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  #11  
Old 10-24-2020, 11:21 PM
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SEL SEL is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeR
For regular model rockets, nothing beats Rstes wadding. For mid-power I make my own by dunking an entire roll of TP in borax solution (Walmart sells 20 Mule Team Borax, with the laundry products). Allow a week or two for the roll to dry.

Paper towels work, I just find them a little stiff after drying out. Crumpling them repeatedly would probably help.



Hey Lee,


What Borax/Water ratio do you use?
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  #12  
Old 10-24-2020, 11:39 PM
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When I first decided to make my own, I could not find any documentation of how others had made it. So I just added the Borax to warm water until I could not get any more to dissolve. I poured that solution into my soaking pan, leaving the undissolved Borax behind.

I did not try to keep the leftover. I just poured it into my bucket of dirty shop towels, which get laundered eventually.
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  #13  
Old 10-25-2020, 09:05 AM
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We used to saturate the warm water with Borax the same way Lee did above as well.
Crumpled the paper towls to soften them also.
Nowadays I just use Estes wadding or dog barf.
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  #14  
Old 10-25-2020, 09:42 AM
stefanj stefanj is offline
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Sean's pictures bring back memories! As I recall, FSI put a little shrink wrapped wad of wadding in with its kits.

I most often use:

Estes wadding on its own for small models.

Estes wadding, used like a diaphragm with "dog barf" on top, for medium models.

A square of paper towel, fireproofed with borax and boric acid, with dog barf on top, for large models.

P.S. Follow directions found on the web, I use a 3:7 ratio between boric acid and borax, boiled in water until thoroughly dissolved. Last time I did this I soaked a whole roll of cheap paper towels.
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  #15  
Old 10-25-2020, 11:31 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanj

P.S. Follow directions found on the web, I use a 3:7 ratio between boric acid and borax, boiled in water until thoroughly dissolved. Last time I did this I soaked a whole roll of cheap paper towels.



Boiling is a great idea. I make hummingbird nectar by boiling 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. You can never stir that solution enough to get the sugar to dissolve unless you boil it.
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  #16  
Old 11-29-2020, 05:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shuyge
I like the old FSI Wadding and I was thinking that I might make a batch. However, I dug out an open bag and it doesn't appear to be what I thought that it was. I thought that it was just flame-proofed cotton. However, the packaging claims that it's some sort of ceramic fiber. Does anybody here happen to know what this stuff is?


For all intents and purposes it's fiberglass... and yeah you're right you DON'T want to use that stuff because it's NOT biodegradable (in anything less than geologic timescales anyway) and it's a litter nuisance, and certainly won't endear you to your landowner or flying site host. Wherever it lands it will pretty much stay unless someone happens to find it and pick it up, unless it's eaten inadvertantly by grazing livestock or wildlife or birds pick it up for use as nesting material.

Use "dog barf" wadding instead-- you can probably get a partial or broken bale of "cellulose fiber blow-in insulation" from your local big-box home supply store indoor lumberyard and you'll be set for life. Unlike fiberglass, blow-in cellulose insulation is just flameproof-treated shredded newspaper, and will break down readily in the environment. Any clumps usually break up as they free-fall after ejection, and if any DOES happen to land 'intact' it will simply lay there until wind and the next rainfall moves it down to the soil surface, where soil bacteria will readily digest it and rot it back down into humus. The borate fireproofing will wash into the soil and provide valuable fertilizer, since most soils are somewhat boron-deficient anyway.

There's a lot of other options I've come across over the years and I even did a thread about it a long while back which a search should turn up. The "cheapest" over the long haul is probably "reusable" wadding, ie a flameproof Nomex ejection blanket, which is a square of Nomex cloth, usually with an eyelet or buttonhole for tying it onto the shock cord of your given rocket. With a snap swivel they can easily be transferred from one rocket to another and come in multiple sizes which makes them easy to use in a variety of rocket body tube sizes... Later! OL J R
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  #17  
Old 12-04-2020, 12:20 PM
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What could possibly be WRONG with using Fibreglass Insulation for ejection wadding ?

Why am I not surprised this was a FSI product ?

I have had many TIMES more catoed motors with FSI than any other brand. Have flown at least 100X more Estes motors and probably at least 20X more Aerotech motors. Surprised they lasted as long as they did with such a spotty QC record. When their port-burners WORKED CORRECTLY, they were great. It just got to be too much of a crap-shoot for reliability, especially with common availability of Composites starting in mid-to-late 80's
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Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL
, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !

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ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !
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