Our Children's Future: An LDRS34 Teen Group Project

Now we're talking!
What are your thoughts on altimeters?

RRC3, Eggfinder, and maybe an RRC2+.

blackbrandt said:

RRC3, Eggfinder, and maybe an RRC2+.

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Great choices! Can't wait to see the glassed-up photos...

blackbrandt said:

RRC3, Eggfinder, and maybe an RRC2+.

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Matt keeps trying to sneak an RRC2 in there only the Eggtimer and RRC3

conman13 said:

Matt keeps trying to sneak an RRC2 in there only the Eggtimer and RRC3

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Well, why not? Since we have space we might as well do a comparison of the three altimeters to the OR file... Just a thought

And so starts the epic battle of the ages...

codysmith said:

Well, why not? Since we have space we might as well do a comparison of the three altimeters to the OR file... Just a thought

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RRC2 doesn't record data just altitude...

blackbrandt said:

And so starts the epic battle of the ages...

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Who knew??? :rofl:

I also stopped by lowes after school and picked up 2 6' sections of 3/8" all thread, 3/8" nuts and washers along with 2 5/16" Ubolts.

Well Cody and I spent 7 hours working on this today!!!

First we marked and cut the body tubes to size. We used a dremel cut the tubes as cleanly as we could. After they were cut out we used a dremel with a sanding drum to square them up.






Next we began to drill out the centering rings for the 3/8" all thread. The bulkhead at the top will be used as a shock cord anchor point. It is a 5/16" U-bolt. everything was dry fitted before we moved ahead. Next was to epoxy the centering rings on. We used 5min just to tack them in place, I will go back and use our us composites with fiberglass strands to make some nice strong fillets. With everything in place we sanded most of the glassine off where the fins wen, marked the mmt and tacked the first fin in place with 5min. We didn't have time to finish tacking all the fins down so I will do that within the next couple of weeks. After all the fins are on I will epoxy the aft ring on and lay down some heavy duty fiberglass epoxy fillets to hold those fins in place










The main point of today was to get the Airframes fiberglassed. We started out with the 41" section. Everything worked great and it all went smoothly. Man can I say wrapping large tubes is so much better then wrapping/rolling small tubes!! After we finished the 41" section we moved on to the 6' section. We got everything prepped and ready to go and mixed up our epoxy (A little over a pound of it!). this took a little more time as we made sure to lay the fiberglass down perfectly as I only left about a half inch of material on each side. We were able to get it all glassed in no time. they both turned out pretty good and will be cured by Monday.

Cody had some trouble getting the gloves to fit :rofl:



Finally got one on









Cody will come back again in a couple of weeks so we can cut the fin slots, epoxy mmt in and get the external fillets done. I need to glass the 2" vent band and the 29" section which will be easy.

Smaller tube laminated






laminating the 6' tube

Well I couldn't just stop there!!


All three fins are tacked on. I also epoxied the Aft ring on.






I also mixed up some of our US composites and chopped carbon/glass for a set of internals.





I will get another set of internals done on Monday.

Nice job y'all! Looks great! Can't wait to get the av-bay finished and shipped.

Ok so like I said Cody and I tried to cut the tubes as squares we can but they are still not great. Anyone have any advice on how to square up the ends of these large tubes?

conman13 said:

Ok so like I said Cody and I tried to cut the tubes as squares we can but they are still not great. Anyone have any advice on how to square up the ends of these large tubes?

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I always use cash register rolls to make a square end. Seems to work majority of the time for me.

SinfulDarkLord said:

I always use cash register rolls to make a square end. Seems to work majority of the time for me.

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May I ask what you mean by cash register rolls? I don't understand...

conman13 said:

Ok so like I said Cody and I tried to cut the tubes as squares we can but they are still not great. Anyone have any advice on how to square up the ends of these large tubes?

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flynfrog said:

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The tubes are too large for that... 9"

pull the blade down till it its and have some one spin the tube

codysmith said:

May I ask what you mean by cash register rolls? I don't understand...

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The ones that print out your receipt lol.

I think I'm going to try the chop saw.

SinfulDarkLord said:

The ones that print out your receipt lol.

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I just don't see how that would work on a 9" tube... I like Flynfrog's idea... we might try that...

codysmith said:

May I ask what you mean by cash register rolls? I don't understand...

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You take enough paper off the roll to go around tube +6-7inches. When the paper edges are aligned so there is no excess above or below, you now have a perfect circle that is square to cut clean edge. Tape into position, draw a line around the top edge of paper...cut to that line and your tube should be square.

Just a super sized version of how we used to wrap a sheet of paper around an Estes tube, to mark for a nice square cut.

blackjack2564 said:

You take enough paper off the roll to go around tube +6-7inches. When the paper edges are aligned so there is no excess above or below, you now have a perfect circle that is square to cut clean edge. Tape into position, draw a line around the top edge of paper...cut to that line and your tube should be square.

Just a super sized version of how we used to wrap a sheet of paper around an Estes tube, to mark for a nice square cut.

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Ah, I see what you are saying... Like Connor said, he is going to try chop saw... We used the method you described for cutting but we still couldn't get it perfectly square... just needs a tiny amount of touch up

Put a piece of sand paper on a flat leveled surface and keep rotating the tube as you sand it.

blackjack2564 said:

You take enough paper off the roll to go around tube +6-7inches. When the paper edges are aligned so there is no excess above or below, you now have a perfect circle that is square to cut clean edge. Tape into position, draw a line around the top edge of paper...cut to that line and your tube should be square.

Just a super sized version of how we used to wrap a sheet of paper around an Estes tube, to mark for a nice square cut.

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I leave the paper on there and cut with a hacksaw just a tad above the paper. Then using a sanding block I sand until I am level with the paper. This ensures a square clean edge.

blackjack2564 said:

You take enough paper off the roll to go around tube +6-7inches. When the paper edges are aligned so there is no excess above or below, you now have a perfect circle that is square to cut clean edge. Tape into position, draw a line around the top edge of paper...cut to that line and your tube should be square.

Just a super sized version of how we used to wrap a sheet of paper around an Estes tube, to mark for a nice square cut.

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Guys,I tried to splain this method to you. I thought you got it.....

I use the paper wrapping concept as described earlier, then using a dremel 1.75" dia. saw blade, cut along the line. The blade is wide enough that the cut is fairly even. Then I slide a coupler tube inside the ends I just cut and using a hand sanding block, sand the edges smooth. You may end up with a couple smaller gaps, but you should be OK. Another thought if this is to glue the entire length of tube together, draw a line where you want the center of your AV Bay together. Drill holes for the switches across the center of the line, then starting in one of the holes cut all the way around. Now you don't need a switch band. If you do this, you don't need a perfectly straight cut because the imperfections are uniformly imperfect. Yeah, it isn't as cosmetically beautiful, but no one is going to see it when it is on the pad. Plus, I think a swtichband is a little ugly anyway. This is how it looked on a 7.5" diameter rocket I built and ultimately crashed. Being that this is a large diameter rocket you could also drill your vent holes along the line as well.

Those decals are beautiful.

blackbrandt said:

Those decals are beautiful.

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And freakin hilarious!