Almost minimum diameter scratch build

My next rocket venture is an almost minimum diameter scratch build. I say almost because it is a 3" tube with a 54mm motor mount. The tube is a fishing rod shipping tube that I found at my grandfather's house over spring break. It is a little thick so glassing will not be necessary. So far I have completed the nose cone using the jig below along with the lathe. I have also cut out and beveled the fins. Up next is glassing the nose cone and creating the shoulder. Then I will start designing the AV bay. It is going to be a challenge fitting everything in such a small space. The picture of the nose cone is on my phone I will upload it later. For now I'm off to write a paper for my summer class :sad:

Matt

View attachment Almost Minimum Diameter.rkt

Here is the picture of the nose cone as promised. It is a 15" long, conical cone. The tubing next to it will eventually become the shoulder.

Matt

Nice foam turning! Don't you just love the dust? I've had to use a router while the blank slowly turned. Worked great but sure is messy.

kenstarr said:

Nice foam turning! Don't you just love the dust? I've had to use a router while the blank slowly turned. Worked great but sure is messy.

Click to expand...

Thank you! Yes the dust can be unbarable sometimes but I was able to jerry rig the shop vac to catch the majority of the dust. Worked pretty well

Matt

Yeah, the shop vac. I didn't do that and I'm still finding blue and pink particles around! Lesson learned...

Not a whole lot of progress since I have last posted. I work all week then I have a night class a couple nights a week. Most of the building has been done on the weekends. Ok enough of the boring excuse...the progress. The nose cone has its first layer of 1.8oz glass. Next step is to fill in some of the uneveness and then add the second layer. I have also acquired the new Adept Dual Deployment Controller so I can have redundancy. I also got some necessary hardware: forged eye hooks, nuts, washers and a couple of 9v battery holders. Hoping to get some more work done tonight.

Matt

Like the title says, I've got good news and bad news...

The good news is that I got A LOT of work done on the rocket today. I decided to change the motor mount from 54mm to 38mm. The forward end of the motor mount is attached and the fins are tacked on. I also did some work on the electronics sled. The bad news, I made a mistake when placing all the items on such a small sled. My plan was to have the two altimeters on the top of the sled with the two push buttons then have the batteries on the underside of the sled in between the mounting screws of the altimeters. What I didn't do was check to see if a battery would fit between the mounting screws because I assumed since the battery holder fits the battery must fit too! NOT :bang: So now I have to pop the two battery holders off and repostion them on the sled. I am thinking of having the two altimeters next to each other at the forward end of the sled and put the batteries below them. The major challenge for this project is optimizing the little space I have in the AV bay for wires, terminals and charge holders.

The next step is too finish up the nose cone which needs another layer of fiberglass then finishing work (bondo, primer, repeat). As stated before I need to fix my AV sled mistake and begin to wire everything. I will soon be going to the fabric store to begin working on the parachute. 10 days until I leave for LDRS and I hope to be bringing this rocket with me.

Matt

More pictures...

The second and third pictures show the original positioning of the altimeters and battery holders until I messed up. The first picture is the proposed new positioning.

Matt