Madcow AGM-33 Pike

[Tobor]

I wish to give a big shout out to Madcow Rocketry for their fantastic customer service!

I recently discovered that one of the main fins was warped. Somehow I missed it during initial parts inspection. So last Thursday morning I fired off an email to Madcow asking if the part was under warranty, and if not what the replacement cost would be. By mid afternoon of the same day, I received a reply stating they had shipped out a replacement. I received the fin Yesterday.

Thank you Madcow!

 

[Tobor]

Made progress on the nosecone.

Bondo'd collar last weekend. Today I sanded down the Bondo (No pic.).

Next I began the process of matching NC base dia. to airframe.

I won't have time to sand this down until the weekend.

 

[Tobor]

This morning I finished sanding all the Bondo treatments on the NC. Wiped it down, sprayed a coat of adhesion promoter and applied first coat of sandable primer.

Update on paint scheme. With money being tight and so many non-rocket projects coming up this spring/summer, I have decided to forgo purchasing the custom vinyl wrap from Stickershock. So now I have to come up with a scheme that I can achieve with the rattle cans I have on hand. I should have something to post in a few days...

 

[Tobor]

A bit more progress over the last three days.

AV Bay Anchor

1/2" Copper Charge Wells

1st CW installed w/1st Power Post

 

[Glasspack]

Very cool...…… Had a smile when I read your "Bongify" comment. I had my Public Enemy SA-14 Archer land in a small pond at Bong couple years ago. I got it out quick but had to cut a hole in the airframe to get the trapped water out from between the motor mount tube and the outer airframe. No damage to the cardboard tube !! That was right after the fire rebuild....

 

[Greg Furtman]

Very cool...…… Had a smile when I read your "Bongify" comment. I had my Public Enemy SA-14 Archer land in a small pond at Bong couple years ago. I got it out quick but had to cut a hole in the airframe to get the trapped water out from between the motor mount tube and the outer airframe. No damage to the cardboard tube !! That was right after the fire rebuild....

View attachment 408888

Too many water traps on that course!

 

[Tobor]

Since I have decided to be frugal, I had to rethink the sled configuration. And so for the battery holder, I decided on this.

I had planned to use some 1/8" birch ply for the battery holder cover that I had in my scrap pile. Unfortunately that piece of ply has warped badly. So instead I will use a piece of 3mm plexy I have laying around.

I know the holder looks like overkill, but using wire ties to secure a LiPo to the sled can cause an internal short. And that could lead to really bad things...

 

[mbeels]

That looks really good. I like it, in fact I might copy it.

 

[Tobor]

That looks really good. I like it, in fact I might copy it.

Thx Mbeels. You are more than welcome to have at it.

And progress continues...

Front edge of holder rounded down for clearance and it's plexi cover cut and drilled.

Finished the passthroughs and chaseway for the wiring.

To comply with Tripoli rule change, I am hacking up my version of a FingerTech Mini Power Switch.

Till next time.

 

[Tobor]

So this evening began my state's "Stay at home" order by gov. Pritzker. Oh joy...

Well at least I can waste away the time building rockets!

AV bay wiring rough-in complete.
I have actually made more progress then shown in the pic above. Also finished soldering all the connector pins to the wiring and epoxied sockets in place. All that is left to do is dress in the wiring.

And I finallized the redesigned paint scheme.

 

[Tobor]

Some of yesterdays progress.


As of this afternoon all aft fins have been attached.

 

[Tobor]

Well today I buttoned up the bottom end.

Tomorrow I'll get around to attaching forward fins.

 

[Mugs914]

Been enjoying your build Tobor, thanks for sharing!

 

[Tobor]

Been enjoying your build Tobor, thanks for sharing!

Thank you. Glad you like the thread.

 

[Tobor]

Yeppers, it's time for another update.
First off, I forgot to post the work on the AV sled. This last bit had mixed results so I'll use one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies to help get the point across.

Without further ado, I present...
The Good

The Bad

and The Ugly


Also neglected:
Deployment Screw Switch

Cover for the battery tray


As for today's progress, I finished installing the forward fins.


Till next time.

 

[jd2cylman]

So this evening began my state's "Stay at home" order by gov. Pritzker. Oh joy...

Well at least I can waste away the time building rockets.
View attachment 409897
And I finallized the redesigned paint scheme.

That paint scheme is more suited to positive discovery at Da Bong...

 

[Tobor]

That paint scheme is more suited to positive discovery at Da Bong...

You are probably right about that.

This morning I injected epoxy for internal fillet #5. When I get home this evening I'll finish off #6.

 

[Tobor]

Monday was another mixed bag.
On the positive side, I fixed the "Ugly" hole from post #75 above. I also figured out how to align the anchor assembly within the airframe and epoxy it in place. I guess I should explain what the anchor assembly is/does.

The assembly (See post #64 1st pic) is made up of a centering ring and a 2.5" length of coupler tube. The CR has two 1/4-20 blind nuts installed that receive threaded rods. The rods extend up to and through the av-bay. The purpose of the anchor is to "lock" the av-bay to the lower airframe and to take the load imparted to the av-bay from the shock cord during deployment and descent.


Updated OR side view with anchor assembly.

As for the negative side, I discovered that my EggTimer Proton has a serious fault which 3 hours of troubleshooting did not correct.

 

[mbeels]

As for the negative side, I discovered that my EggTimer Proton has a serious fault which 3 hours of troubleshooting did not correct.

What is the issue? Did you contact Cris?

 

[Tobor]

What is the issue? Did you contact Cris?

No, I still have to get around to sending him an email. The problem, in a nutshell, is that the Proton thinks that all 6 pyro channels have loads connected, even when nothing is attached to said channels. I have already cleaned up and reflowed all the soldered connections. There was one possible solder bridge between pins 26 & 27 on the MCP23017 Port Expander as well as a cold solder joint on pin 28 of the same unit.

So, there are only two possibilities that come to mind. Either I have damaged the MCP23017 or there is a solder bridge under either the MCP23017 or the ESP8266-12 WiFi Module.

 

[mbeels]

The fact that it is all 6 channels seems suspicious, hopefully that is a clue for Cris to narrow it down.

 

[Tobor]

So, as time and obligations permit, I've been working on external fillets. As of today, 5 down and 1 to go. Admittedly I been having problems with using Rocketpoxy. My supply is about 2 years old so it does not pull as well as it did when fresh. Bottom line is my fillets are ooogly! I post a pic after I get the fillets cleaned up with CWF and some sandpaper.

 

[Speaknoevil]

So, as time and obligations permit, I've been working on external fillets. As of today, 5 down and 1 to go. Admittedly I been having problems with using Rocketpoxy. My supply is about 2 years old so it does not pull as well as it did when fresh. Bottom line is my fillets are ooogly! I post a pic after I get the fillets cleaned up with CWF and some sandpaper.

It does seem like the shelf life is short on RocketPoxy. I think it is the part B(darker) that starts stinking really bad and shrinking. Conversely, I have had System Three T-88 in gallons for years with no degradation.

 

[Tobor]

It does seehem like the shelf life is short on RocketPoxy. I think it is the part B(darker) that starts stinking really bad and shrinking. Conversely, I have had System Three T-88 in gallons for years with no degradation.

Hmmm, I had to run that through a search engine as I have never heard of that brand before. I'll have do a bit of research on that stuff. Btw, thx for the tip.

Edit: Yeppers, you are correct. The part B is the culprit.

 

[Greg Furtman]

Since Bong has come up so many times I thought I'd share this.If you notice that there is rocket motor smoke, the launch controller table is set up, and lots of cars in the parking lot. I showed this to Frank Nobile and he thinks it was last July's launch.

https://goo.gl/maps/zssK558KiCLUQ7z88

 

[jd2cylman]

Since Bong has come up so many times I thought I'd share this.If you notice that there is rocket motor smoke, the launch controller table is set up, and lots of cars in the parking lot. I showed this to Frank Nobile and he thinks it was last July's launch.

https://goo.gl/maps/zssK558KiCLUQ7z88

That almost looks like my car directly south of Tim's trailer... Hmm...

 

[crossfire]

That almost looks like my car directly south of Tim's trailer... Hmm...

So how do we see the picture?

 

[tim cubbedge]

So how do we see the picture?

I clicked the link and the image appeared.

 

[Tobor]

Since Bong has come up so many times I thought I'd share this.If you notice that there is rocket motor smoke, the launch controller table is set up, and lots of cars in the parking lot. I showed this to Frank Nobile and he thinks it was last July's launch.

https://goo.gl/maps/zssK558KiCLUQ7z88

Kool! I think that image was taken before I arrived that day.

Although I have not cleaned up the fillets, I wanted to post a shot of the Pike assembled. So here ya go...

Yeah, it's not a very good pic and heavily doctored in Photoshop. The recent drop in quality of my pics is due to the fact that approx. 4 weeks ago I broke my Nexus 6 at work. Now I'm stuck using my old ZTE Z787.

 

[Tobor]

Today I finally got around firing off an email to Cris Erving asking for help with the EggTimer Proton. I also started working on cleaning up those ooogly fillets. Had to resort to using my Dremel with a sanding drum on some areas . Rocketpoxy is tuff stuff...