plastic parts

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Smaug Ichorfang - 09 Jun 2008 01:13 GMT

Has anyone used thermo-setting plastic putty (Fimo, Sculpy, etc.) for
making rocket parts? Was thinking this would be a great way to make parts
and pieces to "spice up" and otherwise bland design (cockpits, cowlings,
nacelles, etc).

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stealthboogie - 26 Jun 2008 06:23 GMT

> Has anyone used thermo-setting plastic putty (Fimo, Sculpy, etc.) for
> making rocket parts? �Was thinking this would be a great way to make parts
> and pieces to "spice up" and otherwise bland design (cockpits, cowlings,
> nacelles, etc).

I would think that parts made from putty would be 1) Too heavy for
"model" rockets and 2) Too cumbersome & expensive for "high power"
rockets.

My choice would be to vacu-form parts from either Styrene, ABS, or
PETG. I have in the past done just this... for example on a 1/4 scale
Honest John I vacu-formed the spin motors & the beveled fins. I have
also vacu-fromed various shrouds for use of cameras. Very light
weight, yet strong.

The putty though could be useful to make molds for vacu-forming -
which is what I've done in the past at work to make molds. Although
lately I've been using an aluminized heat resistant 2 part epoxy.

BTW... vacu-forming is also useful for doing the reverse... to make
molds to pour up epoxy to make parts - like chocolate candy molds. In
fact a common practice is to make up 1 mold (wood, epxoy, metal, etc)
- vacu-form a whole bunch of copies, then pour up a bunch of epoxy
molds, then mount them all to a board or aluminum plate to be able to
then vacu form a whole bunch at a time. This is usually how blister
packaging is done.

Doug

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Smaug Ichorfang - 26 Jun 2008 07:06 GMT

stealthboogie <stealthboogie@aol.com> wrote in news:0f617aca-71c0-4b5b-
ace5-8d0114cb2404@27g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

>> Has anyone used thermo-setting plastic putty (Fimo, Sculpy, etc.) for
>> making rocket parts? ï¿½Was thinking this would be a great way to m
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> "model" rockets and 2) Too cumbersome & expensive for "high power"
> rockets.

It's actually quite light. You don't have to make the parts out of solid
putty any more than you have to make nosecones out of solid plastic
(although it seems I'm always adding noseweight to the hollow plastic
ones). This was just an idea/suggestion, not a demand.
---
sm@ug dot ichorfang
at gmail dot com

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Phil Stein - 26 Jun 2008 16:27 GMT

>> Has anyone used thermo-setting plastic putty (Fimo, Sculpy, etc.) for
>> making rocket parts? ?Was thinking this would be a great way to make parts
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
>
>Doug

Do you have any pictures or detailed info on this?

Thanks
Phil

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Model Forum / General / Rockets / June 2008

plastic parts