Hardware Store Hibryd Rocket Construction Begins

So two nights ago, I finally got around to going to Home Depot. I bought a bunch of brass fittings, some plastic tubing and an oxygen tank, and I set to work on constructing a very simple rocket engine. This photo clearly illustrates the fittings:



The fittings are attached from left to right in the order you see above and the result looks like this:



The next thing you need to do is get you oxidizer. I'm using gaseous oxygen. You can buy this at home depot in the welding section. It's like $6-$8 bucks a container, so it's a lot cheaper than I would have expected. The expensive part is finding a regulator for it. Instead of looking around for one I picked up a Benzomatic Welding and Brazing kit. This came with an oxygen tank and a regulator that fit the tank. I had to cut the tubing that came with it, but it'll get the job done. So now you have a set up that looks something like this:



Now in the above picture you see the clear plastic tube connected to the black tube. I feel I should note that you can't just put them together like that. You need to get some more fitting and actually make that joint there. I forgot to buy those parts when I was at the store, but I took the picture anyway. So the joint is missing from the picture.

So at this point you can see that your engine is starting to come together. In the next blog entry we'll take it a step further and I'll show you how to put fuel into the rocket engine. Until then have a good night and take two extra seconds and think about safety.