[AR] Re: Continuation of small hybrid motor design

  • From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:03:29 -0400 (EDT)

On Fri, 17 Jul 2020, Jack Hanna wrote:

I've heard graphite as a nozzle is effective, however it's also extremely porous, and I'm hesitant to use it as a unibody design for the main combustion chamber and injector...

I can't advise specifically on hybrid issues, but more generally...

Graphite is porous, or not, depending on what type you get -- there are *many* different flavors of graphite, it's not a single well-defined material with a single set of properties.

Machining graphite tends to generate huge amounts of fine dust, which is a mild lung irritant and, being electrically conductive, needs to be kept out of electric motors and such (as in, it can cause electrical fires in your tools!). The usual recommendation is a shop-vac with a HEPA filter, with its nozzle as close as possible to the cutting edge(s). And best to have a respirator and a fire extinguisher handy.

Some types of graphite can be very hard on cutting tools, even carbide.

Henry

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