Darn!

Many thanks to SEMROC. They are the reason that I got back into model rocketry; without a doubt the best company I've ever dealt with!

Time for an order...

Bob

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illegitimi non carborundum

NAR# 54643 L-1

SAM# 043

AMA# 157091

VRCS# 154

A&P# 42x xx xxxx.

Thank you for your rockets, for your exceptional way of doing business, for making kits the old fashioned way, for builders. I'm sad to see you close up shop, but I wish you all the best in the future.

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All you have to do is initiate and propagate a combustive reaction between kerosene and oxygen and direct the resultant gasses through a small aperture in a nozzle at supersonic speed without blowing the whole thing up. It's not rocket science!

I'm really bummed to see SEMROC close their doors. First class people and company all the way. If Jetlag can acquire SEMROC and keep it going that would be awesome. I don't get on this forum as much as I would like.... just so busy these days, but I hope Allen can do what he needs to acquire SEMROC and keep 'er at the top.

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SAM #0354

Hi all,

I placed the order a couple of days after the previous "time for an order" post.
FWIW, while looking at the kit catalog; low and behold there's a link named
SUMMARY. For those who have not seen that, it's a list of the kits still in stock.
So, among others, I found the Thunder Chief and Thunder Strike (which I'd never seen in the
main catalog). Glad to have them!

Semroc has been the best company I've ever dealt with..

Bob
p.s. as an aside they helped me complete an order for a couple of parts that they kept
in stock for spares but were not listed - First Class!

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illegitimi non carborundum

NAR# 54643 L-1

SAM# 043

AMA# 157091

VRCS# 154

A&P# 42x xx xxxx.

When I look at the scanned model rocket catalogs on the Ninfinger Productions website, I see a lot of catalogs of companies that started up, ran for a while (sometimes only very briefly), then closed down, never to be heard of again. Semroc--two of whose 1970 catalogs are on that site--beat those odds, closing down and then re-opening decades later! So:

While I lament their closing (and I hope Jetlag/Allen can continue Semroc in some fashion), we're all still "ahead of the game" as far as Semroc is concerned, because they *did* come back from oblivion, and better than before! Also:

Having once had my own one-employee (me) model rocket company, Nova Hobbies (it lasted long enough for my scale A.S.P. kit to be reviewed on Essence's Model Rocket Reviews), I know what it's like to reach the point where one says, "It's either the company, or me!", and I fully support Sheryl's and Bruce's decision to cease operations of Semroc. It is worse to let something you love become--due to adverse circumstances--something you come to hate, and to dread being associated with. Many people who try to make their hobbies their businesses learn this painful lesson. Unless the "business" part is also something they enjoy (or they have someone to handle that part of the operation), they frequently become disgusted with the businesses and--sadly--the hobbies that inspired them.

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

It is very time consuming to run even a 'small' business and do it right, especially, as you comment, as a 'one man band' operation or even with 2-3 others.

When my high power rocketry interests combined with my newly found interests in video (taping our personal high power flights and launches) in the late 80s and I decided to start producing annual video productions of LDRS starting in 1991, it was a great match of personal interests.

Working a full-time career apart from that, along with the typical family responsibilities, church, civic involvements, etc. however made for many long nights after work, and weekends full of doing the 'part time, small business thing', especially after the business began to grow beyond anything I ever really thought it would. There literally was no 'free' time each week outside real work, home, church, and part-time business stuff.

However, I really enjoyed covering LDRS each year, and for 13 years LDRS was my annual 'trek', but it would take 3-5 months of post production narration writing, footage review of about 20-25 hours of raw footage, narration recording, and actual post production editing to turn all that raw footage into a final two-hour production.

But it was a very tough row to hoe doing it part-time after my normal career job each day. It was very hard to keep up with the demand for orders as the business continued to grow. Trying to keep up with my 'real' job, the video business, and family and other obligations was wearing me out.

In the early 2000s however, family health difficulties and responsibility for those care duties finally brought me to the difficult realization that I simply could not continue at the pace I was going.

I had to make a painful, but simple choice that family would come first and I would have to shut down Point 39 Productions, even though business was great....too great actually keep up with. My family care duties were more important, and I could not continue my real job, which is what put food on the table and a roof overhead, AND Point 39 Productions, AND provide the time for care duties, church responsibilities, and getting in SOME time for sleep once in a while each week.

At some point down the road when the family care duties are no more (or at least at the critical stage they are currently) I hope to be able to start Point 39 back up again. After 13 years in business, it was really, really hard to just cease operations when business was going so well, but I simply could not continue at the pace I was going. It was killing me.

I can understand to some degree where Sheryl and Bruce are 'at' right now. They are probably very torn at doing what they have had to do. But, one reaches a point where one just can't continue at such a pace, regardless of how much you hate to bring an end to something that you really enjoyed and invested so much time and energy in.

I wish them total peace of mind with their decision and hope that someday, some way, SEMROC will return.

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Does anyone have news of anyone buying Semroc or if negotiations are still going on?

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Roy Tuinila

CMASS Member

NAR #90252

NARTREK Bronze

L1 w/Mega Der Red Max on an H87-IM-7

???

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Jetlag expressed an interest in buying Semroc. I was wondering if he was still pursuing it or not.

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Roy Tuinila

CMASS Member

NAR #90252

NARTREK Bronze

L1 w/Mega Der Red Max on an H87-IM-7

Ah ok

__________________
Low Prices, Fast Delivery. The Webs #1 Rocket Shop

YORF the rocketry forum where vendors can actually post in the vendors section.

TRF Banned and proud

Uncle Mikes Rocket Shack

Any Questions/Comments Click To Email Us