Scratch Jon's Wacky Spool Rocket Original Design / Scratch Built

Scratch - Jon's Wacky Spool Rocket {Scratch}

Contributed by Jon Revelle

Manufacturer: Scratch
(Contributed - by Jon Revelle - 03/12/06) Jon's Wack Spool Rocket

Brief:
This is a spool rocket that I built from an old Estes Alpha motor mount and an old Radio Shack copper wire spool.

Construction:
All you need to build this rocket is:

  • A empty black Radio Shack Audio Cable spool with a hole in the middle large enough for an Estes BT-20 body tube
  • BT-20 Body tube
  • Green engine stopper (Estes)
  • Motor retention hook (Estes)

Tools needed are

  • ZAP! CA glue
  • Drill press (recommended for aligning launch lug holes)
  • Elmer's White Glue

To build JWSR, you start by checking if the spool has a hole in the middle large enough for an Estes BT-20 body tube. If the body tube does not fit properly, use a drill press bit that is equivalent to the BT-20 and drill out the remaining plastic from the spool. If it barely fits, sand down the edges of the holes until the tube fits. If the hole is too large, use the green engine mount rings that fit right to get it aligned.

Assemble the motor mount (which can be purchased at any hobby shop) and make sure the mount fits. If it fits, CA it into the spool. Lastly, use a drill press and drill holes for the launch lug.

Finishing:
I added a piece of reflective tape to the middle piece.

Jon's Wack Spool Rocket

Flight:
My spool has flown several times using B6-0s up to C6-5s and has flown flawlessly until the last 2 flights.

On the second to last flight, it crashed into a driveway (since it just falls to the ground) and broke some plastic. I attempted to repair it but failed when I flew it again and went spinning out of control on last flight. The rocket has been retired and replaced with a slightly longer version of the original JWSR.

Recovery:
Recovery is by tumble recovery, meaning it just falls to the ground after ejection.

Summary:
Spool rockets are a lot of fun to have and they give you something to fly when you run out of recovery wadding or need to burn off old motors. I use mine to use motors that may be dangerous to more expensive rockets, (I had an old C6-3 CATO in the spool rocket and it suffered no damage. It would have probably destroyed the Estes Outlander it was suppose to be flown in). They are very cheap and fun to build and can definitely turn heads.

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