Ok, I'll admit it's a bit of an obsession.
I probably spend more time on AV Bays and recovery systems than any other part of my builds. I like the aesthetics and reliability of well constructed recovery systems with quality parts.
For the charge holders, I have used copper, and have many Blast Caps from GT. They were pricey, and as they became less available, I went back to the drawing board with the goal of making my own aluminum charge canisters.
My goals were to build canisters that could be customized to fit each rocket's needs, both in length and diameter; constructed of anodized aluminum for durability, and would also look good.
Here's what I ended up with...
Material: 6063 clear anodized aluminum tube, 5/8" OD, 0.495" ID (wall=0.065")
For this example, I cut a 2.5" length from the tubing
Next, drilled two small holes at 90 degrees...
Using a small bent pin (this example is a single finish brad from a brad gun...)
It's important to keep it off center, so i won't interfere with the mounting screw later.
Using thickened epoxy, filled about 1/4" to 3/8" of the bottom. Once it had cured, trimmed the pin, and drilled a hole for an 8-32 machine screw.
"Ok", you say, "But will they work? Is that epoxy plug going to stand up to the pressures of BP?"
Here's a ground test using 2 grams of BP in a RW Terminator 5:
[video=youtube;Z-M9kqK2i5c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-M9kqK2i5c[/video]
And finally, here are the charge holders on the AV Bay after the ground test:
I probably spend more time on AV Bays and recovery systems than any other part of my builds. I like the aesthetics and reliability of well constructed recovery systems with quality parts.
For the charge holders, I have used copper, and have many Blast Caps from GT. They were pricey, and as they became less available, I went back to the drawing board with the goal of making my own aluminum charge canisters.
My goals were to build canisters that could be customized to fit each rocket's needs, both in length and diameter; constructed of anodized aluminum for durability, and would also look good.
Here's what I ended up with...
Material: 6063 clear anodized aluminum tube, 5/8" OD, 0.495" ID (wall=0.065")
For this example, I cut a 2.5" length from the tubing
Next, drilled two small holes at 90 degrees...
Using a small bent pin (this example is a single finish brad from a brad gun...)
It's important to keep it off center, so i won't interfere with the mounting screw later.
Using thickened epoxy, filled about 1/4" to 3/8" of the bottom. Once it had cured, trimmed the pin, and drilled a hole for an 8-32 machine screw.
"Ok", you say, "But will they work? Is that epoxy plug going to stand up to the pressures of BP?"
Here's a ground test using 2 grams of BP in a RW Terminator 5:
[video=youtube;Z-M9kqK2i5c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-M9kqK2i5c[/video]
And finally, here are the charge holders on the AV Bay after the ground test:
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