Okay, here's my story.
It's three weeks (exactly) till launch.
I have been working on a Rocketry Warehouse (now MadCow) Formula 200 since July. Yes, July. It is my first very large FG build.
I have everything ready for ground testing, except that I discovered I do not have enough room in the payload tube for my main and harnesses. They need to be crammed together in what appears to be an unsafe way, and it requires two people. Not good.
I built my nose cone glue-free, using a stepped bulk plate attached to the bottom of the coupler by the threaded rod from the aluminum tip, tightened with a nylon-insert nut.
It was (wisely) suggested to me to get a new internal bulk plate (which I did) and recess it into the coupler a few more inches.
Here is where I screwed up. I made up a rich mixture of RocketPoxy and chopped carbon fiber, and smeared the inside of the coupler, and slid the bulk plate in.
The epoxy mix was so thick that I assumed I could invert the nose cone and let the fillet form naturally on the inside.
When I checked it hours later, the bulk plate had slid down, turned at an angle, and epoxy was all over the inside of the coupler and the back of the bulk plate.
I looked at this and said, "No problem. I just need to remove the coupler, use the original stepped bulk plate, attach it to the top of the coupler with epoxy, and put the coupler back in. THIS IS WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Live and learn.
But (if you followed my other thread), I could not get the coupler out. There is no real place to grip anything. Tapping was a failure. Liquid Wrench sprayed into the joint didn't help. Freezing didn't help. That sucker is in there to stay.
So, I guess I am back to needing to insert the internal bulk plate into the coupler. I ground off most of the epoxy from the bulk plate, and it will slide in, but it won't go very deep because of all the gook of epoxy all over the inside of the coupler.
What would you do?
It's three weeks (exactly) till launch.
I have been working on a Rocketry Warehouse (now MadCow) Formula 200 since July. Yes, July. It is my first very large FG build.
I have everything ready for ground testing, except that I discovered I do not have enough room in the payload tube for my main and harnesses. They need to be crammed together in what appears to be an unsafe way, and it requires two people. Not good.
I built my nose cone glue-free, using a stepped bulk plate attached to the bottom of the coupler by the threaded rod from the aluminum tip, tightened with a nylon-insert nut.
It was (wisely) suggested to me to get a new internal bulk plate (which I did) and recess it into the coupler a few more inches.
Here is where I screwed up. I made up a rich mixture of RocketPoxy and chopped carbon fiber, and smeared the inside of the coupler, and slid the bulk plate in.
The epoxy mix was so thick that I assumed I could invert the nose cone and let the fillet form naturally on the inside.
When I checked it hours later, the bulk plate had slid down, turned at an angle, and epoxy was all over the inside of the coupler and the back of the bulk plate.
I looked at this and said, "No problem. I just need to remove the coupler, use the original stepped bulk plate, attach it to the top of the coupler with epoxy, and put the coupler back in. THIS IS WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Live and learn.
But (if you followed my other thread), I could not get the coupler out. There is no real place to grip anything. Tapping was a failure. Liquid Wrench sprayed into the joint didn't help. Freezing didn't help. That sucker is in there to stay.
So, I guess I am back to needing to insert the internal bulk plate into the coupler. I ground off most of the epoxy from the bulk plate, and it will slide in, but it won't go very deep because of all the gook of epoxy all over the inside of the coupler.
What would you do?
- Give up?
- Get a power sander and grind out the inside of the coupler?
- Find a way to get the coupler out (seems impossible) and use the stepped bulk plate at the top?
- Take the easy route, slide the bulk plate in as far as it will go (maybe two inches), apply an external fillet and hope it holds?
- Something else?