Stuck in a hotel for 3 weeks.....

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Mach 1 Rocketry "Black Hole EXT" 3" kit

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Mach 1 Rocketry "X-AGM-76 Piercer" 3" kit.

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Great photo - probably the first time four Y-harnessed motor mounts hung in a hotel room door. Breaking new ground in STL!

Rockethound said:

Great photo - probably the first time four Y-harnessed motor mounts hung in a hotel room door. Breaking new ground in STL!

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Yeah Eric, looks great. I think you are putting the hotel resources to good use. PS- The hair dryer will help that epoxy cure faster!!!

Madcow Adventurer 2 is all ready for external fillets. Thanks Toby for the sharp fin bevels. I am putting good use to the hair dryer.

The Wildman Darkstar Jr. is all ready for external fillets. I love the translucent red fiberglass. And the aluminum nose tip is very nice.

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Eric said:

The Wildman Darkstar Jr. is all ready for external fillets. I love the translucent red fiberglass. And the aluminum nose tip is very nice. View attachment 342861View attachment 342862View attachment 342863

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Looks great!

The Avalanche is coming along nice.

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The Go-Devil 38 is ready for big external Rocketpoxy fillets

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The Nike Apache sustainer has it motor mount and fins install. A channel allows for sustainer ignition from RRC3 in Avbay. 1/4" kevlar is epoxied to the motor mount. And two brass clips will retain the motor.

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Ummmm, What goes around, goes around. Not to deprecate the fins on the Avalance but.......... Whoa, those fins look nice! Kurt Savegnago

Eric said:

The Avalanche is coming along nice.
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Where did you get that fin guide?

That guide, and the 54mm guides are from Wildman. The printed 38mm guides are Labrat

Got a good start on external fillets. Couple more sets to go.

Looks great, Eric. The tailcone on the Avalanche is very attractive! I've started work on the Darkstar 2.6... laser-cut some fin guides for it since Wildman didn't have them. But gosh darnit a friend is coming over today. There are certain advantages to "stuck in a hotel" that may not be obvious.

Did you inject your DS Jr internal fillets? I'm not sure where that becomes important. It might be enough to triple-butter the DS 2.6 fin roots with JB Weld.

One of two budding Sacramento Darkstars. The red FG is quite nice.



Stuck at home. Grass to cut.

Eric - I looked carefully at your DS fins. Why the comb cuts on the root edge? And did you ease both ends of the roots to allow for fillets on the CRs?

Yes Randy, there are advantages of lots of build time in the hotel. But after two weeks, I am missing my family.

I like your fin guides.. That's a great tool to have at home.

My 54mm Darkstar Jr. Was injected on the top fins, and poured in the bottom set.

My motor mount tube had the top 3 centering rings installed before epoxying into the rocket. Drilled one hole at top of a fin root and injected 60 ml of dyed T88 epoxy. The fin roots we're all cut to allow epoxy to flow around, and give more surface area to grab onto. After I injected it I use the hair dryer to heat the rocket and epoxy and it flowed around all the fin routes and between the Middle to centering rings.

Then tacked in the aft fins, aligning them with the forward fins. Then poured 45 ml of epoxy before installing the aft centering ring. Applied J-B Weld to the motor mount tube and installed aeropack retainer. Then applied hair dryer heat to the fin can while slowly rotating for about an hour. Then left to cure nose down.

Thanks for the specifics! I read CJ's DS 3 build thread where he injected the roots (BTW - nice thought you had on flowing the rear fins!). Then again, in another CJ thread with a smaller diameter, he didn't (?) inject them, and another poster spoke of the triple-butter. If you're injecting a 54mm, then I'm definitely injecting the 2.6.

Please help me with something. From CJ's DS 3 thread, he stressed having a flush, well-glued root, and no fillets on the fin sides of the MM CRs, so the fins could be completely flush to the CRs. His point was getting the epoxy to flow and form a fillet without leaking at all. He did it kind-of corner-by-corner so the fillets would always be pointed up while curing. Somewhere else, Handeman told of slotting the CRs for the fins in his scratchbuilds.

I totally get the "more surface area" consideration. But how do you get a fillet similar to those outside the fincan if the epoxy can flow through the comb? Are you using a different approach than the fillet I'm envisioning?

Edit: Re-reading, I can see you are using a different approach. It seems like you end up with a symmetrical build-up of epoxy rather than individual fillets.

Correct, a 54mm rocket with a 38mm Motor tube, doesn't have enough space for a "real" fillet shape. I have less than a quarter inch in between motor mount and Rocket body. So it's more of just epoxy filled, then fillet. You will have a little more space and yours. But you can still inject it and let it flow around a little. You're just going for a good bond that won't let the fin get knocked out.

There's a hundred different ways to build a rocket. And I use several different styles for epoxy and fillets.

It's great how you explain the rationale for doing it this way vs. another. CJ is always clear that it's only his way in a build thread, not *the* way. I like the comb configuration a lot and will keep it in my hip pocket over the years.

Hang on, less than a week until hugs at home.

(whoa, I'm just realizing the arsenal of tools, adhesives and jigs that came along with those dozen+ kits. Legendary build, Eric!)

My 3 weeks building in a hotel room is coming to an end. Its time to box them up and ship them home. I still need to do a little sanding and filling on some fillets before primer. A few are ready for clear coat. Just need to finish up the Avbay's.

qquake2k said:

Has it been three weeks already???

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My 3 weeks building in a hotel room is coming to an end. Its time to box them up and ship them home. I still need to do a little sanding and filling on some fillets before primer. A few are ready for clear coat. Just need to finish up the Avbay's.

Very nice work!

Eric said:

My 3 weeks building in a hotel room is coming to an end. Its time to box them up and ship them home. I still need to do a little sanding and filling on some fillets before primer. A few are ready for clear coat. Just need to finish up the Avbay's.View attachment 343362

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Very nice work. What is the rocket on the far left?

Thanks

crossfire said:

Very nice work. What is the rocket on the far left?

Thanks

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From the left: Mach1rocketry's, X-AGM-76 Piercer. And then there Black Hole EXT

Followed by: Adventurer 2, Darkstar Jr, Avalanche, Go-Devil 38, Go-Devil 29 and Nike Apache.

Way to be creative and make excellent use of your time!

Think of all the focused TV time you may have missed.


Did you keep the maids locked out? Worry about the hotel manager wondering about what those rockets might be?

Cheers!

You've finished more rockets in three week then I have in a month. Albeit I don't have the money to buy that many kits at a time.