Glasspacks' Public Enemy SA-14 Archer rebuild

Many of you may have followed my first High Power Model Rocket build as I documented the birth of my Public Enemy SA-14 Archer kit.
It was a great time and a well put together, long out of production kit, yet one of my favorite looking models. After several months of working on it, I took it to Wisconsin in August 2012 for its maiden flight and my certification into High Power Rocketry.

Here she sits at moms’ house ready to go.

The 17th of August was a great day and the Wisconsin weather at Bong Recreation area was just slightly cloudy with very mild wind speed. My two boys and I were excited for the chance to fly some models and I was especially happy to have my cousin Ken along for the experience and to witness the LVL 1 cert flight. Ken and I grew up together building model rockets… I knew he would like the WOOSH event.

Thank you Paul Smith for your guidance and help on my LVL 1 NAR cert, we got through a few hiccups like a missing rail button that seemed to not find its way into the bag BEFORE we left South Dakota… I thank Tim from Wildman rocketry for selling me a new one! So with the boys and my cousin looking on And Mark at the controls… The flight was beautiful and the recovery was perfect... one minor ding to the lower end of the payload bay from the steel quick link; and my LVL 1 Certification was accomplished! Here is the video link to the Cert Flight compliments of Chad from WOOSH……
Thank you again Chad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhYxijsmNq4

I was welcomed into High Power Rocketry with a beautiful LVL 1 Cert flight, but took home a HEAVY dose of humility after the 2nd flight attempt. As you can see from the photos, my SA-14 Archer fell victim to my stupid mistake. With my father looking on, and me behind the video camera, the Archer went up in flames on pad #4 on August 19th 2012 at BONG Recreation area.

During launch prep, I allowed myself to be distracted several times; and, after setting the delay charge, re-attached the charge to the plastic tube holding the grain & nozzle assembly. Then; slid the CTI-143 Smokey Sam right into the motor mount and locked down the Aeropack retainer BEFORE putting it in the Aluminum casing !! I was soon treated to a lesson I hope to never forget !!!

Tim from Wildman Rocketry was there to put out the fire, then offer me his condolences AND his encouragement. Hopefully I will see you again - Thank you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5fiAjZGsW4

Please pause for a moment of silence...

The entire top of the booster was destroyed just above the FWD centering ring. The shock strap and the Nomex strap protector are burnt in half. The parachute and its Nomex blanket, as well as the payload/nose section, survived just fine as it was blown clear of the fire. All I could do was keep the camera rolling and look on in disbelief ... The big hole burnt right through the side is a nice touch........



But, I knew before leaving the pad that day I would repair her or re-build it entirely again.
I went back to South Dakota thankful the good Lord made certain no one was hurt and no damage to other property was done. It was an extra-long ride back to South Dakota this time; due to the added humility, I am certain. It is hard for me to not beat myself up over this as it really was a dumb error. I loved it when I saw it, loved it when I bought it on EBay years ago, loved it when I built it and then flew it. I still love that cooling looking model. I am very grateful though, that the decals from Stickershock were still not installed because I was never happy with the white base coat. That means the decals are still here, ready for her, when she comes out of surgery.

So please join me and follow along as I document the rebuild of my SA-14 Archer

Looks great! Maybe now the smell of it burning will finally leave my memory.

So I begin the surgery. I thank my sons for the help in brainstorming and aiding in the decision to salvage the Archers original strake fins. Once the challenge was figured out, I taped off the body tube and strake fins just below the destroyed section. Unfortunately that meant I would have to lose the upper bulkhead and the first inch or so of 38MM motor mount tube. The first step was taking a saw to it right at the bottom of the hole in the upper end of the booster. That entre tube was destroyed, so just after I cut it off I ordered a new tube from LOC Precision. The Dremel tool then became the tool of choice to remove all the damage and access the inside for further inspection. The cutoff wheel went through the paper wound tube with relative ease. The strake fins were carefully cut around and thankfully received absolutely no damage at all.





Some of the photos taken do a good job of showing the damage that was done to the top of the booster section. The forward centering ring would have to be cut out as well to remove the top one inch or so of the top of the motor tube. I was very concerned as to the extent of the damage to the inside of the motor mount tube farther down but inspection shows it to be ok. I had to peel like one layer of paper wrap but it still appears strong enough to withstand ejection charges in the future. Slowly but surely using the X-Acto knife and the Dremel tool, I was able to extricate all the damage and cut free the centering ring without losing my strake fins at all.

Glasspack said:

During launch prep, I allowed myself to be distracted several times; and, after setting the delay charge, re-attached the charge to the plastic tube holding the grain & nozzle assembly. Then; slid the CTI-143 Smokey Sam right into the motor mount and locked down the Aeropack retainer BEFORE putting it in the Aluminum casing !!

Click to expand...

Jeeze...I would NEVER do that...

Glasspack said:

During launch prep, I allowed myself to be distracted several times; and, after setting the delay charge, re-attached the charge to the plastic tube holding the grain & nozzle assembly. Then; slid the CTI-143 Smokey Sam right into the motor mount and locked down the Aeropack retainer BEFORE putting it in the Aluminum casing !! I was soon treated to a lesson I hope to never forget !!!

Click to expand...

I've thankfully never seen that happen myself, but it is a serious flaw in CTI's 38mm design in that they can be easily retained without putting them in the case.

I hope they redesign the reloads so they have a separate closure; I would like to think that could reduce the reload price as well.

Dad Man Walking said:

Jeeze...I would NEVER do that...

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Dad Man .........

Were you able to repair that one? Thank you for sharing that with me; it makes me feel a little better knowing it can happen to another.
Sorry to see that nice model so toasted .. I know how You felt !!

The fillets and root edge epoxy on the strake fins was carved away carefully leaving just enough still to attach to the new body tube section when it goes on. The through the wall fin tabs as well as the leading edge of the fins are untouched as was my original goal. So obviously slots will have to be made into the tube coupler and the new body tube to accommodate them. The little bits of paper tube you see on the fins has been all trimmed away and cleaned off to ensure a good fit once the new tube section was installed.



The next step was to fabricate a tube coupler to join the new upper section to the lower half of the booster. I used a section of LOC Precision 4 inch body tube that was damaged on one end. My son got a LOC Precision 4” V2 model for Christmas last year and it had a crease in the tube…which left me with an extra short section of tube. Loc Precision has incredible customer support by the way! Avoiding the creased part of the tube I cut the section I wanted for the coupler, I figured about a 6-7” piece would do.

Making a tube coupler is pretty straight forward. First cut the section of body tube down the side as straight as possible. Then with the edges overlapping it is placed inside the body tube and pressed tight against the sides. Mark the point at which the tube edge rests on the outer surface of the overlap and then trim it off, again as accurate and straight as possible. Glue the seam together; I used good wood glue. Then use the strip you just made and seal the seam on the inside with the glue, it is after all a paper wound tube. The new upper centering ring will be attached to the tube coupler instead of the body tube like the original but you can easily see why that is. I planned for about 3” of coupler in the top of the original body tube and the other 4” extending past the tip of the strake fins and securing the new tube.

gdjsky01 said:

Dude? Really? Serious flaw? Like being able to put your car in gear and hop out? Forgetting that it is in gear? Should there be a dead-mans switch in the seat?? Should every contraption have every failure mode caused by humans being humans be covered? No. You'll learn in engineering, money IS an object and you'll HAVE to make choices. Even ones involving safety.

Dude, you know I luv ya... but it's NOT a serious flaw. Nothing a CHECKLIST wouldn't solve. :wink:

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Sure, checklists (and experience) can guard against it, but the fact is that in no other system by any manufacturer can you easily retain the motor without it being solidly contained in its pressure vessel.

CarVac said:

Sure, checklists (and experience) can guard against it, but the fact is that in no other system by any manufacturer can you easily retain the motor without it being solidly contained in its pressure vessel.

Click to expand...

it's happen here last year. You must feel the slack when you insert the motor in the tube ? Unless someone use one of those Aeropack 54 to 38mm adapter

Guys

I agree with you all ... there is no way to eliminate the human factor in anything !! I also believe the Pro 38 series would be better off with a separate aft closure that goes on after the motor grains are installed; I chose the Cessaroni reload cases because I liked them and for the ease at which they are to keep clean and stuff. I don't blame anyone but myself for the dumb mistake !! Experience is the best teacher !!
I can honestly say that I probably wont make that mistake again !!!!!

I stated earlier that I was planning on putting the coupler in 3” and leaving 4” for the new section of tube. However in reality the coupler is 4” into the original booster and has 3” out of the top to secure the new tube. Remember I said earlier, provisions will have to be made in the coupler and new body tube for the tabs on the strake fins. Once the new coupler was dry I marked off the placement of the fin tabs by inserting the coupler and marking the inside of the tube were the fin tabs met. I simply measured how deep the slots would have to be to sink the coupler in the desired 4” and marked the outside of the coupler. Transferred the depth of the cut to my table saw and used masking tape to show my stopping point.


Each mark was also on the inside to aid in aligning the saw blade for each slot. The fence was used to ensure the tube passed down the table straight of course. All four strake fin slots were cut and the edges of the tube all cleaned with an X-Acto knife.

The new section of body tube would also have to be slotted a bit to accommodate the tabs of the fins, just not as deep. The same procedure was used to slot about 1” of the end of the body tube. After I test fitted everything I was ready to start work on the new centering ring/bulkhead. Here are the coupler and new body tube ready for assembly.

Coming along nicely!

Glasspack said:

Dad Man .........

Were you able to repair that one? Thank you for sharing that with me; it makes me feel a little better knowing it can happen to another.
Sorry to see that nice model so toasted .. I know how You felt !!

Click to expand...

We rebuilt the entire booster, nothing was really salvageable. We had much larger motor than what you were using (lots more fuel) and things were pretty much burned up before we were able to douse the fire. The motor deployment charge went off shortly after it started burning, so the AV bay and everything north of that separated and fell away from the pad and all of those parts were fine.

I felt embarrassed, stupid, angry with myself, and pretty much lousy for a good part of the day after that happened. It wasn't about the money or time we had invested, it was just the feeling that I had failed in my responsibilities to everybody at the launch--it was all on me. Burning up on rail is relatively harmless, as these things go. But other mistakes can have far worse consequences, and I let everybody at the launch down by making any mistake at all.

Here's my own personal Phoenix Rising...

I almost forgot to include the subject of the rail buttons.
The top of the booster section held the forward rail button; so when the section of tube was cut away so was the upper half of my rail guidance.
Not a problem though as I simply marked a straight line on the side of the booster from the lower rail guide up the tube. The picture shows that
reference line on the tube to help ensure the guidance will be straight and true. The coupler is shown installed due to a test fit I’m sure, but it has not been glued in yet.



I still had rail buttons to match the originally installed ones from Apogee so I simply drilled the required hole in the booster about 4.75” down from the top of the cut off booster tube.
I used a bamboo skewer to place it into the hole down in the tube.



Once the button anchor was in the hole of the tube, the black plastic button itself was secured to ensure the retainer lay flat and tight on the inside of the body tube.



A smooth layer of 30 minute epoxy was coated over the retainer securing it to the booster tube. The rail button itself was left secured until the epoxy was fully cured so as not to alter
the fit against the tube while it cured.



The depth was chosen based on the depth of the new coupler I was going to install. I also figured having the rail buttons a little closer together, and both closer to the aft of the model
would keep the rocket guided just a few inches more on its travel up the rail. Can’t hurt right?
The new centering ring was purchased from Apogee since I was placing an order for stuff anyway. The new one is plywood as opposed to the fiber board the kit used.
The strength of the plywood should provide an adequate anchor for the shock strap attachment. The original recovery harness shock strap was (by Public Enemy Plans) epoxied right
to the side of the motor tube, so provisions will have to be made for the new centering ring to fit over the section of old shock strap still attached to the motor mount tube.

Here is the new plywood centering ring. I drilled two holes to attach the anchor point for the shock strap, such as a U-bolt.

I have a good amount of different sizes of Kevlar cord so I decided to make an attach point for the shock strap with that. I think the larger one I have was rated at like 2000 Lbs. and since Kevlar is good at resisting heat I do not believe I will have a problem with this. I tied a generous loop onto the centering ring with the knot on the underside, and will use a 1/8” locking quick link to attach the nylon webbing that is the new shock strap. My wife is magical with a sewing machine and she always does a great job on whatever she sews. She made and nice folded loop in my new pink 1” nylon webbing and on the other end installed the original D-ring.



The loop with the quick link is going to be inside the booster connected to the Kevlar loop with my new Kevlar protector sleeve over it. The first one I had was of course melted in half with the original red shock strap. If you look closely at the photo above of the rail button anchor inside the tube; you can see very easily the piece of the original strap still attached to the top of the 38mm motor mount tube. I had to simply notch out the inside hole of the centering ring to accommodate the bulge on the side where the strap is still encased in epoxy. A notch also had to be made in the outside edge to accommodate the extra piece at the coupler joint. Here you can see them drawn on the centering ring for reference.



The notch was carved out and the centering ring was marked for fin tab alignment so I could make sure it fit inside the coupler and around the motor mount tube. Once the fin tabs were marked and the ring notched out… It was all fit tested and when I was happy with that I tacked it all together in place. The bamboo skewer helps get the glue down in to the edges of the coupler and ring while avoiding the parts of the original booster.



Once the centering ring was secured to the new coupler, I took it out and sealed the ring with epoxy. The gaps you see around the motor mount tube and the fin tabs will all be sealed with JB Weld. I used it only because it was thicker and did not run so easily so I could seal the big gaps to keep the ejection pressure from going where I did not want it. Wouldn’t that suck to blow a hole in the side of the booster because ejection gas got trapped between the motor tube and the body tube?





I used a bit of “Fix It” Epoxy Clay to help seal the holes in the ring where the Kevlar cord passes through. The next step was to simply install and seal the coupler and centering ring on the motor mount tube.
The slots for the fin tabs and all the gaps were sealed and I even strengthened the top edge of the motor mount tube with JB Weld. The top of that tube had started to unravel a bit from all the work and cutting I think. You can also see where I reinforced the edge of the new body tube with CA glue (the dark ring). The new nylon webbing recovery strap is about 10’ 2” and the original bungee cord is 5’ 1”; so the 15 feet of recovery harness hopefully will be long enough to keep from zippering the booster.

So now the coupler is installed and the internal structure restored, the picture below shows the repair with the new tube coupler in place; showing the original Strake fins I wanted to keep, and you can see the tiny gap left between the root edge of the fins and the coupler where the new upper section of body tube fits.

It was a pretty tight fit to install the new section of body tube onto the coupler; it took two of us to slide it down, once the slots were lined up and the strake fins pulled out just a bit. Again the new tube and coupler is just paper wound so good wood glue is more than adequate to secure them. The seam created now is my next concern. I plan on hiding it with the fill and sand method or I have some thin balsa strip material to use to make bands to wrap between the strake fins. The fake wire tunnel was obviously cut for the repair so I bought a new piece of 1/4” balsa strip to repair the old one. I decided to add a little piece to the seam to help disguise the repair. I cut and notched a small 1/4” block, then sanded it to the shape of the 4” Diameter tube. The idea was to create like a junction block in the long wire tunnel.


You can see a lot of the white paint and fillet material chipped away on the strake fins. During handling, cutting and test fitting so many times; several small cracks appeared in the automotive spot putty used to smooth the fillets. I used my hobby knife to chip away a lot of the original fillets. The epoxy fillets are still very well bonded to the fins, so the fins were tacked onto the new body tube with CA glue as it easily ran under the tight fit of the fins root edges.



Here you can see the repaired wire tunnel on the model.



As of today I am still not sure if I am going to try to use the balsa strips I made to hide the seam or just fill them in and sand away and refill and sand and fill and sand and fill……
I put the balsa strip careful into a pot of boiling water (note it is not in the water) to steam it so I could impart a bend to it for better working and fit on the 4” diameter model.



It worked out very well; it is not as tight as the 4” diameter; however when it is cut and fitted the balsa no longer snaps in half.

I would absolutely love feedback from all of you who have ever added detail things to your models………

I would absolutely love feedback from all of you who have ever added detail things to your models………[/QUOTE]

Any one have any photos of their models with added model detail things like on real Rockets/Missles? I am looking to add a little spice to the SA-14

Glasspack said:

I would absolutely love feedback from all of you who have ever added detail things to your models………

Click to expand...

Any one have any photos of their models with added model detail things like on real Rockets/Missles? I am looking to add a little spice to the SA-14[/QUOTE]

You've definitely earned the "Rebuild of the Year" award from me, I don't think I'd have had the patience to do what you've done! As far as detailing goes, I got nuthin'. I'm not much of a scale builder, I couldn't even say if the Archer is an actual missile - is it?

Chad Thank you ...............

I know the SA-14 is not a real missile, it does have a style like the AGM78 Standard ARM though don't you think........ https://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/agm-78.htm
My favorite style model rockets have always been those that resemble or are models of actual military weapons or NASA rockets. I am hoping to add detail (even if just a little) to the
Archer to make it look nicer. The thing will no doubt look nice with the decal set from Sticker Shock, but man it is not easy to get a good paint job. I am still scared about the gloss white.....

I am looking forward to flying it again and will most definitely plan to fly it at Bong Soon......

Thank You

Would you like me to post a few pics of some kits I detailed ? I ask permission,as I don`t want to derail this thread.

And by the way ,you are doing a great job at this rebuild ,it should be good as new when you are done.I`m also glad you decided not to trash this beauty ,that would be a travesty against humanity LOL

As for detail work ,I love using styrene plastic (Evergreen) as it comes in sheets ,strips,rods and many many shapes and sizes.I also really like using Basswood and hobby Spruce (from those R/C airplane shops) it`s pretty light ,works and finishes easily.

I have also used pieces of body tube cut into squares ,rectangles etc to mimic hatches and ports.I cut the tube,sand and soak with thin CA then sand again and affixto the rocket.

Also ,heavy cardstock is great for making bands and anything else you can think of.You may cut strips and build them up to achieve the thickness you desire.....it`s a great material to use.I just use a white glue to attach to the body ,then soak in thin CA and sand.

I also use screws ,cap,button head ,phillips which I buy from a US supplier to add scale interest and many times function to keep parts together.They sell many different sizes so getting a good scale lok is easy ,and they look tres cool !

On yout rocket ,you wanted to add a band to hide the seam ,I think you used Balsa ? This would be a great place to use some thin flat stock strip styrene or again,some body tube, or even better ,cardstock strips.

Those are a few ideas I can think of.

I`ll look for some examples and pictures if you like.

Kepp up the good work !


Paul T

Thank you Sodmeister,

And thank you all for the comments............ I am looking at heading back to WI for a wedding soon and it just so happens there is a HPR Launch at Bong that same weekend.
That gives me about 10-12 days to get this finished and ready for flight........ Would love to have it in its decals by then but you know what..... it doesn't need paint or decals to fly !!

Glasspack said:

Thank you Sodmeister,

And thank you all for the comments............ I am looking at heading back to WI for a wedding soon and it just so happens there is a HPR Launch at Bong that same weekend.
That gives me about 10-12 days to get this finished and ready for flight........ Would love to have it in its decals by then but you know what..... it doesn't need paint or decals to fly !!

Click to expand...

Your'e coming on the 28/29? Cool!:y:

Dude you are doing miraculous work (if I believe in miracles )

Really well done. Take Paul's advice and just add hatch and bands. Even 110lb bond cardstock can make a lot of difference! And checkout StickerShocks rivets and bolts vinyl (or your own from decal paper and your inkjet print or laser). Little do dads make a big difference.

Check out this post from my Sea Gray scratcher for an idea of what I mean.
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...ild-Sea-Gray-WME-Block-VI&p=535662#post535662

Thank you Jeff

The Sea Gray looks very cool. I have been talking about making trip to WI to fly her again very soon since I have a Nephew getting married on the same weekend.
The archer is almost airworthy so if I don't put the nice finish on her these next 10 days, I can always keep working on her after the End of September.
I am going to do some sanding of the model today before I go to work, I think.

Well I have got some sanding done and started to rework the chipped away fillets on the strake fins.



The fillets are reworked with Elmers Wood Filler.... They are still structurally sound and just need cosmetic work.

The weather has turned to fall fast here in South Dakota so I don't know how much painting I can get done, but I want to fly her again this next weekend at Bong in WI. I will be there for a wedding and just so happens there is a launch on the 28th & 29th. If Wildman is going to be there I plan on buying and flying her on the same motor I defaced her with........ The CTI 143 Smokey Sam. Only THIS TIME there will be a motor casing around it !!

Glasspack said:

Well I have got some sanding done and started to rework the chipped away fillets on the strake fins.

View attachment 146624View attachment 146625

The fillets are reworked with Elmers Wood Filler.... They are still structurally sound and just need cosmetic work.

The weather has turned to fall fast here in South Dakota so I don't know how much painting I can get done, but I want to fly her again this next weekend at Bong in WI. I will be there for a wedding and just so happens there is a launch on the 28th & 29th. If Wildman is going to be there I plan on buying and flying her on the same motor I defaced her with........ The CTI 143 Smokey Sam. Only THIS TIME there will be a motor casing around it !!

Click to expand...

Are you coming both days?

Chad,

It will be hard to make both days.......... The wedding is at 1:00
Sunday for sure I will be there.......... Most of my family cannot make it, so just my youngest son & I will be there. I was hoping to bring a fellow rocketeer (work peer) but not sure he is coming with.
I will send you a Message .......... I think I am going to start sanding the Archer.... and make sure I have the rail buttons, chute and protector sleeve as well as all the other things I need.

I have decided to not use the strips of balsa at the seam of the two sections of body tube. As I started the initial sanding of the airframe the lower half of the paper wound tube seemed to almost peel away a tiny layer at a time. The strips will not cover that so I am going to just seal the seam and the part of body tube that frayed and press on sanding and priming it. The fillets turned out pretty good….. I am still impressed with the Elmer’s Filler. However take my advice and wipe off the excess and the overage that you get from shaping the fillets. I used the ½” PVC piece to shape them to the original fillet, but for some reason didn’t get back to wiping the excess off after I pulled the tape. It makes for an unnecessary mess to have to sand through. I ended up using a small chisel to scrape off the excess form the fins and the body tube, so I didn’t do any damage to the fins as I sanded the fillets smooth. It is a long process anyway but, not cleaning the excess off BEFORE it dries is such a novice mistake I can’t believe I did it. Oh wait; forgetting the motor case is a novice mistake too isn’t it?



Here the fillets are almost finished, I think after some more sanding and priming with the automotive high filler primer I use, it will look nice. The first time I built this I remember how tedious it was to fill, sand and repeat over and over to get the required smooth result.


I doubt it will fly in her gloss white coat THIS weekend; but wish me luck any way... Please!:grin: