High-Power Sugar Rocket
TIME: AN AFTERNOON COST: $600
The humble beginnings of a wicked DIY rocket.
Dan Pollino’s 6-foot sugar rocket accelerates to 400mph in 3 seconds and goes 6,000 feet high. It’s an awesome DIY project. To build it, get Dan’s excellent how-to book I Still Have All My Fingers: How to Build a Big Sugar Rocket on a Budget Without Losing a Limb.
We asked Dan how he got into rockets. He took us all the way back.
When I was in sixth grade, I had an unconventional teacher named Mr. Zimmerman. He taught us fractions by giving us fake seed money to buy and sell stocks every day. He set up a competition to see who could grow their seed money the most in a month. That was the most exciting math lesson I ever had and I didn’t even realize I was learning it.
In science, he used a series of experiments to teach us the principles of physics. There was the typical egg drop, where we designed a container to prevent an egg from breaking when it was dropped three stories onto a parking lot. But the one everyone looked forward to all year was the model rocket launch. Of course there were lectures on the principles of rocket flight, but the anticipation of the launch made the laws of the physical universe seem like rules to a game and not a boring lecture.
Everyone had to build their own rocket and bring it to class on the day of the launch. Back in the day, Estes model rockets were available everywhere and there wasn’t any problem bringing a model rocket engine, a Class 1.4 explosive, to school.
My parents could only afford the engine, so I had to make the rocket myself. No X-wing fighter or Atlas model for me. Mine was constructed from a discarded paper towel tube. It had cardboard fins that were glued on — poorly— and a paper nose cone. I made the parachute from a plastic garbage bag and used shoelaces for the shroud lines. Needless to say it weighed a ton but I was proud of it nonetheless.
Launch day came and the entire class went to the track field behind the school to get our final grade. I put my rocket on the pad, we all did a countdown, and up it went … all of about 2 feet. The rocket just hung there for a second, fell back down on its side with a thud, and after a second or two, the parachute puffed out.
Everyone laughed and I got a horrible grade, but none of that was important to me. What I did learn, and what turned out to be an invaluable lesson, was that I could make something. 
Inside the Six-Foot Sugar Rocket
Dan Pollino is the author of several how-to books. His rockets have been featured on G4 TV’s It’s Effin’ Science. His website inverseengineering.com focuses on amateur rocketry in California.