Nice Body

Yeah, I just want to shoot the rocket…

Of course you do — but there’s plenty of planning ahead, so just stick with it. The two biggest factors with body design are the material of the body and how big the body will be. Since size is sometimes dictated by material, we’ll go ahead and examine the different materials available

There’s more than one material?

Well, yes and no. Yes because there’s plenty of materials available that can be shapped into a cylinder for the body. No because most of the materials that you might consider using are probably too heavy. After a visit to Lowes’ hardware store, the types of material I was consider were: PVC pipe, air conditioning vents (galvanized steel), dryer vents (aluminum), and some type of thin metal that was called flash roofing. Out of those options, I liked the dryer vent aluminum the best, but I still wasn’t convinced that it was light enough. After stopping by a hobby store and looking at other rockets, I realized that almost all the model rocket models are made of cardboard. With that in mind, I decided to buy cardboard tubing (like you’d put a map in) because it was pretty thick and study and best of all, it was light weight. I think it would be extremely cool to make a rocket out of metal, but right now I’m going to start with simple stuff.

Does length really matter?

With rockets…yes. The length is usually dictated by the material — so I went to Staples’ and looked at what I had to work with. I decided to go with 2″x24″ cardboard tubing because it was the closest size to the type of rocket I’d envisioned. Keep in mind that the diameter of your body is going to dictate the diameter of the nose cone and the engine block (but not the engine).

Will the cardboard disintegrate if it gets wet?

Well, I’m not sure. In general cardboard doesn’t do well with moisture/water, but this isn’t normal cardboard either consider how study it is. However, just as a safety precaution, as you will see in the Final Touches chapter, I decided to buy high gloss spray paint in order to protect the cardboard from moisture. Just if you’re interested, since my last rocket was lost in a cloud because it had a clear parachute and a silver body, I decided to go with a bright orange paint job (as you can see in the pictures) just to bee sure that I don’t lose the rocket in the sky.

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