29mm nose cone?

I am trying to find options for a 29mm nose cone. I've made a rocket using Public Missile 29mm motor tube and now need to find a nose cone. I thought it would be easy, but it's not proving to be. So far, I have only found one at Apogee. It's not bad - it's the one that sits atop the apogee aspire. There has to be other options out there though, right? I have checked a few places, but only Apogee has the only one i've been able to find. Appreciate the input.

Call Ken at Performance Hobbies. He has Fiberglass 29 mm nose cones. There are also several on thingverse that are 3D printed.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1540511

https://performancehobbies.com/secure/store.aspx?groupid=200

Like this record breaker 7-1 Von-Karmon 29mm?
Carolina Composites 20.00

Blackhawk 29 for comparison.

Awesome. Thanks.

PML has a urethane NC
https://publicmissiles.com/product/nosecones

I really like the Carolina Composites 7-1 Von Karmon and it's ability to hold the altimeter. Anyone know how to get a hold of these guys? Their webpage looks dead. I did send an email, but not sure it's making it to the destination. If that doesn't work, I'm going to go with the Performance Hobbies FC NC.

Thanks.
Don.

mad4hws said:

I really like the Carolina Composites 7-1 Von Karmon and it's ability to hold the altimeter. Anyone know how to get a hold of these guys? Their webpage looks dead. I did send an email, but not sure it's making it to the destination. If that doesn't work, I'm going to go with the Performance Hobbies FC NC.

Thanks.
Don.

Click to expand...

Send Jim (blackjack2564) a PM. He knows Charlie and can probably get you in contact with him.

The best VK nosecones came from Shockwave Rocketry years ago. RIP...

Just out of curiosity: Would such a thing be economically viable/feasible if it could be 3d printed? I've seen the subject come back over time and also looked for at least one myself. I do own a printer but Haven't yet found time or space to even unbox the damn thing. Not looking to get rich here, just curious as to weather or not I could help out and pay for itself. That is if a printed 29mm nc would even be feasible. Safely assume If I get 100 "yes, I'll take one" I can realistically expect 4 actual orders..

Wallace said:

Just out of curiosity: Would such a thing be economically viable/feasible if it could be 3d printed? I've seen the subject come back over time and also looked for at least one myself. I do own a printer but Haven't yet found time or space to even unbox the damn thing. Not looking to get rich here, just curious as to weather or not I could help out and pay for itself. That is if a printed 29mm nc would even be feasible. Safely assume If I get 100 "yes, I'll take one" I can realistically expect 4 actual orders..

Click to expand...

High heat resistant material? Otherwise likely not for a minimum diameter flight.

Jim and I will be at our launch this weekend. I can ask for you. The owner of Carolina Composites may be there.

Would probably end up being PET, possibly ABS. At least at first. I assume these would be mainly for minimum diameter, so speedy flights?

cwbullet said:

Jim and I will be at our launch this weekend. I can ask for you. The owner of Carolina Composites may be there.

Click to expand...

Thank you. Let me (us) know what you find out...

cwbullet said:

Jim and I will be at our launch this weekend. I can ask for you. The owner of Carolina Composites may be there.

Click to expand...

Thanks CW. It would be great. I also sent a note to Blackjack (Jim). Not sure how frequently he checks his email though. I'll send you a PM with my contact info. Muchos Gracias.

There seem to be plenty of higher temp filament options but from what I've read, should involve a fairly steep learning curve, along with machine upgrades. I'm perfectly fine with all that since I originally bought the printer to learn on/experiment with. Just need to find time and space to set everything up.

Where is the Carolina Composites nose cone available?

I will ask this next weekend.

mad4hws said:

I also sent a note to Blackjack (Jim). Not sure how frequently he checks his email though. .

Click to expand...

Replied.

Hi everyone,
thank you all for your replies. I was hoping to get the big VK from Carolina Composites, but it has been radio silence, so I have gone with the next best alternative for this project. I got the 5.5:1 VK from Performance Hobbies. It's pretty nice filament wound with an aluminum tip.

Next question for this group. I want to put a Stratologger in the nose cone. Its a tight fit, but there's enough room. I'm thinking about installing the altimeter to a removable bulkhead and then having that bulkhead seal against a small centering ring that is epoxied to the shoulder of the nose cone. I've done this on bigger rockets. With space being really tight on this one, I wanted to see if there were more clever ways of mounting the Altimeter.

Thanks again everyone for your input. Will post some pictures soon.

How are you going to track this rocket? It's going to get out of site quick!

captbk said:

How are you going to track this rocket? It's going to get out of site quick!

Click to expand...

Excellent question. The challenge that it was specifically built for has a target altitude of 1,000 feet. I am planning on using a Cesseroni E22, which is about the smallest motor they make and which will still require a bit of ballast to stay under 1,000 ft. This rocket has a a single 3" ringfin connecting 3 normal fins, which will also result in additional drag. The challenge also required that we use a specific body tube in construction, hence the incorporation of the ringfin into the design. Still, this thing has the potential to go very high (thinking the new AT G8 would send this thing into low earth orbit!).

For the 1000 ft challenge and the E22 Smokey Sam, I'm just going to put an audible beeper in the body tube. It will probably land in the tall grass somewhere and this will make it pretty easy to find. Any more AP and we'll have to think about a GPS tracker. I have the Missileworks T3, which is pretty small and should fit in the nose cone. However, doing this might require motor ejection as there would likely not be enough room for the altimeter. If i had the 7:1 VK from Carolina Composites though, I think my chances of fitting the tracker and altimeter in the nosecone would be much better

Here's a couple of pictures. The first is the nose cone from Performance Hobbies. Pretty nice looking spiral wound fiberglass. The coupler for the shoulder is a bit long, so I'm going to trim it down to 1.25". In evaluating options for my electronics bay, I decided to see if one of my balsa machining tubes might be a good fit. Once I took the glassine layer off of the T50, it fit like a glove. I think I can work with this.

my idea is to secure this tube, which will serve as my electronics bay, with some #4 screws that are recessed into the shoulder. They will secure to weld nuts that will be epoxied into the tube. I have to be careful on space, as there's not much room to work with. This is cardboard, and I'm a bit concerned with the pulling force from the parachute that will be attached to the bulkhead at the end of the tube, so putting some structure around the attachment points is pretty important. More updates later.

Here's the completed prototype. it has a Perfectflite Pnut in it. For the challenge, I don't need it to control ejection charges, just to measure the altitude, so the Pnut is perfect.

I had to modify my original plans and just use one screw and one weld nut. because of this, I upsized from a #4 screw to a #6 screw.

Pic 1 is the completed nose cone with the installed altimeter bay
Pic 2 is the altimeter bay removed. The weld nut was installed inside the tube. A piece of balsa was installed to provide more surface area for the threads of the nut.
Pic 3 is a picture of the inside of the tube, with balsa and weld nut installed.
Pic 4 has the Pnut installed. note that it won't be secured, but will just be floating inside the tube.
pic 5 is the plug I made for the other end of the ebay. it's a piece from a 24mm single use motor cut down with a bulkhead. It will be inserted into the tube and held in place by the nose cone that it will butt up against.
Pic 6 the forward end of the ebay with plug installed.
Pic 7. The whole electronics bay tips the scale at 11.6g. Not bad.

Now I have to drill the vent hole. I'm thinking about going through the shoulder of the rocket and the neck of the airframe since the airflow disruption is so great from the shape of the nose cone. However, if the body tube and shoulder of the rocket get misaligned, then the altimeter won't work as the vent holes will be blocked. Any thoughts/Suggestions?