High Pressure Water Rocket Making Tutorial, Part 1: The Pressure Vessel

Part 1 in a series which explains how to build High Power Water Rockets. In this episode, we discuss the fabrication of Composite Fiber Pressure Vessels using Carbon Fiber (or Similar Composite Fabrics) and Resin Lamination Techniques.
Episode Index:
Part 1: Pressure Vessel Construction • High Pressure Water Ro...
Part 2: Parachute Ejection Systems • High Pressure Water Ro...
Additional Resources:
NPL Water Rocket Challenge: www.npl.co.uk/educate-explore/...
Freestyle-Physics Water Rocket Competition: fkpme246a.uni-duisburg.de/fsp-...
Water Rocket Achievement World Record Association: www.wra2.org
Water Rocket Bottle Splicing Tutorial: www.uswaterrockets.com/constru...

[@franic_scopes9165]

I was sent here by Tom Stanton’s most recent video. Tom! If you see this, a high pressure system is worth a shot!

[@lasersaber]

Awesome! I look forward to watching this whole series.

[@USWaterRockets]

Thanks for providing the motivation!

[@Basrockets]

You guys are the best, i am working on a high power rocket and this video helped me a lot! Keep up the good work ;)

[@USWaterRockets]

Thanks, it's great to see someone else experimenting in this field. The more people who are involved, the more things advance.

[@MrWillieboy007]

Great job guys/gals.

[@jsbrocketry1728]

Hello USWaterRockets. A really interesting video showing how you create your cutting edge water rockets. Using Composites really is the way forward to creating High Pressure Rockets and I look forward to more of the videos in the series. Cheers, Jamie B.

[@USWaterRockets]

Hi Jamie, thanks for the feedback, but we think there are plenty of interesting things that have not been done yet with regular unreinforced rockets that can be interesting and valuable. We're waiting for the ice to melt outside so we can test out our air-start staging system. There's plenty of stuff like that that has yet to be invented. Thanks again for the feedback!

[@ptx855]

Great tutorial, one step ahead ...

[@USWaterRockets]

Many thanks!

[@AscenderRockets]

Nice, Very informative. It's good to see the application for composite reinforcing in water rocketry

[@USWaterRockets]

Thanks, but keep in mind that teams have been doing this since around 2003. The first attempts were done by AGR, and they used a completely different method where they wound a single string of fibers around and around their bottles until it was covered. It's a much more difficult process. One or maybe 2 others had tried unsuccessfully to make rockets using woven fabrics around the same time. We were the first to successfully deploy the process in the fall of 2003. We've built a number of rockets like this to look at different techniques over the years since then. Our budget allows us to build one or two each season to see how much farther we can push the pressures, depending on the size of the rocket.

[@AscenderRockets]

USWaterRockets There is a lot of techniques out there, but most keep this information close to their chest. It's good to see detailed videos like this coming out.

[@USWaterRockets]

AscenderRockets Thanks for the words of encouragement. Hopefully the information will be of use to you or at least even if you never use it, it is interesting to watch for you.

[@trentonbilyeu]

Great video! when will the next part of this series come out? would love to learn more!

[@USWaterRockets]

Gorilla Cat Thanks for the feedback! We appreciate it. To answer your question, I am not 100% sure when the next part of this video is going to be released. The video and graphics are done and just waiting for the editing to be completed. That part is about half complete. Keep in mind that we're in the middle of our best launching weather at the moment and if we are out flying rockets or conducting experiments, or repairing flight damage, then we have less time for editing. There are some other nearly complete videos in the pipeline that we may look at first, depending on what is happening with the weather or how much time we have free. It's nice to know you liked this kind of advanced topic. We will give it more attention.

[@t63a700]

You must have been reading my mind, or at least monitoring your web site browsing traffic. I have been scouring as much of the details that I can gather from your X-12 project. This is awesome!!! How am I going to go to sleep now....

[@USWaterRockets]

This is another one of those projects that we start and work on and then put down and pick up later and put down and it drags on and on. We were supposed to have this published last summer on the 10 year anniversary of our first setting the Water Rocket World Record. But we started having way too much fun with our camera drone and our 3D printer. So it was just a coincidence this came out. Have fun with this! But be careful too!

[@TimChenterprise]

Holy Smokes! You do 1500 PSI hydrostatic tests? That is amazing.

[@USWaterRockets]

Good catch! Nobody else noticed that.

[@chrismaskell9551]

Incredible tutorial. I plan to make a carbon high pressure water rocket, but think the nose and payload will have to be wider than the rest of the pressure vessel. Is this a big deal or can it work fine as long as I streamline the shape well?

[@AnCRockets]

Could you specify where i can find those materials on the internet? I'd like to try that design out this summer

[@vouctrung4877]

It's cacbon fabric

[@liamrs4622]

hi there, great video. Planning on doing this for a group project at university, although there are a few things i am unclear of and i would very much benefit from a reply. 1. are spliced 2L bottles using a carbon fiber or fiberglass composite possible, (as rockets shown on the video are very thin and do not look like the soda bottles used in the splicing tutorial) 2. which epoxy/Resin is needed as online there are multiple types of epoxy/Resin 3. also what type of grain did you use for the composite? which worked best, (we have around £300 budget) thank you.

[@bugwubber]

Great video! Quick question- Have you compared nozzles and bulkheads that slip in vs over, the tube? I thought "innies" would be more likely to have the tube peel off as it expands?

[@USWaterRockets]

We had problems with blowing out but then we figured out that we were just to aggressive saving weight by making the contact area as small as we thought. If you make the mating surfaces marge enough it will hold. You can also use extra epoxy to make a flange or lip on the end of the tube that keeps the bulkheads from backing out. It';s not really adhered to the bulkhead there, it's a physical barrier to keep if from moving out of the end of the tube.

[@Alaezae]

Where can you find composites like the ones you have here? I want to build this but the selection on amazon of composite laminates is not very good and it's really expensive for a small amount. Could I find this at like a store that sells plastics or home depot? (or any hardware store) Also, where can i find the epoxy used for the laminates or is it just 24 hour epoxy?

[@marcdubois8601]

I love your tutorial. What about the launcher? and how cani fit my launch pad altimeter in this new rocket?

[@USWaterRockets]

The launcher we use (The "Instant Launcher") will be documented in more detail in one of the future episodes. It's based on our "Split Collar Cable Tie" launcher (kzbin.info/www/bejne/imHHfJZmm9CJodE). If you look at the PVC nozzle in this video you can see that we made the nozzle so that it has the same basic shape as a bottle neck (with the threaded part cut off). That way it works on the same release mechanism abd o-ring launch tubes (kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmSnlWR-j8lqnMk) we've made for our bottle based rockets. Our LaunchPad Altimeter design will not fit in a T-12 or T-8 FTC rocket, It does fit in a T-17 FTC Tube, and the other rocket in this video that we made from 500ml Iced Tea bottles is roomy enough for the Stock LaunchPad Altimeter. However, it is quite easy to make the altimeter a whole lot smaller with some custom work. This guy made the whole thing about the size of a soda bottle cap! www.wra2.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=17159&sid=d241e7b9251e1701ad55a8375f813ac2#p17159

[@RaketfuedrocketsDeutschland]

This is a great tutorial series, we're looking forward to see the upcoming parts. Is there any reason why you chose carbon fiber over fiber glass? We're a quite happy with the pressure performance of our fiberglassed rockets. It would be useful for beginners to add links for ordering in the video description or in the new "info cards". BTW: What is the weather like in the states? There were a few days with good weather in Germany, but it's quite bad right now and so we're unable to launch. Cheers Julian

[@USWaterRockets]

That's a lot of questions! Let's get right to it. Carbon Fiber and Fiberglass are close enough in tensile strength to make little difference in your application. Where carbon fiber is better is in impact resistance. We discovered that this makes no difference to the typical person but in our case where we fly over a lake, the carbon fiber rocket will not shatter when it hits the water, but the fiberglass rocket will crack or shatter on impact with the lake. Neither of them seems to withstand hitting solid ground. So, we have used mainly carbon fiber for this reason. We already played around with info cards, and will add your suggestions when we get more time. The team has been doing 2 important builds in addition to this video and it has had everyone super busy. We had 2 days last week were it was around 40F (4.5C) and sunny, but the snow here is still about a foot deep and when it gets warm like that the snow becomes wet and really hard to walk in. So, we worked on our builds in anticipation of better weather in the coming weeks. But your question was about the weather in the "States", which is pretty broad. We could take a trip to Florida and have summer temperature and sun! LOL. But that's a lot of work! Thanks for the comments!

[@RaketfuedrocketsDeutschland]

USWaterRockets Haha, I'm sorry about that weather question. It's quite unusual to me to ask for weather in a particular region because Germany is a pretty small country. Compared to you the weather in Germany is pretty nice, we had no snow since February and last week about 20C / 68F. Well, now it's colder again with 6-8C / 42-46F. Thanks to EU we are also able to travel to Italia or Spain without any pass controls or changing the currency so that's not big difference to you.One thing I noticed when playing around with the info cards is that you're still unable to ad links to amazon and the most other common sellers. Julian

[@USWaterRockets]

RaketfuedRockets It snowed a bit more here today! It did warm up to about 7C in the afternoon when the sun was out, but it got cloudy and windy and then snowed. Mother Nature is not cooperating this spring. In past years we were out on the lake launching already.

[@derrnav1530]

+RaketfuedRockets So carbonfiber is the tool of choice? You alluded to metal is a no-no. So Ti cannot be used? Thanks for the video, and looking forward to the next.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Interesting video! FWIW, I had *no idea* that composites were available in *sleeve* form as well as 'flat' cloth....

[@USWaterRockets]

Thanks! Yes, there are companies who specialize in making woven sleeves. It makes construction a lot easier especially on oddly bent shapes.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

+USWaterRockets Roger all that....

[@adhi7482]

i in india cant find any bottles in cylindrical shape suited for water rockets, do anyone know where i can buy them online?

[@TekCastPorkchop458]

That Karate Kid reference. I need to watch it again

[@USWaterRockets]

Someone noticed! Awesome! We like to inject some humor into these technical videos.

[@kwinvdv]

You say that you used custom nozzles to reduce drag, but can it also be used to improve the performance by directing the water/air more parallel down the rocket, because if it would expand out of the nozzle creating a diverging water/air stream the diverging velocity component of the water/air will reduce the amount of effective thrust? Thus similar to rocket engine bells of chemical rockets. Or does this have hardly any effect, because most of the thrust comes from shooting out the water, which is nearly incompressible and thus expand very little?

[@USWaterRockets]

There has been a lot of debate over the years about the DeLaval nozzle and whether there were any benefit to using one with a water rocket. We have never had an experiment with enough control to measure the usefulness of such a nozzle on water rockets for precisely the reason you mention. Since water does not expand, the only possible source for added thrust would be from the extra air that follows the water out of the rocket. Our "custom nozzle" design is purely intended to reduce aerodynamic drag on the base of the rocket. It's possible the long taper also helps reduce turbulence in the water as compared to the PVC nozzle, which you can see has only a slight cone on the inside (made with a the tip of giant drill bit).

[@lawytgaming6583]

hi, how do Iaunch this?

[@marcdubois8601]

But once the rocket is built... how can I pressurise it properly???? Most of compressor are just 140 psi capacity!!!

[@robbiejames1540]

I'm fairly sure you can get high pressure hand pumps

[@bluenong8626]

Why not a large aluminium tube?? Or even steel idk, what draw back would using aluminium be?

[@mediwise2474]

PLEASE TELL ME TOOOO

[@mirkkuffs]

How many layers of carbon fiber should it have?

[@USWaterRockets]

All carbon fiber is not equal in strength, weight, and thickness. Two or three layers of a particular low cost grade may hold less pressure than a single layer of top grade material. You have to pick a supplier and get samples and test them. The easiest way to do that is to make some short tubes of your intended diameter with various samples and pressure test them until they either fail or you prove which ones meet your pressure requirements. Then you can make a full length tube using the material you decided was best.

[@mirkkuffs]

Sure thing, thanks for the response!

[@maxhaynes677]

Really? You used carven fiber? Save that for the REAL high power flyers