Composite build

I'm Going to document a build I have been working on for the last three years. Ive been saving for quite a while now, hoping to make another trip to Nevada in 2013. I always wanted to build something that resembled the Nike Hercules.
Ill try to keep this thread in order and touch on highlights in an attempt not to become outright boring.

Heres a rocksim file (The initial design)

View attachment Herculesss.rkt

Here's two pictures of the plug and mold for the booster fins

What motors are you gonna be runnin in that thing?!?!

Heres some pics of the epoxy as its being infused through the layup and then what they look like out of the mold. I adhesived all the halves together, wrapped a layer of carbon material around all the edges to lock them in and filled them with foam. Booster fins are done! To get this far it took about three weeks.

Very nice work!

What kind of epoxy did you use and how much do the fins weigh?

Greg

GregGleason said:

Very nice work!

What kind of epoxy did you use and how much do the fins weigh?

Greg

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Hi Greg,
I infused the layup with Pro Set 175-277 laminating resin under heat lamps to help thin it as it went through.The fins are the only layup I used this epoxy for. 99% of the rocket parts were layed up using Resin Services HTR212 Resin.The fins were adhesived together with Pro set 125/226 adhesive. I used this same adhesive where ever I had to attach parts.
I think the fins wieghed close to 16oz. each. They were layed up with 8 different carbon weaves plain , 4x4 twill , and uni directional so the weaves patterns were orientated at every 30 degrees.
Heres a pic of all the material layed out on the table.

For the booster section I had to make four 4" airframes and four nosecone halves.

I made some wood jigs and started gluing the four airfames together, knotched out the top for a 6" airframe to fit into, glued that in place, glued on and laminated in the nosecone halves, and then I wrapped the four tubes with a few layers of checkerboard pattern carbon at the bottom and the top of the tubes to lock them in together as one assembly. See the 54mm tube in the second pic? This acts as a conduit for the cluster wiring and gives me a backing to adhesive against.

Finally I get to attach the booster fins!! More pics. Oh, I found a picture showing how I wrapped the airframes with a checkboard pattern material locking them in.

I also had to make a transision to the sustainer . Sorry I didnt take any pictures of this but its just more of the same. I do however have some pictures showing inside the transision and how the seperation piston is to be installed. And a pic with the transision connected to the sustainer.

Very nice. I am impressed to say the least.

Thank you for the compliments guys.

Here's a picture of the booster section painted. Now I gotta be careful:smile:
The booster alone wieghs 32 pounds with nothing in it. It will hold four 4"x48" long motor cases. Or over 70,000Ns total impulse making it a class 3 flight.Two motors will light parrellel on the ground and two motors will parellel airstart. But more on that later:surprised:

So now comes some pictures of building the sustainer. First thing is to make some plate material, cut and bevel the fins.

Pictures of attaching the fins to the airframe, vac down, clean up on the lathe and paint.
If you look at the picture on the lathe you can see a smaller tube at the aft end. All the actual airframes were made using a oversized 4" mandrel. Meaning I wrapped a mandrel the size of an airframe. The smaller tube at the aft end is adhesive in permanently. This tube slides into the transision allowing me to be able to shear pin the sustainer to the booster. The motor is however in a sense the transision coupler. It runs all the way down to the bottom of the transision coupler.

EXCELLENT--JUST LOVE IT!!!

Tbone said:

Ill try to keep this thread in order and touch on highlights in an attempt not to become outright boring.

Click to expand...

There is no way that this thread could ever get boring. I have been checking this thread pretty much every ten minutes to see if there has been an update. Absolutely awesome work.

Matt

Its its BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!

GREAT WORK, Nice, interesting, and very unique!

What a beautiful bird!! You have some mad talent with that carbon fiber. What clear coat are you using? The depth in the carbon fiber finish is really nice.

Eagerly awaiting more build documentation --very much digging this so far!


Later!

--Coop

Wow!!!!!!! This is amazing. Good luck with the flight.

Tbone said:

Finally I get to attach the booster fins!! More pics. Oh, I found a picture showing how I wrapped the airframes with a checkboard pattern material locking them in.

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May I ask, what is the checkerboard material?

Awesome project!!!

:wave:

Thanks again for the cudo's people.
Heres a couple pics of making the sustainer nosecone. If you look close in the third picture you can see I molded a tracker antena in the wall of the nosecone . Helps keep it straight , and out of the way.

@Eat, sleep, and Fly: The checkerboard material is a very open-weave CF, with very wide tows. I've used it as the surface ply on my to-be-L2 rocket's fins.

Heres some pictures of the electronics and recovery bay for the booster. The recovery pod is built up as an assembly and then slid into the upper airframe on the booster and then bolted down.

Heres a picture of the boosters electronic bay upper bulk head. It has two latches that open via a servo controller. They will be used to release the boosters main chute.The other picture is showing a hole I cut in the airframe. This is where I will arm the booster electronics.

Heres some pictures of the sustainers camera bay and electronics bay.

Heres a picture of the electronics bay assembled

Some pictures of both stages together.

Tbone said:

Heres a picture of the boosters electronic bay upper bulk head. It has two latches that open via a servo controller. They will be used to release the boosters main chute.The other picture is showing a hole I cut in the airframe. This is where I will arm the booster electronics.

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Electronics work looks beautiful. Can you provide some detail on the latches used to release the main (e.g., source, holding force, servo interface, etc.)?