Welcome to the
Hydroaeropropulsion Rocket Research Labs
homepage!
15 november 2002
Three bottles I tried to connect together. The middle one has gotten the
same treatment as our 2x2liter bottle:
I put both ends shortly into boiling water, causing the ends to shrink a bit,
so they fit snugly into the two other bottles. Then I crammed rubber strips
(from an old bicycle tire) into the joints to try and seal them. The biggest
mistake was using a flame to try and melt the stuff toghether: the rubber
does nothing at all and the bottles start to shrink in all kind of funny ways.
Need I tell you that the thing leaked as soon as I poured water into it?
The 2x2 liter bottle was filled with wallpaper glue to try and seal the leaks.
Here the excess glue is dripping out of the rocket inside a recipient
(which is, of course, another bottle with its top removed).
I repeated this step a few times, even putting pressure on the bottle when
the glue was inside, so the glue was pushed in all leaks. This thing held
to about 2 bar, which is not that much of course.