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Old 08-11-2017, 02:33 AM
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LeeR LeeR is offline
Retired with Way Too Many Kits
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,222
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I visited Estes in 1966 with a few of my rocket buddies. We saw the wadding machine. It reminded me of a taffy puller, with arms pulling TP thru a tray of the flame proofing solution, and then under a heat lamp, and wrapped back and forth by those arms. I may have taken a picture, but most of my slides of that visit were lost. I have a few pictures of the big rocket outside HQ, and the OP ladies processing the order we placed during the visit.

We saw Mabel making motors, and the nose cone grinder cranking out balsa nose cones. A truly amazing experience. Bill Simon was our tour guide.

I too have been making my own wadding, and I think the biggest issue is that I've been using good TP. I think I need to find the really cheap stuff like we had in school as kids! I dunk an entire roll, and let it dry for a few weeks. The outer layers are crusty, and get tossed, but the inside layers are pretty good -- just hard to separate. They are much more flameproof than Estes wadding, so my quest continues to find the ideal roll of TP.

I use 20 Mule Team Borax for my flameproofing solution, which is pretty cheap. I found mine at Walmart.
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Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp
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