Fully 3D Printed Rocket

Although I love building rockets, it's not cheap, and it's also a long and annoying process to buy rocket parts, motors, and building supplies. But I think there's a simple solution: 3D printing! All you have to do is design some parts on your computer, and they can be printed right at your house, for a fraction of the cost. I recently acquired a 3D printer, so I figured I'd try making a prototype. The biggest thing I wanted to test was whether or not it could fly, as one potential downside of 3D printing parts is that the plastic is a lot denser than commercially used cardboard/paper tubes, which might make the rocket very heavy.

Here are all of the files that I designed and printed for this rocket (b6 is the type of motor I used): https://cad.onshape.com/documents/3e2b239fb5503561cb376f18/w/e5ba021ccef349fb7d84def6/e/ad0adba315bdd9460d5b36d7?renderMode=0&uiState=66aadf0b2339e021f0b87053 

At the bottom, you can click through to see what each piece looks like.

After assembling the rocket simply using some super glue, here's what it looks like:

Below is a video of the test flight. I used a b6-0 rocket motor: B6-0 Engines - Estes Rockets 

Everything went well, except the parachute ejected too early, so the rocket spiraled down at the end. However, that was expected with the type of motor I used (0 second delay, meaning the parachute ejected as soon as the motor stopped burning). My main goal was to see how it flew, and it flew well, so this was definitely a successful prototype and launch:

After the success of my 3d printed prototype rocket, I decided to try to make a full-scale version. As always, everything was 3d printed (except for the parachute, which I made out of some tablecloth). I also designed this rocket to be used with my DIY motor, because I needed a way to test my motor.

Here are all of the files I designed and printed, feel free to look at them and even use them if you want to try something like this yourself:

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/68438c2c85cb5eabb3b1060a/w/47954e0041b878d4457aa257/e/08c38f03313766c498a17847?renderMode=0&uiState=66ad98b61cdfec1a3e170ba0 

The general idea of this rocket is to test the viability of using 3D printed parts to make rockets, and to test my homemade rocket motor. Since my motor doesn't have an ejection charge, I will use a fuse and some black powder to eject the parachute. Below is the construction process, step-by-step:

Here are all of the printed parts:

The only thing not there is the piece that goes on the motor so the motor can be put into the rocket. 

Step 1. I made the parachutes with a tablecloth, and attached one end of the string to the nose cone, and the other end to a piece of thick paper:

Step 2. I glued a stopper to stop the parachute from falling too low into the tube (left) and the thick piece of paper into the upper body tube (right):

Step 3. I made the pre-printed fins on the lower body tube (left) too small, so I designed and printed larger fins (right) that could be glued on:

Step 4. Onto the lower body tube, I glued the larger fins on, and also glued on a coupler to join the lower and upper body tubes together:

Step 5. Onto the coupler, I glued on a little cover over where a fuse would eventually go:

Step 6. I attached two rail guides to the side of the rocket, which will guide it along the launch rail when it is launched:

Step 7. I installed the parachute ejection charge (in the blue bag) and the fuse, which goes in the ejection charge bag and sticks out of the rocket so it can be ignited (the fuse is white). I made it by tightly wrappping a small amount of motor fuel in a tissue, and rolling the tissue up.

Step 8. I put on the upper tube, secured it with 4 3D printed plugs, and the fuse is sticking out so it could be lit before launch:

Step 9. I packed the parachute into the upper tube, put on the nose cone, and the rocket is done (except for the motor), which is covered in a different blog