- Joined
- Feb 15, 2012
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My Birthday present has arrived - great to have a wife that supports the hobby!
So, introducing the newest member of my family is this fresh out of the box LOC Doorknob. Its a beauty!!!
As you can see on the parts pile, I also picked up an 54mm Aeropack motor retainer as well as a 52" Sky Angle parachute. I'll use the included tubular nylon shock cord, its good quality. I've also got a nice stainless u-bolt and some 800lb quick links in the garage ready to go. That 54mm MMT is almost as big as some of my smaller rockets. I have used the fin-lock system before and I really liked it.
Unfortunately I'll be out of town this weekend and can't play with my new toy. The following weekend I'll get my stand out of the shed and mount the airframe on it so I can fiberglass it. After peeling off the glassine layer, I'll apply 2x wraps of 5.8oz S-glass and 1x veil layer of 1.48oz deck cloth followed by some Teflon peel ply. Then after the fins are on and filleted, I'll apply a tip to tip with one layer 5.8oz S-glass and one 3.08oz e-glass and more Teflon peel ply. The Teflon leaves an awesome surface, bleeds off a bit of extra epoxy, and saves tons of time sanding later. I've been using this formula lately, and its worked out well. I know glassing adds some weight, but its motor ejection and I'm not looking to break any altitude records.
I'll be using West Systems epoxy for the entire build, 105 resin and 206 slow hardener. For the fillets, I squirt one pump of resin and hardener (stir quickly for 1 minute) and then mix in a heaping spoon of 404 high density filler and one heaping spoon of 406 colloidal silica. This allows a smooth, non-running fillet to be formed in and easily shaped with the back of a plastic spoon. I'll keep a tally of the weights before and after things are added during the build. The glass added about 40oz of extra weight to my LOC Bruiser (2 sections), so for this one section airframe I'm going to guess about 27oz.
I'm still up in the air on the final paintjob, so I'm accepting suggestions! My goal is to have it ready to fly for the November TTRA launch in Plant City, FL.
So, introducing the newest member of my family is this fresh out of the box LOC Doorknob. Its a beauty!!!
As you can see on the parts pile, I also picked up an 54mm Aeropack motor retainer as well as a 52" Sky Angle parachute. I'll use the included tubular nylon shock cord, its good quality. I've also got a nice stainless u-bolt and some 800lb quick links in the garage ready to go. That 54mm MMT is almost as big as some of my smaller rockets. I have used the fin-lock system before and I really liked it.
Unfortunately I'll be out of town this weekend and can't play with my new toy. The following weekend I'll get my stand out of the shed and mount the airframe on it so I can fiberglass it. After peeling off the glassine layer, I'll apply 2x wraps of 5.8oz S-glass and 1x veil layer of 1.48oz deck cloth followed by some Teflon peel ply. Then after the fins are on and filleted, I'll apply a tip to tip with one layer 5.8oz S-glass and one 3.08oz e-glass and more Teflon peel ply. The Teflon leaves an awesome surface, bleeds off a bit of extra epoxy, and saves tons of time sanding later. I've been using this formula lately, and its worked out well. I know glassing adds some weight, but its motor ejection and I'm not looking to break any altitude records.
I'll be using West Systems epoxy for the entire build, 105 resin and 206 slow hardener. For the fillets, I squirt one pump of resin and hardener (stir quickly for 1 minute) and then mix in a heaping spoon of 404 high density filler and one heaping spoon of 406 colloidal silica. This allows a smooth, non-running fillet to be formed in and easily shaped with the back of a plastic spoon. I'll keep a tally of the weights before and after things are added during the build. The glass added about 40oz of extra weight to my LOC Bruiser (2 sections), so for this one section airframe I'm going to guess about 27oz.
I'm still up in the air on the final paintjob, so I'm accepting suggestions! My goal is to have it ready to fly for the November TTRA launch in Plant City, FL.