"Amateur Rocket Motor Construction"

A Complete Guide to the Construction of Homemade Solid Fuel Rocket Motors

David Sleeter, Teleflite Corporation
Newly Published, 2004
 

Amateur Rocket Motor Construction

A Complete Guide to the Construction of Homemade Solid Fuel Rocket Motors

David Sleeter, Teleflite Corporation
Newly Published: 2004

The single best book in print about making black powder rocket motors.  Comprehensive, accurate, well-written, and beautifully illustrated.  Intended for people who are not rocket scientists or engineers, plus abundant data and keen ideas for experienced rocket builders.  This is the book you’ve been waiting for!

• More than 600 high-quality photos and drawings
• Build your own with simple tools and easy-to-find materials and chemicals
• Everything you need to know to build 54 proven rocket motor designs
• Thrust from 4 to 58 pounds
• Burn times from 0.7 to 6.3 seconds
• Engine sizes from C-6 to I-100 (capable of carrying a 3-foot rocket to 7,000 ft!)
• Mix your own home-made rocket fuel for 25 cents to 2 dollars per pound
• Make finished rocket motors for under a dollar--1/10th the price of Estes
• Each design includes detailed test-stand data plus 2 flight performance predictions
• 19 chapters covering everything from safety and buying (or making) chemicals, to propellant formulation, motor construction, and homemade test equipment
• All new and original material based on 6 years R&D at Teleflite

But while building small rockets is not that difficult, the solid information necessary to do it safely and successfully hasn't been easy to come by.

"But black powder is just saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur, right?"

Well, yes.  But most mixtures of homemade black powder, even when made with the correct 75-15-10 formula, just can't seem to lift a home-built rocket.  What's in those Estes motors, anyway?

The answer: black powder that's made of the correct grades of those chemicals, and has been ground, mixed, milled, and loaded the right way, in cases of proper construction, with nozzles of the correct dimensions and material.

And here's the book that tells how to do it, at home, by yourself, with the simplest of tools and the most basic of chemicals and supplies.  If you follow Sleeter's simple, clear instructions you'll be able to build rocket motors that will equal and surpass the performance of Estes-type commercial motors.  And you'll be able to do it much cheaper than with store-bought motors.  You'll also learn how to make much bigger and more powerful motors than any you can buy in your local hobby shop.

(Bonus: the author even tells how to find and select potassium nitrate fertilizer and stump remover, then extract high-concentration KNO3; how to make your own NaNO3 "Chile saltpeter"; how to select the proper grades of sulfur at your local garden shop; how to select and mill high-performance charcoal.)

David Sleeter is an experienced rocket designer with many years of successful experimentation behind him.  He's written other popular books about making rocket motors, and this volume presents the culmination of his engineering.  Big (528 pages), thick (more than an inch), heavy (nearly three pounds), and of very high quality, Amateur Rocket Motor Construction is a long-need work, filled with practical, hands-on, do-it-yourself, how-to information and data.

Hint:  If you're thinking about working with sugar-nitrate "candy propellants," or composite polymer propellants, by all means start with this fine book!  It covers many of the things you'll need to know to make any small rocket motor that works.

This hefty volume will take you weeks to read, months to digest, and years to put into practice.  Cover to cover it's loaded with great information for rocketeers of all levels.  It actually provides the basis for an authentic self-education in rocket science. 

Amateur Rocket Motor Construction is a major contribution to the scientific literature on making high-performance black powder rockets.

I received "Amateur Rocket Motor Construction" by David Sleeter (Teleflite Corporation) a week or so ago. The book is an extremely-detailed description of the construction of blackpowder-type rocket motors, from C8 (3/4" diameter, 3 1/4" long) to I65 (2" diameter, 14" long).

For those not familiar with the general construction method: A metal former is constructed to mold the nozzle and core. A paper casing is placed over the former. A powdered clay-ceramic mixture is tamped into the bottom of the casing to form the nozzle. This is followed by the propellant, tamped in place in small portions. A delay charge follows, then a clay or paper retainer is added, and the metal tooling is withdrawn.

Here's the quick version:  It's a big book, 500+ pages, beautiful photos, extremely clean and clear drawings (and lots of them). Information on almost every aspect of motor construction including: photos of ingredients (some neat photomicrographs); making tooling without a lathe; machining instructions for those who do have a lathe; where to get and how to extract potassium nitrate; types of paper that can be used for casings and what *not* to use; formulations that use sodium nitrate (sometimes easier to find locally than potassium nitrate); stepwise photos AND drawings of the motor-making procedure. All the tested motors given in the book are coreburners, but detailed information, propellant formula, drawings of tooling, caveats, and detailed construction procedure for endburning motors are provided for the individual who wishes to experiment in that direction.

One comment, not a criticism: For the individual who wishes to make large or numerous BP motors, I would strongly suggest Lloyd Sponenburg's book on milling for the amateur pyrotechician (Skylighter and others vend the book, it's about $20). A "sponenmill", properly constructed and loaded with sufficient milling media, will mill large amounts of propellant at a huge time savings.

"More education is almost always better than less."  I hope that one or more vendors attending LDRS will be selling this book. Look for them. For the individual who is interested in stretching his/her mind, "Amateur Rocket Motor Construction" is a must-have.  (I would *really* like to see one of those H137 motors taking off)

Best regards -- Terry

We think this is the "ultimate book" for experimenters who want to build their own black powder motors.  It has the information and instructions you need to not only build the rockets, but also the tools you'll want to test them scientifically.  The text is also an ideal gift for any model rocket enthusiast, fireworks experimenter, or amateur scientist.

We're confident it will find a key place in your library, and provide essential data for years to come.

528 pages, perfect softbound, 11" x 8-1/2" size.     ISBN 0-930387-04-X      $29.95

USA (Insured Priority Mail: $9.00)

International (Airmail: $23.15)

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