Back in the day, Centuri sold wadding made of crepe paper. I've since discovered that pretty much all ordinary party crepe paper is flame retardant, just as the Estes toilet paper wadding is. So I have to ask... is there any reason I can't just cut off square pieces of crepe paper from one of those $0.48 rolls that Wal-Mart sells, and use that instead of the overpriced Estes wadding?

BTW... I am aware of "dog barf" wadding. I'm just curious if there is any reason we don't use crepe paper anymore.

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NAR # 115523
Once upon a better day... SAM #0076
My site: http://rocketry.gonnerman.org

Sol,

It's all about stiffness. The Estes wadding is the softest and conforms the best to whatever it's in thus sealing things well and providing a better barrier. Next best is the Quest wadding, parade float paper, also flame retardent, and rightly so. But it's stiffer than the Estes wadding. And crepe paper is even stiffer. My take is that, from personal experience, flames and hot gases tend to work their way around the stiffer papers and get to the chute.

So, I tend to mix them together. With crepe, I use 2-4 sheets of it with 1-2 sheets of Estes. That economizes on the Estes wadding while still providing good protection for the recovery system. For a BT-50 airframe, I'll put two squares of crepe in, then one of Estes, then the shock cord followed by the chute.

Doug

With a quote from Doug Sams:

And since you can get ten years worth of barf from Lowes for about $7 a bundle, why waste that perfectly good streamer material for something that gets wasted each flight?

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Craig McGraw

BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com
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SAM 0044
AMA 352635

Hi, Craig,

I wanted to say something, but since Sol mentioned dog barf, I let it go.

But, now that you brought it up I do use dog barf, usually in birds ~1.3" diameter and larger. My experience with it is that it appears to not block the flames and hot gasses well when used by itself; it needs to be used along with some wadding or a chute protector to work well.

I will often make a piston by placing a ball of barf in a sheet of wadding and putting that in first, then more wadding, shock cord, etc.

For HPR, dog barf with just a chute protector works well. For MR birds ~2" and under - whether it's dog barf, Quest wadding or crepe paper - I tend to get the best results when using a little Estes wadding in the mix

Doug
Hoping I'm not repeating myself...

Doug,

I appreciate your observations, and don't mind any "repeats" of information. I've noticed from time-to-time an occasional hole in a parachute that I attributed to just not having enough barf shoved into the tube. Most of the time the shredded newsprint works well; I think it fills in the gaps better than does the sheet style. But there are those odd moments when the parachute comes back with damage that was not there pre-flight.

The downside to the ShredCel wadding is packing it into the less-than-1" tubes, like ST-7 and BT-20. I tend to pack it down a bit tighter than I should, resulting in the occasional blockage near the end of the tube, even to the point of blowing out the motor as often as it blows out the laundry.

Your "piston" idea is similar to Bit Eimer's Teflon pompom, just not as permanent. I may have to go re-read his construction sequence on the BARCLONE site and try it out on a few.

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Craig McGraw

BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com
BARCLONE Blogsite -- http://barclone.wordpress.com
BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum

BARs helping BARs

SAM 0044
AMA 352635

Probably half of my fleet is BT-20, making dog barf problematic. That was why I had high hopes for using crepe; and actually, I probably will anyway, combined with a few sheets of Estes wadding.

Still too expensive, dang it.

__________________
NAR # 115523
Once upon a better day... SAM #0076
My site: http://rocketry.gonnerman.org

Why cut when you can buy it in squares? Crepe paper squares are available in many craft stores. That's what Quest sells as wadding now. It's the stuff that people stuff into chicken wire to build parade floats. Pick your favorite wadding color and run with it.

Personally, I like the Estes stuff best for small rockets for its soft form fitting properties mentioned in previous posts. I don't like the way they pack individual squares in the Wally World motor packs. I like it still connected like toilet paper rolls. I used dog barf stuff back when I was still doing HPR stuff, but I don't like it at all on little rockets.

Estes wadding is around $0.0625 per sheet, not counting sales tax or 40% off coupon, at Hobby Lobby. Quest wadding is around $0.03 per sheet online, not counting any shipping/handling. But a huge roll of crepe paper is $0.48 at Wal-Mart. I'm really cheap...

... but I never saw individual sheets of crepe paper. I'll have to look for it. Does Hobby Lobby carry such?

__________________
NAR # 115523
Once upon a better day... SAM #0076
My site: http://rocketry.gonnerman.org

You seem to be mixing/confusing the terms "crepe paper" and "tissue paper". They are different materials (similar, but different like a Chihuahua and a Golden Retriever). Quest uses a flame resistant/treated tissue, not crepe paper.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-tissue-paper.htm

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-crepe-paper.htm

Since I don;t have a HL nearby (at least 1000 miles), I can only tell you that Party Supply stores sell crepe paper in long packages which contain big sheets folded over.

First hit on Google shows all 3 types I see at the local mega-party stores.

http://www.pacon.com/paper_products..._deco-puffs.php