| | [ Not displaying correctly? View web version. ] | Apogee Rocketry Workshop #360: | |  Masking tape, packaging tape and painters tape are some of the many different types of tape that are commony used in model rocketry. There are a lot more too, which you'll see in this video. Here we're going to show the different types, and talk about when you would use that particular type in your rocketry project. You'll come away with an appreciation that each type of tape is designed for a specific purpose that gives the best results.
View this week's Rocketry Workshop Videos (Duration 18 min, 22 sec) | | Previous videos are found on our archive page. |
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| Check out the latest products to hit Apogee's shelves! | T2 Tether and Release Device | | 
From Tinder Rocketry, the T2 is a tether-release mechanism for high-power rockets. It allows dual-deployment to occur out of a single parachute bay by preventing the main parachute from deploying out of a deployment bag until a preset altitude. It replaces the old Tender Descender. |
| Piranha Line Cutters | | 
The stainless steel Piranha Cable Cutter is used to delay the opening of your main parachute, so it acts as a streamer initially, and delays the time at which the parachute opens. This prevents the rocket from drifting as far because the main parachute opens at a lower altitude. |
| Chisel Tip Knife Blades | | 
One of the lesser-known, but really practical tools for hobbyists, is the Chisel Tip Blade for a hobby knife. It can do things that you can't do with a regular #11 blade hobby knife nor a razor blade. What makes it really useful is that you can mount it in the handle of an ordinary hobby knife. That gives you a way of holding it that you can't get with other wide blades like a razor blade. Because it is in a handle, you can get it into hard-to-reach spaces that you can't normally access easily. |
| Quest SuperBird | |  The Quest SuperBird rocket was one of our favorites from the past. It is big, has a nice size payload bay, comes down with two parachutes, and rises fairly slow off the pad compared to other rockets. It's back again, and it is just as we remembered it. With its balsa wood fins, the rocket is an easy Skill-Level 2 build, and flies nice and stable. Get one today before they fly off the shelf.
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| Decal Tweezers | | 
If you're looking for broad tip tweezers for precision tasks like picking up thin water-slide decals, these are just what you're looking for. These stainless steel tweezers with straight, flat, broad tips are useful for sliding under thin paper, and plastic membranes and tapes to lift them off and hold them. But these come without the serrated teeth of standard tweezers that could damage the delicate objects you're holding. Some rockets, like our Saturn V kit, have very tiny water-slide decals (like the camera targets). These small decals are often hard to position because you can't tell if they are between the pads of your fingers. When you put them down on the rocket, they often stick to your finger instead of to the surface of the model. That is where these decal tweezers come in handy. |
| Tamiya Putty | | 
Tamiya Basic Type Putty is used for filling in seams when joining parts together in plastic model kits or models that use ABS or styrene plastic bodies. The putty is gray in color and may be applied with a flat surface tool. It is not intended to fill large gaps. It is meant to fill in small seams and imperfections in plastic model surfaces. The basic putty may also be used for resin model, metal model and vinyl model applications. |
| Quest Falcon | |  Ever want a quick build rocket kit, that you can put together in under an hour, and just want to blast it to the moon? The Quest Falcon rocket is just such a bird. With the one-piece plastic fin unit, that simply slides over the tube, this rocket can be assembled in no time at all. Plus it has a 24mm diameter motor mount, so you can load it up with F motors that will put this thing out-of-sight.
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| Make Carbon Fiber Tubes | | 
Here is an extensive and detailed video course on how to make Ultra-Lightweight Carbon-Fiber Rocket Tubes. They're so light, they give you an unfair advantage in competition. These are the ones that my daughters, Allison and Ashley used in Romania last September at the 2021 World SpaceModeling Championships. Allison was part of the senior Silver Medal winning USA team, and Ashley took home the Bronze Medal in the Jr. Division. The girls were taught how to make their own tubes, so if they can do it, so can you. The training course consists of 5 hours and 42 minutes of video instruction, covering everything I know about how to make a successful tube with a glass-finish using a 2-piece mold. It even includes all the secret techniques and materials, and where to buy them, including where to get the 2-part mold. This course is on the Udemy website, not at Apogee Components. |
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Let's Try to Avoid the Water... I took the Apogee X-15 rocket kit, and was launching from the site of NAR Section 608 - Rocketry of Central Carolina. It is a beautiful field, with plenty of room to recover a mid-power rocket. But I saw this nice round pond to the north. How many launches would it take to land there? Took me four attempts. If you can hit it, you can avoid it too, right? Try it yourself here. |
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“I just recently got back into rocketry and am lucky to have found Apogee. My "reentry" rocket choice is a relatively complex one with avionics and two stages. I would have been lost without Apogee as a resource. Not only do they carry nearly everything you need to build and fly rockets, they are also a tremendous source of information. From the Peak-of-Flight Newsletter, to the Youtube videos, to the painstaking descriptions and related or recommended products linked on every product they offer, I have done far less head-scratching on my recent build as I would have thought. I also appreciated Apogee's quick response and availability to answer questions. As a business owner myself, I know how important the little things can be to my customers. Apogee nails it.” -- Micah Hanson | |
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We're looking for someone to write a definitive guide to selecting igniters, controllers and batteries for rockets. We'd love to have a newsletter article on that topic, because we get lots of inquiries about it. Is that you? Do you know how many e-matches can be set off in a cluster by a 3.7v 400 mAh battery? See our Newsletter Guidelines on how to submit an article on this topic and get paid up to $350 for your time.
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 I'm now actively seeking writers for articles to appear in this newsletter. And I want unique and cutting-edge articles because that is what you want to read, right? I realize this, so to get articles from outside writers that have the same level of quality, I'm going to have to pay a lot of cash to make it worth it for them. So I've come up with a compensation package where I'll pay up to $350 for good how-to articles. Are you a writer, and does that interest you? That is a lot of cash! Far more than you'll get by writing for other magazines. And with over 23,000 worldwide subscribers, if you write for the Peak-of-Flight Newsletter, you'll gain a lot of notoriety. Writing for the Peak-of-Flight Newsletter is a great way to show off your rocketry projects and your technical expertise, at the same time as helping out other rocketeers. Imagine how great you'll feel knowing that you made a difference to the hobby. If you're interested in writing, see the guidelines on our site. | |
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