My first reloadable experimental rocket motors came about after spotting a “VERY SMALL” (You know the brand) Rocket Set at the local hobby store. I was intrigued by the idea that motors could be made that small. What I didn't care for was the minuscule size of the rockets included in the kit. What to do about this? First I scaled up the rockets a bit, and then moved on to motor development. Before I developed this system, I was building similar sized motors with paper casings. In order to stand up to the pressure, the paper case walls had to be thick and that left minimal room for propellant. I decided there had to be a better way. At first I tried thin walled aluminum tube and plugged both ends with clay to make a nozzle and forward closure. The nozzle was the weak link in that design, so I came up with the idea of turning the motor casings from ¼” 6061 aluminum rod stock with an integral nozzle.

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