Building a 6 ft replica of the Higgs Farm Square Rocket

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. . . or just placing the nose chute under the main chute so it had to pull the main or to get out...

I like that idea, I'm going to try that when I get to deployment testing and see if it seems reliable.

Have you considered using a deployment bag? If you “free bag”, the piolet chute could bring down the nose cone separately.

No, I've never used a deployment bag. Maybe someday.
 
I like that idea, I'm going to try that when I get to deployment testing and see if it seems reliable.
I've only used it as extra reassurance with the charge pushing everything out, not in. I see no reason not to use it as a primary method of getting things out, but I've never actually done it that way.
 
I was shy on trying a d-bag until I finally got one. Now I think it's awesome. So much easier than having to fold and wrap a big chute.
 
Gluing on the upper trim boards that will be around the base of the nose. There is a strip of 1/16" thick birch glued on the lower half of the inside of these boards to make the trim boards slightly wider than the bottom of the nose. That way the angled bottom of the nose shell will just fit down inside the trim boards when the nose is all the way on.

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What an interesting build. Seems more like furniture than a rocket.

I'm trying to think if any of your past builds has described your finishing process on large expanses of wood. I'll be keen to see how you attack it (on the other hand, I know pretty well in advance what the final product will be. ;))
 
What an interesting build. Seems more like furniture than a rocket.

I'm trying to think if any of your past builds has described your finishing process on large expanses of wood. I'll be keen to see how you attack it (on the other hand, I know pretty well in advance what the final product will be. ;))

Not large expanses of wood but plenty of rockets with plywood fins.

One advantage of fiberglass rockets is that it's easier to get a smooth finish because they start out smooth. For this rocket, before painting I will be coating all of the wood surfaces with Carpenter's Wood Filler thinned with water and sanding with 220 grit. That will hide all of the wood grain and give me smooth surfaces to paint. Since the wood surfaces are all flat I can sand the CWF with a palm sander which will save a lot of work. For paint I will be using Restoration Shop lacquer as usual. It will be the same paint design as Tom Cohen's big rocket but I'm going to give it some extra bling by using pearlescent white and metallic black. And of course lots of clear coat.
 
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Trim boards are done. Next step: attach the fins.

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That looks beautiful already, and it hasn't even been to the paint shop...

Will you be at NSL? I'd love to see one of your rockets in person sometime... No, you are not allowed to look at my paint jobs from anything less than standard setback distance.:wink:
 
No I won't be going to NSL. Someday I need to make it up to Geneseo. Everyone says it's really nice.
 
Attaching the fins. This is the first rocket that I've built where I could use a carpenters square to check the fin alignment.

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Yes, good catch. You can also see a brass pen barrel tube behind the rocket in that photo. My wife and I have a small business called Historical Woods of America. So when I'm not building rockets I'm turning pens.

In 1788 George Washington planted 13 Horse Chestnut trees in Fredericksburg, where he lived, to represent the original 13 colonies. The last tree standing was a historical landmark since the 1920's until it finally had to be taken down in 2006. We have all of the wood from that tree. It's tricky to work with though because there is lots of decay and insect holes.

Here is an example of one of my George Washington Horse Chestnut pens turned on that lathe . . .
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Fins epoxied on.

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I still need to:
- do internal and external fillets
- attach the aft CR and Aeropack retainer
- drill vent holes and shear pin holes
- deployment testing
- seal all wood with thinned CWF and sand with 220 grit

Then it will be ready for paint.
 
Yes, good catch. You can also see a brass pen barrel tube behind the rocket in that photo. My wife and I have a small business called Historical Woods of America. So when I'm not building rockets I'm turning pens.

In 1788 George Washington planted 13 Horse Chestnut trees in Fredericksburg, where he lived, to represent the original 13 colonies. The last tree standing was a historical landmark since the 1920's until it finally had to be taken down in 2006. We have all of the wood from that tree. It's tricky to work with though because there is lots of decay and insect holes.

Here is an example of one of my George Washington Horse Chestnut pens turned on that lathe . . .
GWHC+Silver+Pen+5.jpg

Beautiful pen. I love historical woods. What finish did you use on the wood?
 
Do you know what your end weight is going to be, and what motor(s) you are targeting?
 
Beautiful pen. I love historical woods. What finish did you use on the wood?

I sand with sanding pads up to 8000 grit then I use friction polish. That polish is from woodturnerscatalog.com.

That pen is not from a kit; we have the metal parts for those pens custom made from solid silver. That particular pen recently sold for $995, but if you want one I can make more!

Do you know what your end weight is going to be, and what motor(s) you are targeting?

I weighed everything recently and weight on the pad should be 35 lb, so it will need about 780 N avg thrust to get the magical 5:1 thrust to weight ratio. I will be flying it on 5 and 6 grain 54mm motors. With most CTI 6 grain 54mm motors it sims at around 1500 ft, but it is not modeled very accurately in OpenRocket so I don't have a lot of confidence in the simulation accuracy. We won't know until I actually fly it.
 
Before starting to paint I am first filling all wood surfaces with Carpenter's Wood Filler thinned with water. I apply it with a paint brush, then after it dries sand it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. Since all surfaces are flat I can use a sanding block to do most of the sanding.

In this photo the top half has been coated with thinned CWF and sanded; the bottom hasn't been done yet.

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After this is done, last step before I start spraying primer will be deployment ground testing.
 
Did deployment ground testing today. With the ejection canister on the nose bulkhead facing downward, the charge won't blow the chute out. Instead, it will blow the nose off and the nose needs to come off with enough force to pull the chute out. Then it will use motor ejection for backup. I use 2.5 gram of powder for the deployment charges in my 4" Frenzy XL for a similar volume so that's what I used for the first test. It looked just about right, blowing the nose about 6 feet away and easily pulling out the chute. So I will be going with 2.5 grams.
 
Did deployment ground testing today. With the ejection canister on the nose bulkhead facing downward, the charge won't blow the chute out. Instead, it will blow the nose off and the nose needs to come off with enough force to pull the chute out. Then it will use motor ejection for backup. I use 2.5 gram of powder for the deployment charges in my 4" Frenzy XL for a similar volume so that's what I used for the first test. It looked just about right, blowing the nose about 6 feet away and easily pulling out the chute. So I will be going with 2.5 grams.

What, not three 30 gram charges like Tom? :grin:
 
Did deployment ground testing today. With the ejection canister on the nose bulkhead facing downward, the charge won't blow the chute out. Instead, it will blow the nose off and the nose needs to come off with enough force to pull the chute out. Then it will use motor ejection for backup. I use 2.5 gram of powder for the deployment charges in my 4" Frenzy XL for a similar volume so that's what I used for the first test. It looked just about right, blowing the nose about 6 feet away and easily pulling out the chute. So I will be going with 2.5 grams.

Is the chute attached to the nose ??
If it is it is hindering the noses movement away, reducing it's effective force to drag the chute out...

Teddy
 
Is the chute attached to the nose ??
If it is it is hindering the noses movement away, reducing it's effective force to drag the chute out...

Teddy

Yes the ejection charge blows the nose off and the nose has to pull out the chute. From my ground test it looks like that won't be a problem.
 
FINALLY getting around to doing some painting. Today I sprayed two coats of of primer. I can see now that it is going to be impossible to spray the sides of the fin boxes that face the airframe. I can actually do a pretty good job on the insides of the fin boxes because I can spray those from the top and bottom. But I can't reach the sides of the fin boxes that face the airframe with the spray gun well enough to do a good job without risking getting runs and drips on the fins. So I might have to do those surfaces with a paintbrush. :y:

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The rocket is beautiful with extraordinary craftsmanship, but I think my favorite part of this build is all of the tools and stuff photobombing the background of the pictures. Maybe I'm just weird like that.
 
Then it really will look like Tom's. :grin:

Maybe for authenticity I should have made it out of cardboard boxes and attached the fins with gigantic bolts.

The rocket is beautiful with extraordinary craftsmanship, but I think my favorite part of this build is all of the tools and stuff photobombing the background of the pictures. Maybe I'm just weird like that.

If you're talking about that band saw, I had a crappy tabletop band saw for many years and then two years ago I finally broke down and bought a real band saw. Really nice, I wish I had done it sooner. Only problem is that it weighs 250 lb and my workshop room is upstairs, so the band saw lives in the garage.
 
Finally got some nice rocket painting weather, sunny and 80° with low humidity. So I sprayed two coats of white today. This is Pure White Restoration Shop lacquer, thinned 1:1 and sprayed with a HVLP gun. This is going to be pearlescent white so the next step will be to spray the pearl intercoat.

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I sprayed the pearl intercoat today. This is a coat of clear lacquer with dry pearl mixed in. The pearl that I'm using is House Of Color white Ice Pearls. While normal metalflake and pearl is made of polyester, Ice Pearls are tiny glass flakes which are extremely reflective and glittery. It came out very well and really glitters in the sunlight. Unfortunately it doesn't show up at all in indoor photos. I'll try taking some pictures of the rocket in sunlight.

I use a separate HVLP gun for spraying paint with metallics or pearls, because while it is easy to clean lacquer out of the gun it's not so easy to get out every last bit of flake or pearl. And if you don't get it all out then you get stray metal flakes or pearls in your next non-metallic paint job.

You definitely don't want to get dry pearls on you or in your lungs, so when mixing it wear a respirator and gloves. And the slightest breeze will blow it all over the place so turn off any fans first.

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