Basic Staging Techniques

[OldAir]

I'm getting started again ( B.A.R., in both ways! ) and need some coaching in how-to-multi-stage - I am a bit familiar with the Estes direct tape approach, cello on the engine joint and mask tape to lock the respective engines to their stages, but how did that pop-n-go - "no tape" method workk from Centuri? -
Either one more reliable ?

I am rebuilding a small model LPR fleet and now have need for a 2-stager... should I just buy a kit - or make from scratch ?

[CPMcGraw]

I'm getting started again ( B.A.R., in both ways! ) and need some coaching in how-to-multi-stage - I am a bit familiar with the Estes direct tape approach, cello on the engine joint and mask tape to lock the respective engines to their stages, but how did that pop-n-go - "no tape" method workk from Centuri? -
Either one more reliable ?

I am rebuilding a small model LPR fleet and now have need for a 2-stager... should I just buy a kit - or make from scratch ?

OldAir,

Welcome back to Model Rocketry, and to our asylum. These are the rooms where the men with white coats dare not enter...

The very best advice on staging methods is to go locate a copy of the Handbook Of Model Rocketry by G. Harry Stine and Bill Stine, Seventh Edition. There's a whole chapter on the subject, explaining the differences between the taped connection and the "gap" staged method. It explains what takes place in the staging sequence, and why it works at all (and why it sometimes doesn't work...).

Keep this general synopsis in mind: It's NOT the hot gasses that fire the upper engine, but hot PARTICLES of burning fuel that carry the burning process from one engine to the next. Those particles find their way up the nozzle and maintain the combustion process. Stine vented the gasses out the side of his models to prevent premature separation from over-pressurization of the area between the stages. The cello tape method simply delayed the blow-away long enough for the particles to find their way up into the next motor. You can gap-stage up to 12" successfully, even with an exposed, open-air path between the motors.

Read the book for a more thorough study of staging. Stine gives much more detail as to how he "figured out" what was really taking place.

[OldAir]

Thanks for the response and the welcome - my wife thinks I have a new obsession ( again ! )

I have also found other web sites to have staging info as well and found a jimz listed plan for a 2-stager I used to have a long time ago, too ! It was a Challenger - a free plan from Estes - so I am modifying it to BT-55 to start...

Also, all I can find listed as available today is a size C8-0 booster engine in black powder - is that the only size currently offered by any manufacturer for "standard" sized Estes booster motors?

[barone]

.....Also, all I can find listed as available today is a size C8-0 booster engine in black powder - is that the only size currently offered by any manufacturer for "standard" sized Estes booster motors?


Do you mean a C6-0? BP booster motors are becoming harder to find. Should be able to get B6-0, C6-0 and D12-0.

A B6-0 can be had at this web site http://www.hobbyconnection.net/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=2&sort=title&sort_direction=0&page=2.

A C6-0 and D12-0 can be had at just about any of the on-line vendors. A10-0s aren't available any more (unless you can find some old stock or someone who wants to part with some.