Building good rockets on the cheap.

Objective: Build, from scratch, a D powered rocket using equipment you may have around town.

Primary equipment and sources and costs. Compare and Contrast

Componant	Real Rocket Price	Milly's Cheapo Price
Nose Cone	15.00-20.00	free
Tail Fins	5.00-?	3.00
Launch Lug	1.00?	.50
Engine Mount	5.00-8.00	free
Shock Cord	2.00-3.00 per foot	3.00 for 5 feet
Parachutes	8.00-20.00	5.00
Air Frame	8.00-11.00	5.00

Alright, so what does my rockets look like you may ask? They must look like crap since I didn't spend a lot of money on the parts right? Judge yourself.

Oh did I forget to mention that I built two rockets for less money then a typical person would build just one rocket. Note that both rockets are able to fly on D engines the one on the left is modifiable to larger diameters. So how did I do this then?

---

Rule #1: Why buy when you can scrounge.

Look around your home or place of work for parts, make sure to ask permission to grab the gear you want, but this is probably the eaisest way to get good quality junk. What am I talking about, the reason the tubes are the cost they were was because I went out to Kinkos copies and bought some shipping tubes. If you find the right store sometimes you can get rockets with diameters up to 5 inches, the drawback is that usually shipping tubes are standard length. If you want a taller rocket you will have to look into getting a coubler, I'll discuss the cheap way around that in a future article. Here are my tubes.

Rule #2: The next best thing to Ducktape is blue stirofoam.

In the large rocket I decided to do a more typical engine mount using a engine mount tube and going with balsa wood for the spacers, I needed to pull off a "October Sky" situition having our departmental machinist bore out the centers, the second rocket, (upper right) was done on the cheapist budget. Just take a look at these pictures and judge for yourself.