Sharon's Squat Build

[Hardline]

Since receiving the disappointing news that the ARG launch had been cancelled I decided to assuage my sorrows by building the Squat that I purchased during the Black Sales.


First thing was to take everything out of the package and read the instructions:

They were really good instructions, clear and concise. But I am incapable of following instructions precisely :smile:

This kit is awesome, everything cut out and test fitted together with a minimum of sanding. Cudos to Madcow Rocketry and thanks to Old Dude for his "not a build thread" since I reviewed it quite a bit in the process of this build.

Gotta clean up as I go:

I decided to add another hole to the forward centering ring with a second eyebolt so I could make a Y Harness. Used self locking nuts instead of the ones that came with the kit and I asked Wayne to braise the eyebolts for me while I sanded the motor tube (and poured a glass of wine....)

 

[Hardline]

Next I made a line for the rail button location, aligned the forward centering ring so the bolts would not interfere with the fins, and added a block of wood to both the forward and rear centering rings so I would have a larger target when I add the rail buttons later.

Ran upstairs to my office for binder clips

Then test fitted it all together again after I asked Wayne to round my fin edges for me (I am not allowed to operate power tools)

added a couple of screws for ease of rear centering ring removal so I could do internal fillets:

At this point I tried on the AeroPack 54 mm retainer and determined that I would need to extend the motor tube 1/4 inch below the edge of the body tube and marked it accordingly. Put everything in place and used 5 minute epoxy to secure the front centering ring, forgetting to tie on the kevlar for the Y harness. No matter - I can stick my whole hand down there. I also managed to not get any pictures of the really cool syringe / aquarium tubing method of mixing the epoxy in the tube of the syringe and snaking the tubing down to the centering ring. Not enough hands and I was busy cleaning up epoxy on the inside of the body tube after the end of the syringe popped off and .... 'nuff said on that.

Moving along!

I tacked the fins in place and verified alignment as I did my internal and external fillets with 30 minute epoxy with milled fiberglass added.

After doing all three sections, one every half hour, time for dinner: elk fajitas

Then back to epoxy the rear centering ring on and JB weld on the Aeropack retainer:

At that point it was past my bedtime.

 

[AZ_Ron]

Glad you were able to figure out a way to take out your frustrations!!!
I'm pretty bummed to, I'm finishing up a 4" 7' tall rocket that I was going to be flying on Sunday on
a Full K sparky motor made by Don Alexander. I'll spend the added time now putting a nice finish on it.
When dealt lemons, make lemonade!
Don was planning on flying the Mega-Diablo on a 17,000Ns 'N' motor. I'd guess that if AHPRA has the waiver in place
next month, on the 23rd, that Don and I will both fly our birds there.

Back on subject, the Squat is a really neat rocket. My wife built one for her Level 1. We picked it up from Jack at Balls in '11.
I attached a pic. She came up with the name. Always gets a reaction!
Great build thread, love your humor!

Ron

 

[sodmeister]

Great pictures ,and more importantly ,a very well stocked room full of supplies and everything marked and labelled.

I had to look around for a second ,thought that was my shop ! LOL

Cheers

Paul T

 

[Wayco]

Great pictures ,and more importantly ,a very well stocked room full of supplies and everything marked and labelled.

I had to look around for a second ,thought that was my shop ! LOL

Cheers

Paul T

What you saw was Sharon's side of the table. I came in this morning and found this:

Looks like she isn't done with short fat rockets yet. Last build binge she went on was last year I think. The Squat! might have inspired her to bigger and better things! I need to talk to Tim at Wildman's and get an extra bulkhead and CR for this monster. Haven't seen a build thread on the 5" Jart, anyone want to share ideas? Has anyone even flown this rocket yet?

 

[Hardline]

View attachment 118492I'd guess that if AHPRA has the waiver in place
next month, on the 23rd, that Don and I will both fly our birds there.

Back on subject, the Squat is a really neat rocket. My wife built one for her Level 1. We picked it up from Jack at Balls in '11.
I attached a pic. She came up with the name. Always gets a reaction!
Great build thread, love your humor!

Ron

Thanks, Ron. I do love your wife's Squat name - perfect with the pink. Is that a Sticker Shock decal? Wayne and I just ordered a batch of stuff from Mark - we think our rockets fly happier dressed.....wait for it......shockingly.

I hope you guys get to launch next month, I know it is hard to wait.

 

[Hardline]

Great pictures ,and more importantly ,a very well stocked room full of supplies and everything marked and labelled.

I had to look around for a second ,thought that was my shop ! LOL

Cheers

Paul T

Quite a compliment. Thank you!

 

[Davidtmp]

Used self locking nuts instead of the ones that came with the kit

I like to see this, was thinking of doing the same on my Piranha. Like that better than epoxying the nuts on.

 

[KenRico]

What you saw was Sharon's side of the table. I came in this morning and found this:

Looks like she isn't done with short fat rockets yet. Last build binge she went on was last year I think. The Squat! might have inspired her to bigger and better things! I need to talk to Tim at Wildman's and get an extra bulkhead and CR for this monster. Haven't seen a build thread on the 5" Jart, anyone want to share ideas? Has anyone even flown this rocket yet?

Read in another thread about. WM dragrace with the jart and gizmos k2045 motors, I think.

My question, think I know what the extra bulk headbis for (av bay style cap for nc -gmta) but with the shorter mmt trying to figure out what the. extra CR is for.

Kenny

 

[o1d_dude]

From the pictures down into the body tube from the motor mount end, it looks like you did the same I did and moved the top centering ring down so that it sits on top of the forward fin tangs.

As QQuake often says "Why just build when you can OVERBUILD?" LOL!

Looking forward to a build thread wrap up and launch report on this one.

 

[Wayco]

Read in another thread about. WM dragrace with the jart and gizmos k2045 motors, I think.

My question, think I know what the extra bulk headbis for (av bay style cap for nc -gmta) but with the shorter mmt trying to figure out what the. extra CR is for.

Kenny

Yeah, we are trying to figure a way to put an altimeter in the N/C, give it a vent to the outside without using the olgive surface and fire an ejection charge without affecting the altimeter....
The extra CR is so we can inject inner fillets and put a separate CR at the top of the MMT.

 

[Wayco]

From the pictures down into the body tube from the motor mount end, it looks like you did the same I did and moved the top centering ring down so that it sits on top of the forward fin tangs.

As QQuake often says "Why just build when you can OVERBUILD?" LOL!

Looking forward to a build thread wrap up and launch report on this one.

That's what she did, it makes it easy to float the inner fillets in. We are using this build to help us work up a plan for the 5" Jart. She wants to inject the fillets on it, and build an avbay in the N/C. This concept has me stumped, I have never tried to build a dual deploy system in a N/C.

 

[KenRico]

Hey forgot my manners, nice build thread ! For a second thought you were going to foam it and forget it CJ style.

Do rockets look hotter after the 2nd glass of wine ?

For the vent hole , would a CJ style 1/2 hole work at nc bottom and airframe top with the hole continued into and through the coupler/nc shoulder ? Then glue a tube to int of shoulder and continue hole into it also or??

Think that would cover the altimeter, but doesnt really address deploying the main.

Kenny

 

[Hardline]

From the pictures down into the body tube from the motor mount end, it looks like you did the same I did and moved the top centering ring down so that it sits on top of the forward fin tangs.

As QQuake often says "Why just build when you can OVERBUILD?" LOL!

Looking forward to a build thread wrap up and launch report on this one.

That is correct, I moved the top centering ring down since I like what I call the "sandwich" method. Those fins aren't going anywhere.....

Will keep this thread updated as I determine how I am approaching the altimeter issue. I am hoping to launch the Squat! at our upcoming March 9th SSS launch IF I can get a motor. I was planning on ransacking What's Up Hobbies trailer this weekend but ARG was cancelled so no joy.

 

[Hardline]

Hey forgot my manners, nice build thread ! For a second thought you were going to foam it and forget it CJ style.

Do rockets look hotter after the 2nd glass of wine ?

For the vent hole , would a CJ style 1/2 hole work at nc bottom and airframe top with the hole continued into and through the coupler/nc shoulder ? Then glue a tube to int of shoulder and continue hole into it also or??

Think that would cover the altimeter, but doesnt really address deploying the main.

Kenny

This thread seemed to take on a life of it's own last night while I was otherwise occupied.....

I am currently considering foaming in the weight/bulkhead/av bay with a tube and drill through the shoulder and body tube and line up with shear pins or something. Also thinking about a cable cutter for main deployment. But I've never seen a cable cutter, much less used one :eyepop:'

At this point the Squat! I could finish up and fly by just adding nose weight and recovery. I have a 38 to 54 mm adaptor and my initial thrust curve shows I can fly H's and I's up to around 2600'. But the whole point of building the Squat is to use it as a test bed for my 5" Jart build.

 

[Eat, sleep, and Fly]

That's what she did, it makes it easy to float the inner fillets in. We are using this build to help us work up a plan for the 5" Jart. She wants to inject the fillets on it, and build an avbay in the N/C. This concept has me stumped, I have never tried to build a dual deploy system in a N/C.

I I were you, I would buy a 4" BP, and bolt it onto a 1/4 inch allthread, which you can attach to the nose cone tip. Once it is attached, you can take it on, or off. from there you can build a sled for the altimiter. Drill a vent hole into the nosecone, but make sure to do accell for your apogee event. For dual deploy, read this article

 

[Hardline]

I I were you, I would buy a 4" BP, and bolt it onto a 1/4 inch allthread, which you can attach to the nose cone tip. Once it is attached, you can take it on, or off. from there you can build a sled for the altimiter. Drill a vent hole into the nosecone, but make sure to do accell for your apogee event. For dual deploy, read this article

Thank you for your the link to the article - Very Helpful.

After my morning coffee I have decided I am going to back off from Dual Deploying the Squat, still put an av bay in, but leave the dual deploy for the 5" Jart. I think I'm attempting too much too soon and I need to lay a better foundation for my learning process.

 

[Hardline]

After a confab with my mentor, Dwain, who gently let me know I was confused about how to put an av bay into a nose cone (as if I didn't already know that!) and gave me some guidance to get back on track, I got back to work on my Squat! this weekend.

I had two tasks this session: put together the altimeter bay to the point where I could use it to properly set the holder tube/ bulkhead and to foam in the holdertube / bulkhead into the nose cone with weight.

The original bulkhead was tossed into the Re-use Bin (yes, Kenny, it is properly labeled in it's designated spot....) and I had Wayne cut a new one out (I am still not allowed to use power tools with sharp blades but as is seen later I got to use a drill!)

Getting ready:

Wayne pressed a T-nut (the drill press being another tool I don't get to use yet) into the forward altimeter bay bulkhead. The next time I am going to make sure that the T-nut "wings" are better situated around the holes since I had some difficulties with the nuts - a small rotation of the T-nut would have made it adding the nuts a bit easier. Putting that down in the "lesson learned" section.

I then screwed nuts and washers along the allthread rods, secured by adding Locktite, and used wingnuts to secure sled in av bay with the aft bulkheads.

Here is the new bulkhead around what I am calling the "holder tube". Added a #304 U-bolt 1/2" pipe with self locking nuts. Epoxied the bulkhead with the bolt for the T-nut to the side of the tube that goes towards the pointy part of the nose cone. I have to admit the whole time I had a hard time figuring out which way was "up", "forward", "aft". I did alot of putting things in and out of the nose cone and turning the nose cone up and down to figure out who was what where. I really hope it is Not Just Me that has this type of Visual Spacial Inconsistency......

Time to foam

 

[Hardline]

Gotta have an action shot. Here I am adding 3 oz (85 grams) of BB's. I decided on 3 oz after reading several other Squat threads and running simulations on Open Rocket.

Test fit of the bulkhead/holdertube assembly with my technique of mixing the 2-part epoxy in a squeeze bottle and squeezing the material into the nose code via a tube. As you can image: timing is everything.....

The plan to keep the nose cone cool. It worked really well.

Looking at the above photo I forgot to mention I screwed in woodscrews through the nosecone into the bulkhead since I wanted to Make Sure it wouldn't pull out.

I used 20 ml part A, added 4 drops of water, and poured into the squeeze bottle, then added the 20 ml part B, stirred it until it JUST turned latte color and squeezed it all through the tube as fast as possible. :eyepop: Yep, first attempt I got maybe a quarter of it before the squeeze bottle became permanently foamed. Ok. New bottle. Do it faster next time - and it worked! Still needed to do it a total of 4 times, but it foamed up all the way to the bulkhead and stopped. Very Obedient foam. Kenny, this is obviously not my work space......

That was it for that day.

 

[Hardline]

I actually took a day off of working Sunday so I could make some progress on the Squat!

I had forgotten to add my 1/4" kevlar Y-harness so I stuck my hands down there (it's not like the Squat isn't short and fat) and added the Kevlar then attached the tubular nylon and had Wayne use the sewing machine to tack down the tail. No - I don't use sewing machines either.

Added a 36" Atomic Rockets parachute 22' back from the ubolt.

Added rail buttons with standoff's

Added 3 shear pins (here is where I got to use a drill, they are now on the acceptable power tool list....)

I used Rocket Calculator version 1.3.1 on my iPhone to calculate the static pressure port size and then, holding my breath, I measured and then re-measured, held my breath and drilled through the body tube, nose cone, holder tube and Av bay for the Static Pressure port and nailed it. Yay!

What is left is to finish building the av bay and get Wayne to paint the Squat!

Have I mentioned I don't paint? :grin:

 

[T-Rex]

Added a 36" Atomic Rockets parachute 22' back from the ubolt.

Great build and a great thread. Sometime I wish I wasn't allowed to play with power tools, paint or sharp objects...

I have been shoping chutes lately, but have not heard of this one. Am I missing a company/vendor in my searches??

 

[Hardline]

Great build and a great thread. Sometime I wish I wasn't allowed to play with power tools, paint or sharp objects...

I have been shopping chutes lately, but have not heard of this one. Am I missing a company/vendor in my searches??

I am incredibly spoiled.....

The chute I am using came from an estate sale where Wayne and I picked up a number of rockets, casings, motors, parachutes, tool boxes, etc. I think Wayne mentioned the estate sale in his Coppertop Thread. This chute, although in very good condition, has obviously been around the sky a number of times and probably is not of current manufacture.

 

[cgould]

Really cool thread!