Water Rocket Bottle Splicing Tutorial

[fatpeople249er]

Hey gorge I just thought of what would happen if u made the tornado coupler by to bottle caps and u weld them to gather then drill the insides out in please try this

[gk123434534]

@fatpeople249er This indeed has been tried before. Dan from British Water Rockets has had some good success heat welding the caps together to make Tornado tubes.

[erikw789]

where do you get PET bottles?Please answer me soon.

[JustForFunAndMe1]

thats a very sharp knife..... look out for your balls

[Raketfued]

genial



[MrTomcarnahan]

Thanks for the advice ... I know I can always count on you for good info!

[MrTomcarnahan]

George ... at 14:26, you show a fairing that goes between the two spliced pairs. I tried that using the longest section of a single 2L bottle and it was not long enough. In the video, it looked like you spliced two sections together for the fairing. Could give some more detail on how you did that and what measurement you used to determine the final length of the fairing? Thanks!

[gk123434534]

@MrTomcarnahan The fairing is just made of two bottle sections that overlap about 1cm. You don't need a lot of PL for this. I assemble them on a cardboard tube to keep them aligned. The length I worked out by trial and error. I just kept cutting sections off until it was the right size. We have different lengths depending on type of bottles and whether they have reinforcing or not. You want the fairing to be tight when you tighten the bottles in the coupling.

[MrTomcarnahan]

George ... maybe I missed it but I thought somewhere you mentioned how you keep PL Premium from hardening in the nozzle. I used my tube of PL Premium once, covered the tip with aluminum foil using a rubber band to keep it tight. When I came back a month later, the PL Premium had formed a rock hard plug in the nozzle that I had to carefully drill out to use the remaining glue.

Can you recommend a better way so that the glue does not harden in the tip?

[sethdenzak]

@MrTomcarnahan

Take a piece of plastic bag put over the top and screw a wire nut on top works every time

[MrTomcarnahan]

@sethdenzak I'll have to give that a try ... thanks!

[gk123434534]

@MrTomcarnahan I always use a thick nail that I insert into the cartridge nozzle. The diameter of the nail is slightly bigger than the hole I make in the nozzle, so that when you force it in it seals around the edges. You normally have to use pliers to remove it again, but the nail leaves a nice channel inside the nozzle for the PL to come out.

[annoo4]

Where do you get the bottles? Do you buy them with soda in them and then poor it out?

[gk123434534]

@annoo4 We get the bottles from the shop but also friends and family give them to us when they are done. They know which bottles to buy. :)

[acerockets1]

so are you like a aerospace engineer or something?

[bobilol24]

wath piece do you take to screw your bottle to an other

[gk123434534]

@bobilol24 It's called a tornado coupling or tornado tube. You can buy these for a few dollars on line.

[bobilol24]

it dont work i use pl prenium glue and my bottle explode au 40 psi

[gk123434534]

@bobilol24 Did the bottle explode or did the splice fail? How long did you let the glue cure?

[bobilol24]

@gk123434534 the splice fail and i let the glue cure for 1 day

i dont use the same glue than you use because i live in canada and i dont find the same glue

i buy this glue

does it correct: find on rona.com Construction adhesive LEPAGE

[gk123434534]

@bobilol24 Sorry, I thought before you said you used PL premium. You need to give the splice at least a full week to cure. 1 day is not enough.

[AnCRockets]

Just a reminder. 5 days of curing time doesn't do the job. When you see our 6 liter rocket those splices cured for 2 weeks before I pressure tested them. They can withstand 120psi

[gk123434534]

@AnCRockets What glue are you using? With PL premium cure time is very dependent on atmospheric humidity. We live in fairly humid conditions so after 5 days our splices are pretty much as strong as they can be. With these splices the bottle bursts before the splice does.

[AnCRockets]

@gk123434534 I am using Dynaflex sealant. Its pretty much like your sealants. I do exactly what you do. I use PL Premium on the sleeve and patch and let it cure for 5 days in my garage. Which is pretty humid.

[ramicaza]

great tutoriol im using it right now !

[MrTomcarnahan]

George -- disregard my comment on your other spliceing video and thanks for making this one.

You have made a 2 bottle pair that connects to another 2 bottle pair using a Tornado Tube. Have you found a practical limit to how many pairs you can connect in this fashion?

With a 2 bottle/2bottle section (total 8 liters), how much water is practical (1/3 of the total or ~ 2.5 liters of water)? Do you want to have the water go higher than the the T-tube connection?

[gk123434534]

@MrTomcarnahan Hi Tom, going beyond 4 couplings makes the rocket quite long and starts to be too flexible. Unless you use fiberglass for the bottles and fairings then you could probably do a couple more. The fiberglass provides extra stiffness. Each of these spliced pairs holds about 3.15L. How much water to add depends on a number of factors but 1/4 to 1/3 is about right. As long as the coupling has a larger diameter than the nozzle then you can pass water through them.

[thunderrockets]

@aircommand waterrockets, Actually what i meant was the size , like 1/4" 3/8" or something like that

[gk123434534]

@thunderrockets Oh okay. I'm not sure what the thread is, as it is unique to bottles. It's a non-standard thread, and is why you can't find components to fit. You can't easily get taps or dies for this thread either.

[pudresful]

how much this one two side bottle weights?

[gk123434534]

@pudresful For these particular bottles, the unreinforced one is 102grams and the one with the reinforcing is 136 grams. The capacity is around 3.15 L.

[thunderrockets]

What is the size of the threads in the tornado coupling?

[gk123434534]

@thunderrockets The commercial tornado tube threads match standard PET soda bottles, as that is what they are designed for.

[promethium144]

Where do you get your PL Premium in Aus??

[gk123434534]

@promethium144 PL is not available in Oz and needs to be imported from the US. It only costs about $5 per tube. If you have friends or family in the US you could try asking them to send you some. You may be also able to find online stores that will ship it to you.

[Fishey091]

@gk123434534 can you give me the website that you buy it from or i can buy it from

[gk123434534]

@Fishey091 Unfortunately I can't post URLs here in the comments. Will send you a PM.

[Abalancedproduction]

nice! but ho do i build a "torando coupling" or what ever its called?

[gk123434534]

@Abalancedproduction They are available commercially. Search for "Tornado Tube".

[MrTomcarnahan]

@Abalancedproduction

Go to Google "Shopping" and type in (with quotes) "tornado tube" -- you will get a dozen hits. Without shipping, they cost around $2 USD. You can find info on them here on YouTube.

[KoN312]

Very clear instructions! Good Tut!

[Basrockets]

Very nice tutorial !