for my tastes. I like to be able to get
back aways before things go boom. I guess I'm just enough fearful to keep
from blowing my self up...

If I ever play with model rockets again, I'll use the electric igniters
that come with the engines. There was a certain level of simplicity using
a welding rod and fuse to do the launch when I was a kid...

Tony

We had a rocketry club in my high school, of which I was a member. As it
happened, none of us had a clue about the structural materials involved,
including our faculty advisor; but a couple of the members did at least know
the names of the chemicals needed for reasonalby high performance
propellants.

In those innocent days, you could still buy just about anything you knew the
name of, so each of our attempts was sufficiently grandiose to fully
compensate for the abject failures which preceeded it. Fortunately, we were
sufficiently safety coscious to stay well back from the intended launch site
and behind a small berm.

Of course, when ever more grandiose attempts don't quite succeed, there can
be ever more grandiose failures--the last of which destroyed our ignition
and launching equipment. That's probably just as well, since we made made
our last rocket of steel which we believed would sufficiently robust....

Clearly, a little more knowledge and/or advice would have given at least as
much entertainment from the successfull launch of cardboard rockets that
would not have attempted to duplicate those clever hypersonic nozzels that
we copied from the space program.


Peter



The funny part comes when you find out everything you needed was
either already in the home or innocently sold at hardware stores.

For people reading this thread who want to go play with chemicals as
we have been discussing I have something very important to tell them:
most of the formulae one finds on the internet or in books are not safe
and frequently not even correct.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired