My Personal Motor Preparation Techniques and Preferences
It seems that everyone involved in this fascinating hobby has developed their own "favored" techniques with respect to putting together the sugar motors that fly their rockets. Many develop a standard motor configuration and devote a significant amount of time working with the many other aspects of HP rocketry. These include rocket building, payload electronics, recovery systems etc. Some devote significant time on developing the motor hardware, casings, nozzles, closures, etc. Others, such as myself, are fascinated by the propellant itself, its properties, how it can be modified and so on.
As I began working with sugar propellant formulations it quickly became obvious that unless some methods were developed that allowed me to cut costs and minimize the time and effort involved in the many aspects involved in this hobby that I would get frustratingly little accomplished. The links found on this page connect to pages which describe various aspects of propellant grain and motor preparation that I have settled on over the past several years. These techniques are most likely are not the best in use among those who have spent more time in this hobby than I have but I find that what I have settled on suits me well.
General Motor Configuration
As I began to fly HP model rockets using composite propellants I quickly obtained several sets of commercial motor hardware designed to use Aerotech reloads. These casings and closures are expensive!! I still enjoy flying a commercial reload now and then so I decided that I would configure my experimental sugar motors to operate in my already aquired composite propellant motor hardware. In this way I knew that I could get the greatest value out of my motor hardware. Rather than let them sit around waiting for the occasional use with a commercial composite reload, use them often with sugar reloads!