Biff
Member
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2011
- Messages
- 23
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I enjoyed building and flying my 38mm minimum diameter Hair on Fire so much I thought I would try a 3" minimum diameter rocket which I am calling 'Skedaddle' which I am hoping will be an apt description of its performance.
I had an old 3" LOC nose cone lying around and decided to modify it to house the Beeline GPS. I started by cutting off the end with my Dremel tool to open up the insides. There's lots of room for the Beeline so now I'm going to build the anchor that will keep everything together.
I drilled a 1/4" hole through the tip of the nose cone off center and epoxied a 1/4" wood dowel in place. This will allow me to set a #8 threaded rod down the center of the nose cone. The ink line shows the level of the epoxy that will eventually fill the nose cone tip.
Even though I have epoxied the joint between the nose cone and the wood dowel, I have wrapped the nose cone with wax paper before standing it upright in one of my wife's drinking glasses just in case it leaks. The threaded rod is held in place by the cap made by epoxying a 3" couple bulkhead to a 3" body tube bulkhead.
So now I have a threaded rod stuck about 3" into epoxy which doesn't adhere too well to plastic nose cones and to a wooden dowel to which it adheres very well and on top of it all, the epoxy is wedged into place, it's not coming out for anything.
All that's left to do is to build a sled, trim the rod and decide how I'm going to provide an attachment point for the recovery harness. Oh, and LOTS of sanding and painting lest I forget.
I had an old 3" LOC nose cone lying around and decided to modify it to house the Beeline GPS. I started by cutting off the end with my Dremel tool to open up the insides. There's lots of room for the Beeline so now I'm going to build the anchor that will keep everything together.
I drilled a 1/4" hole through the tip of the nose cone off center and epoxied a 1/4" wood dowel in place. This will allow me to set a #8 threaded rod down the center of the nose cone. The ink line shows the level of the epoxy that will eventually fill the nose cone tip.
Even though I have epoxied the joint between the nose cone and the wood dowel, I have wrapped the nose cone with wax paper before standing it upright in one of my wife's drinking glasses just in case it leaks. The threaded rod is held in place by the cap made by epoxying a 3" couple bulkhead to a 3" body tube bulkhead.
So now I have a threaded rod stuck about 3" into epoxy which doesn't adhere too well to plastic nose cones and to a wooden dowel to which it adheres very well and on top of it all, the epoxy is wedged into place, it's not coming out for anything.
All that's left to do is to build a sled, trim the rod and decide how I'm going to provide an attachment point for the recovery harness. Oh, and LOTS of sanding and painting lest I forget.
