All Rocketry Blogs

High Power Rocketry: Nose cone parade (2007-07-14)

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High Power Rocketry: More nose cones (2007-11-21)

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High Power Rocketry: Nose Cone Parade (2008-02-28)

This is the post I do when I don't have anything to post. There is no object in the world or beyond that is as cool, as good looking, as indicative of the speed and power of rocketry, as a nose ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: The Nose Cone (2008-05-26)

While the nose cone appears to be completely assembled this is not the case. The seams/gaps formed by the two-part mold cavity are pronounced and must be filled for aesthetic and strength reasons. I ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Nose cone final assembly (2008-06-02)

After I finished filling the nose cone with foam (highly exothermic !) I loosely wrapped some masking tape inside the shoulder as a support, wiped a bunch 'o' epoxy above the tape, and inserted the ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Foam nose cone fab (2009-08-06)

While the filler is drying, I thought I'd document how I'm making the nose cone for an unnamed and not yet designed BT-101 model. I first cut three rings from a sheet of 2" pink foam using ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: The new nose cone, revealed (2009-08-12)

I managed to mostly buff out the clouded areas but the finish is not great. I'm going to wait a few days, lightly sand it, and shoot another coat. [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: While on the subject of making nose cones... (2009-08-13)

A while back, someone on some forum (Rocketry Planet?) described a method of making tail cones and transitions by removing triangular slivers of the body tube and pulling the gaps together. As I ... [Read More]

High Power Rocketry: "Honey did you remember to baste the nose cone?" (2010-01-06)

A missile nose cone being tested with intense heat, as part of reasearch on re-entry into the [Earth's] atmosphere from space. Photo: Don Cravens/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Mar 01, 1958 [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: 3" nose cone with avionics bay (2010-05-31)

I needed to add 22 oz of lead shot nose weight into Der Red Mix's nosecone today but only had one ($30 spendy!) tube of 3M DP 8005 adhesive . It's the only material I know of that will stick stuff to ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: TIP: Champagne Flute Nose Cones Part 1 (2011-01-25)

If you're like me, whenever I'm stuck shopping I always look for things that could be made into a rocket. Today I was at the Dollar Tree store. I walked past the Valentines Day junk and saw this ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: TIP: Champagne Flute Nose Cones Part 2 (2011-02-04)

It's the fourth of February, you have ten days to pick up some of these from the Dollar Tree store before they remove them from the shelves on Valentines Day! To see the first part of the cheap nose ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: TIP: Champagne Flute Nose Cones Part 3 (2011-02-05)

To make the shoulder (or coupler) cut a 1 3/4" length of the main airframe tube. Cut a line through and straight down the length of the tube. Set this split tube into the nose cone allowing it to ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: TIP: Champagne Flute Nose Cone Part 4 (2011-02-05)

After a little sanding with 220 sandpaper on a block, I got a tight butt joint if the cut shoulder piece sides. I would probably rough up the inside walls of the plastic and epoxy the shoulder into ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: TIP: Champagne Flute Nose Cone Part 5 (2011-02-08)

From gagreen on TRF : "got mine today great find... has anyone else notices that removing the heart and a little sanding to the base and stem make a pretty good looking display for mmx rockets?" ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Nose cone-from-tube experiment (2011-07-06)

I didn't completely follow the method outlined in the video attached to this post .  Here's what I tried, what worked, and what didn't.  The attached photo is as of the last step. Start ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Doin' the ol' nose cone shuffle (2011-07-28)

At the moment, I have nothing on the workbench (actually, its covered with stuff, just no active projects).  My Lost In Space Robot is stalled. I'm happy with the 'head'/nosecone section, ... [Read More]

High Power Rocketry: A ton of balsa nose cones (2011-12-05)

Sunward [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Valentines Flute Glass Nose Cones (2012-01-11)

To get ready for the next build (and to buy some really cheap 50mm plastic nose cones) check this EBAY listing click HERE These were on sale at the Dollar Stores last year, but I've yet to see them ... [Read More]

High Power Rocketry: Black Brant nose cone (2012-04-16)

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High Power Rocketry: Casting a fiberglass nose cone (2013-07-01)

  http://www.thefintels.com [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Nosecones can be such a drag (2013-08-28)

Tim VanMilligan continues his series on using a wind tunnel (12" open circuit, Eiffel type) at the Air Force Academy: Newsletter #346 . His article explains the whole experiment and has lots of ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Reference on building nose cones, tail cones and transitions from tubing (2013-09-29)

Ninfinger just added a set of vintage Ace/US Rockets publications . Most interesting is Advanced Information Report 4: Ace Fugue Shroud Method . [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: More on Papier-Mache nose cones - you will be bored if you read this (2013-12-05)

A few days ago I mentioned that I had become interested in making rocket parts (i.e. nose cones) with   Papier-Mâché. The goal would be to make  them  cheap and ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: $3 nose cones from 5-Below (2013-12-21)

The neck on these fits a 54mm tube perfectly. [Read More]

Odd'l Rockets: Nose Cones Have Arrived! (2014-12-22)

That's 45 Little Green Man and Pigasus nose cones just arrived from Balsa Machining Service. A little more expensive to produce, they are not a standard diameter or shape. Now to print i ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Polishing Plastic? Tips (2015-07-29)

Dale Bills wrote: Chris,    I searched your building blog for any mention of how to polish and buff plastic parts such as the fins and nose cone in the Estes Pro Series II E2X ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Cheap Egg Nose Cones and Payload Section (2016-03-27)

Happy Easter Today - These go on sale tomorrow! Cheap, smooth, bulbous payload nose cones. While you can't usually find a body tube that fits the upper half, glue a coupler on the bottom to ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: I want one of these nose cones (2016-12-04)

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Model Rocket Building: No More Balsa Nose Cones? (2017-01-11)

A  YORF  post from John Boren of Estes: "Estes hasn't made a NEW balsa nose cone in over six years now. All the balsa cones in kits today are from stock we are trying to use up. We no ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Big a$$ nose cones at Hobby Lobby (2017-03-31)

These three ginormous Easter Eggs could result in six equally ginormous nose cones. They are on sale for $16, which is the same as the normal price with their typical 40% weekly coupon. [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Nose Cone Shoulder Rounding - TIP (2017-05-04)

Some of the balsa nose cones I get have sharp square shoulders. Don't insert these into body tubes until you've rounded the ends. A square shoulder nose cone can damage the tube ends sometimes ... [Read More]

Rocketeer's Corner: The crafter of nose cones... (2017-05-31)

I am what is termed a "builder" - I take parts and assemble them into a complete rocket. However, I do not make the nose cones, transitions, and other parts - that is the role of vendors and ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Apogee Vacu-Form Nose Cone Fix (2018-06-19)

I bought two packages of vacu-form nose cones from Apogee. There are three nose cones in each package for six nose cones in total. I wanted to use these in my NARAM competition models. Five out ... [Read More]

Rocket N00b: Built from Scratch - A Tale of Two Berthas - Part 3 (Nose Cone) (2019-03-20)

Click here for Part 1 of this series . Click here for the most recent post in this series . The Handbook of Model Rocketry by G. Harry Stine and Bill Stine briefly describes the process of ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Discontinued Centuri 1974 Plastic Nose Cones? (2020-04-28)

The question came up on Y.O.R.F. -  Why did Centuri discontinue some of the plastic nose cones in 1974? Some posts wondered why later run kits included longer nose cones, instead of the shorter ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Clay Weight? TIP (2020-07-02)

On TRF, the question came up about different clay used for nose weight, inside plastic nose cones. On TRF, JQAvins wrote: The little Estes squares seem to be almost the same as Plasticine modeling ... [Read More]

Thrifty Rocketeer: A Hot Knife thru Butter (2021-02-07)

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues... You may have heard that there is a world-wide shortage of balsa that has been impacting the rocketry kit community. It's my understanding that to ... [Read More]