Nibiru-X, a Neil_w design

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JJSR

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Though its a 24mm design, I thought it would be a great 29mm upscale. So with Neil's permission I went to work on her. I set out not to buy any parts for this rocket, only use what parts I have on hand.
The main bt will be a 34" bt-80, the pods will be two 15" bt-56's. All the fins are to be a glue up of two pieces of 1/8th balsa.

OK, so, I find I don't have any 29mm motor mount tubes, guess I'll have to make a mmt out out of two bt 56's. To accomplish this I sliced them down one side, cut a 1/4"or so off one of them length wise.
Got my 29mm 6 grain case out, wrapped it with clear plastic wrap, put the the cut bt on the case smeared it with JB weld and placed the second bt over the first taped it up and left it to dry over night.


neil's rocket 005.jpgneil's rocket 006.jpgneil's rocket 007.jpg
 
Going to be interesting watching this build progress. And that is a cool design.
 
As always,,
Way too cool Joe....
That reall is a smokin design,, really complex to build,, right up your ally....
I can't wait to see the flights.....

Teddy
 
I can't take any credit for the design, it's one of Neil-w's from his "my photo albums: fleet pics and OR Models". He really has come up with some beautiful rocket designs. (take a look https://www.rocketryforum.com/album.php?u=23964)

Okay, with the mmt done neil's rocket 012.jpg its time to figure out how the pods and fins will be attached. I'm thinking through the wall for strength, so lets take a look at the fins neil's rocket 001.jpg the two pages on the bottom are the size OR has printed out. The top two are the size I'll be using , I can't really say how much % I up scaled them. Because as with most rockets I build from scratch I tend to wing it and go with what feels right. As you can see the OR file has the fins surface mounted, a little finagling is needed here to go through the pod and then through the wall to motor mount. this is what I came up with neil's rocket 004.jpg
With that squared away time to glue up the 1/8" balsa for them neil's rocket 003.jpg neil's rocket 014.jpg pieces are glued perpendicular to each other.
 
Unbelievably georgous , meticulous work Joe,, as always...
For those of us that are build handicapped in comparison to you
in all fairness I think you should come clean with your profession,,, lol...

Teddy
 
while the fin material drys we'll move on to centering rings. easy peasy with some help from a few friends neil's rocket 009.jpgneil's rocket 010.jpgneil's rocket 011.jpg
I have some wood paneling (REAL WOOD) not the kind they make now a days, the kind from the 70's that is solid wood. a little sanding and poof centering rings :wink: I don't know how you guys do it with out a drill press and sanders
I'm thinking two should do the job for this rocket.
 
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neil's rocket 013.jpg

I made a copy of the fin drawing, then cut out the original one to see how I want to position the fin on the balsa. Then grabbed some carbon paper and the copy to trace the pattern onto the balsa for cutting.
What I did is cut the piece of balsa in half and used double sided tape (left over from the winter window insulation kit) to stick the halves together then out to the band-saw.
neil's rocket 015.jpg
neil's rocket 017.jpg
 
I have to say, I would never have thought to do the fins in one piece like that. Really interesting, looking forward to seeing how they come together.
 
Woohoo! :pop:

This build is already interesting and we haven't even got past the motor mount... :)
Ya know, this doesn't surprise me at all. Someone saw your work and said "HEY, I'd like to build one of those". Kinda makes you feel all fuzzy inside, doesn't it?
 
Ya know, this doesn't surprise me at all. Someone saw your work and said "HEY, I'd like to build one of those". Kinda makes you feel all fuzzy inside, doesn't it?

It started from Neil's post https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?139926-Photo-albums-any-point which I wondered myself.

Whats even "COOLER" is he also helped/guided me to download openrocket. Something I haven't been able to do on my own, PLUS shared his file of the rocket.

Rocket people are the BEST :w:
 
It started from Neil's post https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?139926-Photo-albums-any-point which I wondered myself.

Whats even "COOLER" is he also helped/guided me to download openrocket. Something I haven't been able to do on my own, PLUS shared his file of the rocket.

Rocket people are the BEST :w:

What's really cool, is watching someone else do a build thread of your design and all the different approaches they make, that you either blew off while building your own, or never thought of. Neil showed me a lot of great angles I wish I had done on my original build of the Lander. Now he'll get to see what you're going to do with his.
 
It started from Neil's post https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?139926-Photo-albums-any-point which I wondered myself.

Whats even "COOLER" is he also helped/guided me to download openrocket. Something I haven't been able to do on my own, PLUS shared his file of the rocket.

Rocket people are the BEST :w:

Well, you let me play LCO at a launch for a little while, and didn't give me the boot even after I accidentally launched two rockets at once. So we'll call it even! :)
 
Well, you let me play LCO at a launch for a little while, and didn't give me the boot even after I accidentally launched two rockets at once. So we'll call it even! :)


Neil be assured we fix that :wink: electrical :wink: problem on the controller, nudge,, nudge,,,,
 
neil's rocket 075.jpg


some precision lay out and cutting lol and we end up with


neil's rocket 018.jpg

through the pod through the wall fins, also known as ttpttwf (yeah right). I'll do some sanding so they sit better on the pods for gluing.

Oh, I don't know if you noticed but I left out the fin antenna's, I thought I would use a dowel for them


Nibiru-X neil's rocketxxxxx.png


How in the H*#L am I going to do this ring??

Nibiru-X neil's rocketxxxx.png
 
here are some dry fit pictures, looks pretty good. I think the need for one more centering ring is in order. I want the fwr part of the fin tab to be able to glue to something.

neil's rocket 019.jpg neil's rocket 021.jpg neil's rocket 023.jpg neil's rocket 031.jpg








that darn ring????? should I slot together, or cut and butt it to the fins???????????
 
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As always,,
Way too cool Joe....
That reall is a smokin design,, really complex to build,, right up your ally....
I can't wait to see the flights.....

Teddy

Thanks for the kind words, wait till you see the small changes I made Teddy, Its going to blow Neil's mind.
Funny how rocketry is the opposite of my profession,,,,, "POINTY END DOWN" :roll:


how am I going to do that ring??
 
how am I going to do that ring??
I don't think you have too many options.

First and foremost is the "cut into 3 pieces" approach. That would seem to work OK here, since I *think* you could reasonably paint this thing after it's fully assembled. But you'll have to judge if that fits in with your painting plans.

I was trying to think if there was a way to keep the ring more intact. It is not easy. In my original design, the ring is flush with the trailing edge of the dorsal fin, but a bit forward of the rear of the pods. So you could do two pieces: on for the bottom, spanning between the two pods, and one for the top. You'd need to do a half/half slot job on the dorsal fin and the tube, to slot it in there. Measuring and cutting everything precisely will take some degree of care.

Other solutions I was pondering seem like they'd be much worse than either of the above two.

In the future I will probably take more care when designing rings into a design, in that I will (try to) ensure that there is a reasonable way to build and paint it. With the Starship Avalon I am pretty close to ditching the rings at this point; I just don't need the aggravation. Fortunately, in that design they're not really critical; in this design though the ring really needs to be there IMHO. I just went back and double-checked in OR and it really looks like something is missing without it.

So good luck. :)
 
Okay got the forward two centering rings and shock cord expoyed on. I didn't glue the aft ring on, so later I can epoxy the fins to the mmt and the inside of the body tube.
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I like the way this nose cone looks,,, a single blade,,,
Nibiru-X neil's rocketxx.png

I made this thing but its tooo small for the look of the rest of the rocket
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to small again,,, BUT I GOT AN IDEA!
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coffee can with my ring drying,, I layered #110 paper around it a few times with white glue. still not sure how it will go on, we'll see after it dries and I have it in my hand. I need room on the belly side for rail buttons

neil's rocket 028.jpg

motor mount epoxied in, dry fitted pods,, everything looks good for pods to be epoxied in tomorrow.
neil's rocket 034.jpg

I'm thinking nose cone :eyeroll: with a cockpit,,,, I just came into some balsa blocks, VERY NICE balsa blocks
Hand craved nose cone with a cockpit ???
neil's rocket 088.jpg

neil's rocket 089.jpg
 
well I worked on the nose cone tonight, I thought about how Neil's cone has a bit of a rounded shape and started to lay out the lines on the block. Marked 3" for the shoulder,
3" for the cockpit into the transition to the curve then to a point.

neil's rocket 057.jpg

I made the shoulder first, getting that centered to the block is critical. I started out with a 3" x 3" block so there is some wiggle room. With my favorite chisel and a razor knife got it down to fit into the body tube.


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something drove me to making it into a straight lined pointy cone.

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I missed a few pictures here, essentially I ended up with this so far, its kind of diamond shape. I know its not like the design but this is what it wanted to be :confused2: (some things in life you just can't control)
neil's rocket 068.jpgneil's rocket 069.jpgnosecone niburu-x.jpg
 
Spiffy job on your chisel work. Is this a preference to using a lathe? Then again, the shoulder would have been all a lathe could have done here. I like the twist in the nose cone. Although, you're adding a lot more drag at the top now. How bout them canards? You reckon they'll fit in the grand scheme?
 
Thanks Gary, Its the one tool I don't have,, For the most part I get away with using chisels, sanders, knives though.
I'm guessing here, but maybe subliminally I saw this and that's where I got the idea for the cone

Nibiru-X neil's rocketxxz.png

I got up this morning to find a message from the rockets Gods, It read "Joe your going to fast building this rocket. So now deal with a slumped over pod fin,,,,"
It looks worst then it really is I can work with it. "I THINK" all my tic marks are off now :facepalm:

neil's rocket 036.jpg

Lets see what I can do with this ring, I need at least 2" on the belly side for the launch rail to fit and that is a tight fit at that, so more room is better I guess.
I don't like this

neil's rocket 050.jpg

this is better for the top at least, its through the pod and butts to the dorsal fin. Not ideal of a joint but what else is there?

neil's rocket 061.jpg20170512_103043.jpg
 
I'm thinking colors,,, I'd like to be able to stay close to the original scheme. black and a burnt orange (?) I really like the look of this red winged black bird


neilsrocketcolors.jpg neilsrocketcolors2.jpg

not sure what parts will be what color though,,,,,,,,,,,,,
 
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