¼ Karat Carrot

by Kathy Miller 

When I saw this plastic carrot filled with candy in an Easter display, well, it just cried out, “I’m a ROCKET!!” It looks sort of like it could something out of a Marvin the Martian cartoon, too.

Materials:

• One (1) plastic carrot (It came filled
• with Easter candy)
• One (1) 5” piece of 24mm Estes tubing
• One (1) standard Estes 1/8” thick centering ring
• One (1) Estes flat cardboard centering ring cut
• to match the inside of the carrot
• ~24” of Kevlar string for the shock cord
• 18”X 2” of Mylar or metallic tissue paper streamer
• Four Mean Machine fins
• Orange and silver paint
• 3/16” soda straw for launch lug cut in ½” and 1” lengths
• ProBond adhesive
• 5-minute epoxy

I cut bottom out of the carrot, just enough for the motor mount/body tube to fit snuggly without being distorted. I slid the mmt/bt and measure just enough to extend out the bottom of the rocket for the root cord of the fins. Next, I measured where the 1/8” centering ring should rest comfortably inside the carrot then glued it into place on the mmt/bt and glued the flat cardboard ring 1/8” below the top of the tube, adding fillets when they were set in place. Before I glued the assembly into the carrot, I painted the tube orange. I then used ProBond to glue the assembly into the carrot, making sure I used just enough to go between the rings and carrot ‘tube’.

To attach the shock cord to the ‘nose cone’ carrot top, I made a very small hole just enough to slide the cord through. I looped the cord around the green top and back into the hole and tied a triple knot. The other end of the cord was glued using 5-minute epoxy to the inside of the mmt/bt.

The fins were glued on to the remaining end of the mmt/bt. Launch lugs were added, the small ½” lug at the top edge of the carrot and the 1” lug ½” to a fin, ½” from the mmt/bt. A 2”X18” streamer was attached 3” from the nose cone. The lower end of the mmt/bt was painted orange while the fins are painted silver.

A flight on a C11-3 was straight up with the streamer ejected right at apogee and a soft grassy landing.