I have seen many different versions of this idea on the Internet and decided to do one of my own. I purchased the large crayon bank from Toys-R-Us for around $6 or $7. I chose red. The tube is roughly 3 3/4 inches inner diameter and a little less than 3 ft long. I have sent for plans from a gentleman on Internet who has built several and has put together tip sheet and a large drawing. Looks good as a guide. I also have written several people that I met through the RMR newsgroup. I am getting a lot of good info to help me build mine. I am going to go with the 29mm motor mount. I am thinking I will use plexiglass for the fins. I also bought some bright yellow nylon at cloth store to make a chute. This is going to be a fun project!

Here are the basic parts of my rocket centering rings, engine tube (29mm), Plexiglass fins, (they are leaning against the body tube), Body tube (the cardboard portion of crayon bank), nose cone and aft end cap. The aft plastic part of the crayon bank also serves as a centering ring . I put two centering rings inside body tube and the engine tube will stick out the back of the plastic cap. Notice the friction rings that come on the nose cone have been removed. Would be too tight if I did not do this.

Below is a view during construction. You can see the forward part of the forward centering ring. A metal cable is attached to a screw eye. Later I attached the shock cord to this cable.

As you can see below I installed a type of baffle. This is about 5 or 6 inches from the forward end of the rocket tube. This will help a little with not burning the chute but mainly it helps hold recovery gear in nose of rocket to help with Center of Gravity. You will also notice the cable sticking beyond the baffle.

And also a picture from the aft end of the rocket looking at the forward centering ring and the motor tube. You can see the thrust ring around motor tube. I used 1/4 inch hardboard for centering rings and for the bulkhead in the nose section. You can also see the slots that I cut for the thru the wall mounting of the fins.

February 20, 1998

I have worked a little at a time now and have completed the crayon rocket. Was not too hard to do. I did end up using 1/8 plexiglass for the fins. I will be using a 29mm RMS system with this rocket. I did use what is called on Internet "Kaplow Klips" to secure the engine in place. I think this will work very well as to prevent a lost casing. I bought some non rip nylon at cloth store and some nylon twine to make a 32 inch parachute. It looks good. I went with a round design. I sure hope it deploys. My rocket club has a launch tomorrow and will try it out then! Will be trying an G40-4 or something close to this. I sure hope this works! This will be first attempt at anything above Estes D size motor. Will update after tomorrow!

February 21, 1998

Launched today on G64-4. It went up about 50 ft or so and went horizontal. The nose cone also detached itself from the bulkhead and shock cord. In talking to several others I think a little nose weight is in order. It may have just been weather cocking but it was a little unstable as well. Back to the drawing board.

March 21,1998

Launched the crayon again today on a G64-4. Was a great day for rocket launching. No wind at all. The rocket did very well went straight up, deployed chute and nose cone stayed on end of shockcord as advertised. I did break a fin. It must have broken during flight as I saw it land and did not find the piece in the area of landing. Flew much more stable today. Will fix fin and get ready for next time.

July 5, 1998

I launched the Crayon once again. G64-4 The launch went very similar to the one on Feb 21st. Up strait about 50 feet then horizontal. Only difference this time is I had chute and body separation, OUCH!! The chute came out while it was traveling very fast horizontally. I saw the body come down separate from chute and also the nose cone separate from the rest. I went and got the chute, then had to go to the area where the body and nose cone came down. I had to look for about 20 minutes to find the body. (Grass is tall this time of year) I looked for a long time but never did find the nose cone. Ho Hum... oh well back to the drawing board. All fins broke off however the body tube is in fair condition... This crayon could fly another day... now where to get another nose cone.........

February 15, 1999.

I began work again on the old crayon rocket. I have decided that the plexiglass fins were a neat idea in theory but I am really getting tired of replacing them after every flight. While lexan would probably work I have decided that some old scrap red oak will work nicely. Resewn to about a 3/16 thickness will work nicely. I had to order a new nose cone from Ralphco. The people there were very friendly and accommodated me with a new nose cone and a couple more crayon banks through the mail very reasonably priced. At the time I called them the Toys-R-Us didn't have any in stock. Anyway I have modified the bank as mentioned and I have also added some nose weight with clay and filled the nose cone with that expanding foam sealant that you can used for home insulating, to hold clay in front of nose cone. Looks like it will work well. Will attempt another launch as soon as I can.