3D Printed Rockets - I Made It at Techshop, Chandler

I made these rockets on one of Techshop Chandler's MakerBot Replicator 2,  3d printers out of PLA plastic. I downloaded the files from here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:127354 so full credit for the design goes to them. You can download all kinds of free files to print on www.thingiverse.com. 

It was fun to watch the 3d printer make the parts and they were the first parts I've ever 3D printed. It was pretty easy and they all flew well. Each rocket cost about 10 cents in PLA plastic material and $2.50 for each ESTES A10-3T rocket motor. Not too bad for how much fun they are and they only take about 15 minutes to print if you combine both the nose cone and fin files together.

We were surprized how high these little guys went ! Probably about 800 feet. They have no parachutes, but the nose cone pops off and the pieces fall back to the ground softly so it's really fine. They are supposed to be disposable anyway. The aft end gets a little melted from the rocket exhaust so it's hard to reuse them anyway. I actually like it better than chasing a rocket with a parachute around in the wind. 



You can make pretty much anything at www.techshop.ws