Another Warlock Build

[kenstarr]

I picked up a LOC Precision Warlock last year at LDRS and I'm finally getting around to it. For cosmetic reasons mainly, I'm going to give the fins the ol' carbon fiber treatment and the body tube some carbon/fiberglass witchcraft. Today I got the ambition up to try out some vacuum bagging with materials I got from ACP Composites as recommended in a thread over in techniques. Previous to this work I tapered the edges of the fins I wanted tapered.
I have a layer breather material, release film, twill carbon fiber, then the fins. Other half of the composite sandwich mirrors this. I'm using US Composites 3:1 laminating resin. Upon sandwich assembly, I slid the whole thing into the vacuum bag. Would you like to add chips and a drink?...
Note the homemade vacuum port fitting! 1/4" MIP nip, a 1/4" FIP barbed fitting, a couple big washers and a hose gasket. A Harbor Fright A/C vacuum pump is running the whole mess.
Yup, 2 stage oiled pump and some poly tubing.
Ken

 

[SmurfTacoSupreme]

Watching with great interest...

 

[kenstarr]

Well, not sure how interesting it is going to be. Humorous maybe? I pulled out the fins in the green leathery stage to trim them up... They look deplorable to say the least.
That's OK. Live and learn. I vacuum bagged some fins years ago that turned out pretty good. On these however, I didn't use a porous release film, I maybe should have used the mylar from ACP. I may try an experiment tonight with the mylar, some more carbon fiber, some squeegee action and the vacuum pump. On a side note, currently there are flowers between two sheets of granite in the vacuum bag setup. If they dry down acceptably, I may laminate them between fiberglass...
After tonight, times up on all projects until we get back from Disney World and the Kennedy space center!!! Heck yes!

 

[kenstarr]

Oohh! I'm back from "vacation". Got back yesterday but I took an extra day off. Let's call it a mental health/personal well being day! So, with the glorious freedom to do what I wanted, I made some more progress. I started by prepping the workbench to roll some carbon/fiberglass on the tube.

Let me say this is the most versatile workbench ever! My uncle gave me an old wood lathe and it came with this. Slap on some accessory bits and away we go. I cut out some wood pieces for the tube with a 3/4" hole in the center for a bit of 1/2" EMT as the shaft. I just turned everything by hand so accuracy and precision weren't a concern.

Wrapped up with Composite Envisions 3K carbon fiber and orange fiberglass.



Wrapped the whole mess with some peel ply for a bleeder to wick up any excess epoxy then hit it with some shrink tube from Soller Composites. It's done now, stripped and painted with more epoxy as a clear which will be sanded. I'm glad I used the peel ply as the shrink tube had wrinkles as I expected. I debated on extra bleeder material but didn't do it and I'm happy with the results.

 

[Sandy H.]

Well, not sure how interesting it is going to be. Humorous maybe? I pulled out the fins in the green leathery stage to trim them up... They look deplorable to say the least. View attachment 523564
That's OK. Live and learn. I vacuum bagged some fins years ago that turned out pretty good. On these however, I didn't use a porous release film, I maybe should have used the mylar from ACP. I may try an experiment tonight with the mylar, some more carbon fiber, some squeegee action and the vacuum pump. On a side note, currently there are flowers between two sheets of granite in the vacuum bag setup. If they dry down acceptably, I may laminate them between fiberglass...
After tonight, times up on all projects until we get back from Disney World and the Kennedy space center!!! Heck yes!

Your setup is very similar to the setup I've used for fiberglass and venerring with similar vendors as well. I have never done multi-layer layups, so I've never used peelply, but I have used the ACP mylar to get a smooth finish. It has been so long since I've done any of it, I might be mis-remembering, but I think I put a piece of the mylar on a piece of 'flat' mdf, put the fins on that, epoxy, fiberglass, mylar again and then the whole thing in the bag and vacuumed at 22-25 inHg. I think it turned out well, but honestly many of you guys have raised the bar and what I did in the mid-2000's might be very hack compared to what is going on today.

Anyway, I guess I would suggest that a lower vacuum level might still be ok and I think the ACP mylar is something you should try for sure. It is helpful for a few other shop projects too.

Looking forward to more and hope you had a great trip!!!

Sandy.

 

[kenstarr]

Your setup is very similar to the setup I've used for fiberglass and venerring with similar vendors as well. I have never done multi-layer layups, so I've never used peelply, but I have used the ACP mylar to get a smooth finish. It has been so long since I've done any of it, I might be mis-remembering, but I think I put a piece of the mylar on a piece of 'flat' mdf, put the fins on that, epoxy, fiberglass, mylar again and then the whole thing in the bag and vacuumed at 22-25 inHg. I think it turned out well, but honestly many of you guys have raised the bar and what I did in the mid-2000's might be very hack compared to what is going on today.

Anyway, I guess I would suggest that a lower vacuum level might still be ok and I think the ACP mylar is something you should try for sure. It is helpful for a few other shop projects too.

Looking forward to more and hope you had a great trip!!!

Sandy.

Your method for the fins would have worked great!... If I hadn't had the really questionable idea to bevel all exterior edges of the fins. I just barely pulled a couple of fins out of the vac bag using a similar technique as you described but only laminating one side of the fins at a time on account of the bevels. I'm tickled pink at the results this time! I'll post the method and results tomorrow.

 

[kenstarr]

Well, tomorrow finally arrived.... A few days later. Here is what I have done with the fins
They are resting on a piece of MDF, on a layer of parchment paper. On these two particular fins the other side is nicely done so I've masked it off with painters tape. There are some shop towels for adsorption of excess resin.

In the bag. There is some non-perforated peel ply between the bag and the fins. I painted the fins with the resin, then applied the dry fabric then applied vacuum. Using an auto body spreader, I squeeged the excess resin to the edges and to the bleeder. Maybe wiser individuals could do both sides at once and have it turn out fantastic. I wasn't able to.

Here is a fin straight out of the bag. I'm very happy with the finish. I'll give them a light sanding with some fine paper. Their still not perfect but it's a personal best so far!
I'v sanded the body tube and painted some more epoxy on it for good looks. This next week I will get the fin slots re-cut and ready for fins. Not too sure what to do with the poly nose cone now the rest of the rocket is going to be tricked out and dressed up. The rocket says it wants altimeter deployment capability as well. I was pleased with the Der Ed Max AV bay that was externally accessed near the aft area. I may do a similar style bay.
Ken

 

[kenstarr]

Oh, and a shout out to TRF member Theory for inspiration and direction to the composite envisions material.

 

[kenstarr]

On Independence Day I got the airframe and fins all more or less doctored up with the liberal application of water and sandpaper. Ran 120 grit up through 2000 grit to make her pretty. Also made the CR's unnecessarily fancy!
I usually cut fin slots using masking tape for a guide then freehand the dremel (circa 1995!) in one hand and the HEPA vac hose in the other.

 

[DMehalko]

Epic!!! looking forward to seeing this unfold

 

[kenstarr]

Where was I... Caught covid over the weekend and lost all motivation to do pretty much anything but today I felt way better! Some of this is from last week though. Got the centering rings all test fitted up and marked out for positioning. Looks pretty decent to me!

Got a good quality forged eye bolt for the recovery harness put in. And, if I had a picture of the back side of the CR you would see that it it is plywood attached to a paper airframe tube so I used... Wait for it... Wood glue. Composite side you can see will get a dainty fillet of Proline.


And today I attached a fin! I used the Fasco paste epoxy and did a fillet on the motor mount as well as the internal airframe portion. Then I painted the nose cone. It's black.

 

[Tim51]

Very nice work!

 

[Theory]

some very nice work here.

happy the composite envisions material worked out well.

cool that we share similar composite techniques.

For finishing is stopped at 800 grit for most areas and 1000 for others.

Had CRAZY issues with running the clear when I went to finer paper. With a good clear (Spray Max 2K or DupliColor 1K, you dont need to go real fine)

 

[rfjustin]

All this work.... totally unnecessary, and I LOVE IT, carry on!

 

[thzero]

some very nice work here.

happy the composite envisions material worked out well.

cool that we share similar composite techniques.

For finishing is stopped at 800 grit for most areas and 1000 for others.

Had CRAZY issues with running the clear when I went to finer paper. With a good clear (Spray Max 2K or DupliColor 1K, you dont need to go real fine)

Ok.. can I hire your services to do all the prep work on my 5.5" scale Warlock-clone?

 

[Theory]

Ok.. can I hire your services to do all the prep work on my 5.5" scale Warlock-clone?

Ha!!!!!

My carbon laser loc is proving to be a real test. Worth it, but a test. Not sure I’ll be doing another carbon project any time soon. …and not sure about the carbon Bruiser for the L3 project.

 

[kenstarr]

Today I unpainted the nose cone!
It's been a thick minute since I've done something with a LOC blow molded nose. And... Hopefully this weekend I can get some adhesion promoter and start all over on it. I guess I could be embarrassed by such a mistake if I was more prone to embarrassment. It's no big deal though. Lesson learned. Here's the start of the unpainting. I wish I had made a cool etch art before I undressed the whole thing.

 

[kenstarr]

Back at it. Got all 3 fins attached, root and inside fillets with Fas-Stick epoxy from https://fascoepoxies.com/
Now I'm doing the external fillets using proline 4500 from wildman. I like to use my fillet pulling tool, in this case an aluminum pipe from a pressure paint pot, to mark the lines for my tape.

Body is done and taped off but you can see the line pretty good on the fin. I'm a big fan of the yellow frog tape as well. Seems quite thin and you can see where you've pressed it down properly. Here are the freshly laid fillets.

In an hour more or less, I'll pull the tape. Epoxy is green enough it's soft and easy to remove the tape but not going to move anywhere. Also got the nose cone reprimed using some fun solvents (rustoleum adhesion promoter) which are mainly acetone, toluene, MEK, xylenes, ethyl benzene. Sprayed on some primer filler in the 10 minute window recommend and now the nose is gray. We probably all know what a primed nose cone looks like but in case you were unsure...
Ken

 

[Tim51]

We probably all know what a primed nose cone looks like but in case you were unsure...

It's still good to have it confirmed for all to see. All good build threads have at least some element of 'sing along if you know the words' if you catch my drift

 

[Hobie1dog]

WOW, impressive talent, beautiful garage I'm very jealous of. Please keep the pictures coming, the more the better

 

[kenstarr]

Here are finished fillets on a couple of fins.

Here is the rear centering ring test fitted in place. Notice the gap? The Aeropack retainer fits in there so it is flush with the back when all screwed down!
And here is one of the shop. I love my garage. Granted I love my family more and I love my flower garden as well as the garage

 

[DMehalko]

Looking sweet!

 

[kenstarr]

Waiting on a 38mm coupler tube for the av bay. Here's an idea of what the back end will look like.
AV bay cap is from buyrocketmotors.com

 

[kenstarr]

I've also been fooling around with this little fpv camera setup. It's a runcam atom, dvr, and transmitter. I don't really need the transmitter part. I also have a runcam 2, probably more appropriate for a rocket of this size. I originally got them for my Ed Max rocket build but due to time constraints I never got around to installing it.

 

[kenstarr]

Got the altimeter bay mounted to the rear centering ring. Used rocketpoxy for the first time! Looks like it has some really good properties for general rocket use. I will have a switch mounted on the rocket body tubed for easy use. We're getting close!


Ken

 

[Adam3836]

really nice job !!!!

 

[kenstarr]

Got some more work done.

Mounted an external switch with some fancy silicone wires and the all-thread that runs the length of the bay. I'm not overly thrilled about my design but I do like the aft door concept for the electronics.

If you're wondering about the little holes with the threaded inserts, that was so I could test fit the rear CR/AV bay assembly and get it apart easily. There's a gap around the motor mount I had used with a seal puller but this is a drastic improvement. The Aeropack retainer sits flush with the centering ring is why there was the gap.

 

[kenstarr]

The rocket is officially finished! Built a little sled for the electronics, finished up some fillets on the inside, added stickers... Ooh even put rail buttons on it and tested electronics.
Now you kids are probably asking yourselves, "hey Ken, how can we get the rocket back down safely"? Well as I see it, there is only one solution... Sew a parachute! The one it came with is a reasonably nice circular model but I want more of a matching semi hemispherical model and I only want to pay around $30 for it. As it turns out, I had some orange 1.1oz ripstop on hand and I have been inspired by jquavins to get back into the parachute building scene! I'll post some pics when it's done.

 

[kenstarr]

Got the parachute built! I'll put a little thread about that build over in the recovery section.

 

[Dave S.]

Any progress on the Warlock? I've been reading the thread and wondered if it was finished or if you had an stories from a launch with it.