Fully 3D Printed Rocket

It is a long and expensive process to buy rocket parts, motors, and building supplies. A possible solution is 3D printing, and in this project, I made a prototype and then a full scale 3D printed rocket. I wanted to test whether or not it could fly, as one potential downside of 3D printing parts it is a lot denser than commonly used rocket materials such as cardboard/paper tubes.

Here are all of the files that I designed and printed for this rocket (I used a b6 motor): https://cad.onshape.com/documents/3e2b239fb5503561cb376f18/w/e5ba021ccef349fb7d84def6/e/ad0adba315bdd9460d5b36d7?renderMode=0&uiState=66aadf0b2339e021f0b87053 

At the bottom, you can click through to see what each piece looks like.

Below is a video of the test flight. Everything went well, except the parachute ejected too early, so the rocket spiraled down at the end. However, that was expected with the type of motor I used (b6-0, so a 0 second delay, meaning the parachute ejected as soon as the motor stopped burning). My main goal was to see how it flew, and it flew well, so this was definitely a successful prototype and launch:

After the prototype's success I decided to try to make a full-scale version. Everything was again 3d printed (except for the parachute, which I made out of tablecloth). I also designed this rocket to be used with my DIY motor, so nothing had to be bought for this rocket to work.

Here are all of the files I designed and printed, feel free to look at them and even use them if you want to try something like this yourself:

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/68438c2c85cb5eabb3b1060a/w/47954e0041b878d4457aa257/e/08c38f03313766c498a17847?renderMode=0&uiState=66ad98b61cdfec1a3e170ba0 

The general idea of this rocket is to test the viability of using 3D printed parts to make rockets, and to test my homemade rocket motor.

Step 1. I made the parachutes with a tablecloth, and attached one end of the string to the nose cone, and the other end to a piece of thick paper:

Step 2. I glued a stopper to stop the parachute from falling too low into the tube (left) and the thick piece of paper into the upper body tube (right):

Step 3. I made the pre-printed fins on the lower body tube (left) too small, so I designed and printed larger fins (right) that could be glued on:

Step 4. Onto the lower body tube, I glued the larger fins on, and also glued on a coupler to join the lower and upper body tubes together:

Step 5. I attached two rail guides to the side of the rocket, which will guide it along the launch rail when it is launched:

Step 8. I put on the upper tube, secured it with 4 3D printed plugs, and the fuse is sticking out so it could be lit before launch:

Step 6. I put on the upper tube and secured it with 4 3D printed plugs, packed the parachute into the upper tube, put on the nose cone, and the rocket is done. The creation of the motor is covered here.