Hello everyone. This is my first post but I have been checking out this site for about 6 or 7 months. Lots of good info here. First got into rocketry back in the mid 60's, then got out of it in the late 70's. Now I am back into it and am building a lot of the kits I once owned, and some I could only dream of owning in my youth. So far I have built a Gemini-Titan (PDrocketry), a saturn V (Estes), and with the help of balsa machine service a wac corporal, mini bertha, screamer, midget, skyhook, V2, etc. Now to my question. I wish to fly some of my "S" engine rockets, not with the mini-brute engines but with actual S engines. For the upper stage of my Midget I simply made a little fixture that holds the 1/2A engines and cut them on a saw to the S size. However, Estes stopped making the 1/2A or full A booster engines so I am stumped here. Way back when Estes packed their engines with a little paper cup on top to hold the ejection charge (any of you old timers remember that??) I would make my own booster engines by removing that paper cup and dumping out the loose blackpowder grains. These booster engines always worked in igniting the second stage. Am wondering if I could still do the same by removing the clay on top of current engines . Appropriate safety measures would be taken of course. Anybody ever try this? I should mention that when I was growing up everybody in the neighborhood that wanted booster engines would do as I did and simply modify regular engines. Any other manufacturer of engines besides Estes?? I am basically just re-entering (no pun intended) this hobby and cannot find anything on the web about this. Thanks to all in advance