Minimum diameter recovery harness attachment

[Sooner Boomer]

I'm in the design phase of a 54mm min. dia. rocket. I've got everything planned except how to retain the recovery harness. The rocket will be head-end deploy (altimeter) with a JLCR for simplicity and low cost. I don't know what motor I'll be using, so I can't plan on using a harness that attaches to the motor. I'm thinking of using a rod that goes across the body tube. Don't know what dia. rod, or what material. Was also wondering if it would be helpful to split the body tube and stick a coupler in for additional wall thickness. Ideas? How did you do your min. dia. rocket?

 

[David Schwantz]

I have used ply rings, hollow center, glued into tube. A notch on the outside allows cord to be run through and then tied around it. Makes it replaceable also. Same kind of thing but with a ply plate glued to the side of tube with groove under to thread cord through. Make sure you leave enough room for largest motor you will use.

 

[Banzai88]

I would attach the harness to an eye bolt in the forward closure. Simple, light, cheap, easy, robust. But that's only really practical with Loki or AT motors.

 

[Titan II]

Some of this would also apply to 54mm.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/38mm-minimum-diameter.59465/#post-613531

 

[Donnager]

For a 38, I've cut a short piece of body tube as a ring, split one side so it could slide in the main tube, and tied the cord to the ring opposite the cut.

Then, epoxied the compressed ring with the recovery cord tied to it in the proper location in the body tube.

I've also frayed the recovery cord and just epoxied it to the inside of the body tube, but this can take up some length, and applying adhesive seems to require some level of gynecological expertise, so back to the above.

For what it's worth, the 38mm minimum diameter link above by Titan II has some great options.