for this project I’m going to show you
how to make your own fire resistant
rocket wadding at home this specially
treated material prevents your
parachutes for melting during the
ejection charge which is a must-have if
you actually plan on getting a rocket
back in one piece but rather than
dropping fistfuls of money on commercial
recovery wadding save your cash and make
your own with a pinch of household
baking soda for this project we’re going
to need a roll of paper towels a box of
pure baking soda and a little bit of
water chances are you already have a box
somewhere around the house and if you
look on the side you’ll see that all
baking soda is is sodium bicarbonate
when sodium bicarbonate is heated up it
releases co2 gas and you may remember
that carbon dioxide puts out fires which
is exactly what we want let’s get busy
making our fire retarding solution by
adding one teaspoon of baking soda to a
quarter cup of water give it a good stir
for around 10 to 20 seconds then just
let it sit for a bit until everything
settles down when the water turns clear
again it’ll be a supersaturated solution
and you might see a little white powder
at the bottom of the glass we don’t need
that so carefully pour the clear liquid
into another bowl slowly enough that it
leaves the undissolved powder behind now
you need to do is find a single sheet of
paper towel and toss it into the bowl
for about 30 seconds flip it over and
double-check the liquid soaked all the
way through and if it has then find a
place where you can hang the wet paper
towel for a few hours to drip dry
preferably at room temperature or warmer
this amount of solution should be enough
to treat to full-size paper towels and
will take somewhere between 4 and 24
hours to dry out completely now check
this out if your paper towel is two-ply
like mine you can grab one of the
corners and pull the two layers apart
just like that you’ve got twice as much
wadding with hardly any extra effort to
finish up simply layer the sheets
together and cut them into squares
roughly the same size as the square of
toilet paper and that’s it you just made
36 squares of fire resistant recovery
wadding for a few minutes of effort in a
pinch of baking soda the best part is
you can make your batches as big as you
want and it only cost you a few pennies
which is way better than the price
you’ll pay at the hobby stores now just
for fun I went ahead and bought some
commercial wadding as well so we can
open the packs up and see how they
compare commercial rocket wadding kind
of looks like flattened rolls of toilet
paper funny enough it’s even perforated
to tear into little squares as well
the packaging says the material protects
recovery systems from hot ejection gases
so let’s see what they do when we touch
them with a flame surprisingly the sheet
actually catches fire and burns up in
just a few seconds let’s compare that to
the makeshift wadding we just made with
baking soda you can see it scorches the
fabric in terms of black as expected but
the tissue doesn’t actually catch fire
and won’t sustain a flame instead it
just smolder slowly until all the
wadding is spent or until the carbon
dioxide chokes out the embers now baking
soda isn’t the only option for rocket
wadding in fact there are all kinds of
other fires and materials all around you
perfect for the job I just pulled a
couple handfuls of cellulose insulation
out of the attic of my house and flame
testing this material you can see it
doesn’t catch fire at all and
surprisingly it won’t even smolder attic
insulation is another cheap and easily
accessible option and is the same stuff
I used for capping the ejection charges
and my screw lock sugar motors in a
previous project look for how to make
those from scratch in another project
video now just for fun I got a four pack
of toilet paper rolls from the dollar
store and place each one in the
container filled with the baking soda
solution a good rule of thumb for mixing
your solution is that for every quarter
cup of water add one teaspoon of baking
soda and if you let your toilet paper
all soaked for a minute it’ll expand
enough that you can reach in and pull
out the cardboard too with hardly any
effort at all now to make sure the paper
soaks up the solution evenly try putting
a lid on your container and flipping the
whole thing upside down for about a
minute
save the excess liquid so you can reuse
it with your other rolls then go ahead
and lay the sopping wet roll on a plate
where it can air dry for a couple of
weeks you could speed the process by
putting it in the oven on low heat but
that will increase your energy cost
might convert it into sodium carbonate
which will make the wadding a little
less effective after about four weeks of
patiently waiting you can see my role is
dried out completely and if you look
closely you might be able to see how the
outer layer is crusted over with baking
soda crystals which isn’t really a good
thing but watch this if we simply peel
off the crusty outer layer we’re
instantly left with a soft and smooth
interior impressively this homemade
material looks and feels a lot like the
name-brand stuff from the hobby store
and even tears into small sheets the
exact same way the difference is our
homemade version seems to be a lot more
resistant to open flames and is only a
fraction of a fraction of a fraction of
the price now if you’re planning to use
homemade recovery wadding for the
randomizer rocket made in another video
I recommend using six sheets of wadding
per launch push the first four sheets
into the rocket body one at a time then
wrap two more sheets around the bottom
of the parachute bundle and nestle it
gently on top of the others tuck any of
the loose elastic cording into the nose
cone then push it into position on top
of the rocket your recovery system is
now protected and ready to spring into
action
so can safely bring your rocket back for
another flight and by the way if you
want to go green and help minimize your
impact on the environment try using a
head of lettuce for parachute wadding
instead the moisture and lettuce leaves
make them a surprisingly effective
alternative and the best part is they’re
biodegradable well now you know how to
use ordinary household baking soda to
make a bundle of flame proof recovery
wadding that’s 300 times cheaper to make
yourself that’s it for now if you liked
this project perhaps you’ll like some of
my others check them out at the king of
random calm hey guys that’s the end of
this video but it’s not the end of the
adventure click here to see the last
project and click here to see the next
I’ve made over 100 project videos for
you to check out and I’m still making
new videos every 5 days so click here to
subscribe to my youtube channel it’s
free and if you update your YouTube
notification settings you can get an
email every time I upload in the
meantime here are a few other videos I
recommend watching they’re all favorites
for different reasons and you’ll learn
something new in every project
thank you for watching sharing and
supporting my videos and I’ll see you in
the next project video I’ll talk to you
then
[Music]
how to make your own fire resistant
rocket wadding at home this specially
treated material prevents your
parachutes for melting during the
ejection charge which is a must-have if
you actually plan on getting a rocket
back in one piece but rather than
dropping fistfuls of money on commercial
recovery wadding save your cash and make
your own with a pinch of household
baking soda for this project we’re going
to need a roll of paper towels a box of
pure baking soda and a little bit of
water chances are you already have a box
somewhere around the house and if you
look on the side you’ll see that all
baking soda is is sodium bicarbonate
when sodium bicarbonate is heated up it
releases co2 gas and you may remember
that carbon dioxide puts out fires which
is exactly what we want let’s get busy
making our fire retarding solution by
adding one teaspoon of baking soda to a
quarter cup of water give it a good stir
for around 10 to 20 seconds then just
let it sit for a bit until everything
settles down when the water turns clear
again it’ll be a supersaturated solution
and you might see a little white powder
at the bottom of the glass we don’t need
that so carefully pour the clear liquid
into another bowl slowly enough that it
leaves the undissolved powder behind now
you need to do is find a single sheet of
paper towel and toss it into the bowl
for about 30 seconds flip it over and
double-check the liquid soaked all the
way through and if it has then find a
place where you can hang the wet paper
towel for a few hours to drip dry
preferably at room temperature or warmer
this amount of solution should be enough
to treat to full-size paper towels and
will take somewhere between 4 and 24
hours to dry out completely now check
this out if your paper towel is two-ply
like mine you can grab one of the
corners and pull the two layers apart
just like that you’ve got twice as much
wadding with hardly any extra effort to
finish up simply layer the sheets
together and cut them into squares
roughly the same size as the square of
toilet paper and that’s it you just made
36 squares of fire resistant recovery
wadding for a few minutes of effort in a
pinch of baking soda the best part is
you can make your batches as big as you
want and it only cost you a few pennies
which is way better than the price
you’ll pay at the hobby stores now just
for fun I went ahead and bought some
commercial wadding as well so we can
open the packs up and see how they
compare commercial rocket wadding kind
of looks like flattened rolls of toilet
paper funny enough it’s even perforated
to tear into little squares as well
the packaging says the material protects
recovery systems from hot ejection gases
so let’s see what they do when we touch
them with a flame surprisingly the sheet
actually catches fire and burns up in
just a few seconds let’s compare that to
the makeshift wadding we just made with
baking soda you can see it scorches the
fabric in terms of black as expected but
the tissue doesn’t actually catch fire
and won’t sustain a flame instead it
just smolder slowly until all the
wadding is spent or until the carbon
dioxide chokes out the embers now baking
soda isn’t the only option for rocket
wadding in fact there are all kinds of
other fires and materials all around you
perfect for the job I just pulled a
couple handfuls of cellulose insulation
out of the attic of my house and flame
testing this material you can see it
doesn’t catch fire at all and
surprisingly it won’t even smolder attic
insulation is another cheap and easily
accessible option and is the same stuff
I used for capping the ejection charges
and my screw lock sugar motors in a
previous project look for how to make
those from scratch in another project
video now just for fun I got a four pack
of toilet paper rolls from the dollar
store and place each one in the
container filled with the baking soda
solution a good rule of thumb for mixing
your solution is that for every quarter
cup of water add one teaspoon of baking
soda and if you let your toilet paper
all soaked for a minute it’ll expand
enough that you can reach in and pull
out the cardboard too with hardly any
effort at all now to make sure the paper
soaks up the solution evenly try putting
a lid on your container and flipping the
whole thing upside down for about a
minute
save the excess liquid so you can reuse
it with your other rolls then go ahead
and lay the sopping wet roll on a plate
where it can air dry for a couple of
weeks you could speed the process by
putting it in the oven on low heat but
that will increase your energy cost
might convert it into sodium carbonate
which will make the wadding a little
less effective after about four weeks of
patiently waiting you can see my role is
dried out completely and if you look
closely you might be able to see how the
outer layer is crusted over with baking
soda crystals which isn’t really a good
thing but watch this if we simply peel
off the crusty outer layer we’re
instantly left with a soft and smooth
interior impressively this homemade
material looks and feels a lot like the
name-brand stuff from the hobby store
and even tears into small sheets the
exact same way the difference is our
homemade version seems to be a lot more
resistant to open flames and is only a
fraction of a fraction of a fraction of
the price now if you’re planning to use
homemade recovery wadding for the
randomizer rocket made in another video
I recommend using six sheets of wadding
per launch push the first four sheets
into the rocket body one at a time then
wrap two more sheets around the bottom
of the parachute bundle and nestle it
gently on top of the others tuck any of
the loose elastic cording into the nose
cone then push it into position on top
of the rocket your recovery system is
now protected and ready to spring into
action
so can safely bring your rocket back for
another flight and by the way if you
want to go green and help minimize your
impact on the environment try using a
head of lettuce for parachute wadding
instead the moisture and lettuce leaves
make them a surprisingly effective
alternative and the best part is they’re
biodegradable well now you know how to
use ordinary household baking soda to
make a bundle of flame proof recovery
wadding that’s 300 times cheaper to make
yourself that’s it for now if you liked
this project perhaps you’ll like some of
my others check them out at the king of
random calm hey guys that’s the end of
this video but it’s not the end of the
adventure click here to see the last
project and click here to see the next
I’ve made over 100 project videos for
you to check out and I’m still making
new videos every 5 days so click here to
subscribe to my youtube channel it’s
free and if you update your YouTube
notification settings you can get an
email every time I upload in the
meantime here are a few other videos I
recommend watching they’re all favorites
for different reasons and you’ll learn
something new in every project
thank you for watching sharing and
supporting my videos and I’ll see you in
the next project video I’ll talk to you
then
[Music]
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