Shapeways is offering two options for Black Friday with 20% off of orders over $75 OR Free Worldwide Shipping on orders of any value.
For 20% off orders of $75 or more, please enter tdzmu at checkout
OR for free worldwide shipping on orders of any value, enter v9v7r
Also, as of this morning, our nose cone prices have been reduced. So visit our 3D Printed Parts page OR go directly to our Shapeways shop.
If you’ve never visited George Gassaway’s site, be sure to check it out. There is a ton of useful and interesting stuff there including his award-winning Space Shuttle project, as well as his Little Joe II model projects and comprehensive scale data. Actually, there seems to be a ton of Little Joe II information that has been added since the last time I visited there.
George Gassaway’s main page: http://georgesrockets.com/GRP/GRP-home.htm
George’s Little Joe II directory page: http://georgesrockets.com/GRP/Scale/DATA/LJoeMain.htm
I finally got around to transferring some analog videos to digital recently, so I went ahead and uploaded much of the rocketry-related content to YouTube, including several Saturn I test flights (2003-2005) and the related PVC Spider R&D tests. I even added video from the Dyna-Soar/Titan I flight (2005) and the Black Brant XII (2005).
http://www.youtube.com/user/Drumn4J
I will probably embed the videos in the appropriate meatballrocketry.com locations as time allows. Enjoy!
I am still making minor adjustments to the Meatball Rocketry web content to bring things up to speed. Some interesting items:
UPDATED 11-26-2014 With gallery of Orion stage.
The following photos were taken primarily to document the style of the stenciled lettering on the Nike M5E1 motor. Some fin detail photos are also included. Note the extra metal band at the top of the Nike’s forward flange (probably not part of any flight vehicle). The screws on the nozzle shroud may or may not be standard. The shroud and fins also seem to be unusually oriented relative to the screws of the interstage adapter, indicated also by unused mounting holes in the shroud.
Note the lower stenciled lettering that reads top-down in the photos; it appears that earlier versions of both firing temperature and storage temperature limits were painted over, with only the firing temperature notation updated using the same type of stenciling (you can see some of the old lettering showing through). I assume that the upper lettering is original and not a simulation of genuine markings for display (museum-quality paint jobs complete with decals usually look a little too “pretty”).
Note: A few photos depict a similar Orion vehicle without booster.
It seems unreal to me that ten years have passed since Jess and I traveled to Pennsylvania for our first Sport Scale event at RAMTEC-10 in 2002 with the Black Brant XII and the Iris. She was pregnant with Ben at the time, who will be turning ten in September.
As far as I know, that was the last major rocket event flown from that location in Center Valley, PA, which had been host to several other model rocketry events (including at least two NARAMs if I understand correctly) over the years.
You can see photos from our 2002 trip here.
About a year ago I exchanged some emails with John Pursley on the subject of rocketry construction and what it means to recover “safely.” He posted some similar thoughts on his blog later in the year. Some of what he mentions goes against the grain a bit, at least in terms of popular ideas regarding safety and construction, but I think his ideas are worth considering:
http://jpsmodelrocketry.blogspot.com/2011/10/just-what-is-safe-recovery-model.html
Clicking on a nose cone graphic will take you to our Shapeways Shop page where you can select materials and order. This is a little easier than navigating our shop at Shapeways directly.
3D Printing (Rapid Prototyping, Additive Manufacturing) is a general term for various methods of “printing” a solid object from a 3D CAD file. Different printing processes print a variety of materials at various resolutions (surface smoothness). For more information on this increasingly popular technology, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing.
We provide printer-ready 3D CAD models while Shapeways handles payment, production, customer service, and shipping. All of our model part listings in our meatballrocketry.com Shop have links for purchasing through Shapeways.
This is “rapid prototyping” technology. Each 3D-printed part is made to order by the printing service; there will naturally be a bit of a delay between ordering and shipping, depending on part size and material. More info available at Shapeways.com.
Parts are priced based on Shapeways’ costs plus our markup. Parts with larger volumes can get a bit pricey (more material used = higher cost). Keep in mind these parts are not produced en masse; every 3D CAD file is printed individually to order.
Nose Cone in White Strong & FlexibleThe smoothness of the final product’s surface depends on the material and printing process used. Many items suitable for sport models (such as nose cones) are fine for printing in the White Strong & Flexible material (WSF), but the finish is somewhat grainy. Some non-detailed smaller parts can use the Polished version of WSF for a smoother finish.
1:72 J-2 Engine in Frosted Ultra DetailShapeways has specific design rules for large items in order to avoid printing problems and wasted time and materials. Objects over 117mm must have a wall thickness increase of 0.006mm for every millimeter beyond 117mm. The drawback is that the wall thickness may be greater than structurally necessary, driving costs up somewhat. We have modified our CAD files were possible (e.g. separating shoulder from nose cone) in order to reduce the total length of some parts and avoid excessive wall thickness.
