Miss Riley Owner/Builder Thread .

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Andy Greene

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The intention of this thread is to share information of your experience with one of the very limited Miss Riley reproduction kits offered by Buddy Michaelson. The discussions can be your building input "tips or tricks" - flight experience or just general discussion about your experience building and flying this rocket or if you dont even intend to fly it ....Please feel free to chime in with your kit # and name if you care to share .
Im currently awaiting the retainer and av bay for kit # 66 / my birth year by chance - lol. then I will begin sharing my build pics and progress.

Welcome all interested and any questions you may have , as Buddy will chime in from time to time to keep us up to speed if needed.

Thanks , Andy :cool:
 
Thx for starting this thread. Added to my watch list. I too am still awaiting arrival of my AV-bay kit. Building will commence when bay kit is in hand.
 
Thx for starting this thread. Added to my watch list. I too am still awaiting arrival of my AV-bay kit. Building will commence when bay kit is in hand.

Well..... looks like I lied a tad. My Madcow Pike build has stalled for the time being so I was having a look-see at Miss Riley last night and suddenly got the itch to start the build. :p

As I had already washed all the fiberglass a couple of weeks ago, I started with sanding the MMT, fin tabs, CRs and the inside of the airframe. Then I installed fwd CR. This afternoon I installed MMT and fins. BTW, I will be using the GLR threaded Slim-Line retainer intended for my Pike on this build. I think it looks better then an Aero Pack retainer inside the aluminum nozzle. I'll post some pics soon.
 
Update:
Bell Nozzle 2nd Polishing-Small.jpg
Used 800, 1000 and 1500 grit sandpaper to remove tooling marks from the lower portion of the nozzle (section that mates with airframe). Then used my Dremel to polish up that area. It is far from perfect but It still looks better then the tooling marks. Dry fit for photo op.
Bell Nozzle with GLR Retainer Dryfit-Small.jpg
Dry fit of GLR retainer.
 
Looking good-keep us posted on your progress .Hoping to get started on mine soon, there is a good chance this stupid tropical storm in the gulf will kill our 2 day launch- so , may as well build.
 
So with our 2 day launch rained out due to tropical Storm Nestor- between honey do's I managed to gain a little head way on my MR#66 / 1 fin down -2 to go . Hopefully get back to it sooner than later , but with the launch rescheduled for this weekend my priorities are on my DD Sport -X .
 

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A little progress. Completed and installed recovery anchor.
Recovery Anchor Plate-Small.jpg
Yesterday I cut all the pieces and epoxied fwd ring in place using Rocketpoxy.

Recovery Anchor Assembly - Top.png
Recovery Anchor Assembly - Bottom.png
Today JBW did it's thing on the washer and nylock nut. Then I epoxied the assembly into the airframe, 19" forward of the back end of the MMT. This will allow enough clearance for a 38/1080 case. I used a very similar setup on my WM DarkStar Jr.
 
Looking good Tobor. :cool:

I got the 3rd fin set tonight (post a pic am- not much too see really) and it looks like we are going to get rained out again this weekend for BucBlast , so I might as well keep building what I can on the MR .
So lets talk about coloring the fillets ??
Did you bother doing it when you built ?
Are you going too ??
What did you use if you did ??
Im not sure if I want to bother or not- :(
 
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Looking good Tobor. :cool:

I got the 3rd fin set tonight (post a pic am- not much too see really) and it looks like we are going to get rained out again this weekend for BucBlast , so I might as well keep building what I can on the MR .
So lets talk about coloring the fillets ??
Did you bother doing it when you built ?
Are you going too ??
What did you use if you did ??
Im not sure if I want to bother or not- :(
It’s soooo worth coloring your fillets, it makes your kit a total piece of art making the fillets match perfectly, I did a beautiful job on mine, never even had to sand them. I would recommend buying the rocket poxy dye.
 
We could also use this thread to share a tube of the blue dye. Seeing as how I'll never use it on another rocket I don't feel the inclination to purchase a container of the dye.
 
Looking good Tobor. :cool:

I got the 3rd fin set tonight (post a pic am- not much too see really) and it looks like we are going to get rained out again this weekend for BucBlast , so I might as well keep building what I can on the MR .
So lets talk about coloring the fillets ??
Did you bother doing it when you built ?
Are you going too ??
What did you use if you did ??
Im not sure if I want to bother or not- :(
As Madcow is the only supplier I know of that sells epoxy dye but have been out of stock of the blue for many full moons.... there will be no blue fillets for me :(
 
As Madcow is the only supplier I know of that sells epoxy dye but have been out of stock of the blue for many full moons.... there will be no blue fillets for me :(
I e-mailed Michael Klett weeks ago. He said he inquired with the RocketPoxy bendor for blue tint, but they were not responsive.

You can get epoxy tints on ebay pretty cheaply.
 
As Madcow is the only supplier I know of that sells epoxy dye but have been out of stock of the blue for many full moons.... there will be no blue fillets for me :(
I can get plenty of dye if you’d like, I was nearly thinking of including some with every kit, but was scared of it leaking and creating a huge mess. Although it may happen on my future kits as everyone will be naturally colored. My next next kit will be purple/yellow and I have the dye that’s used to color the actual tubes for a perfect match.
 
A word of warning, in the past I built a rocketry ware house Rogue (orange booster, blue fins) and I purchased several blue dyes from hobby lobby to try. If you add too many drops of dye to the rocketpoxy, then the cure time significantly lengthens and it possibly also affects the strength of the bond. I'd suggest, that if you can't get the rocketpoxy approved dye, experiment with varying number of dye drops in the rocketpoxy on some extra fiber glass to determine your best mix. This may prevent ensuing problems.

Fred, L2
ICBM, Camden, S.C.
KG4YGP
 
A word of warning, in the past I built a rocketry ware house Rogue (orange booster, blue fins) and I purchased several blue dyes from hobby lobby to try. If you add too many drops of dye to the rocketpoxy, then the cure time significantly lengthens and it possibly also affects the strength of the bond. I'd suggest, that if you can't get the rocketpoxy approved dye, experiment with varying number of dye drops in the rocketpoxy on some extra fiber glass to determine your best mix. This may prevent ensuing problems.

Fred, L2
ICBM, Camden, S.C.
KG4YGP


___________________________________________________

I just spoke with Tim (Wildman) and he said they have some colored dye in stock. Obviously he also carries rocketpoxy. Their number is: 815-638-3200.

Fred
 
I can get plenty of dye if you’d like, I was nearly thinking of including some with every kit, but was scared of it leaking and creating a huge mess. Although it may happen on my future kits as everyone will be naturally colored. My next next kit will be purple/yellow and I have the dye that’s used to color the actual tubes for a perfect match.

I just spoke with Tim (Wildman) and he said they have some colored dye in stock. Obviously he also carries rocketpoxy. Their number is: 815-638-3200.

Fred
Okay Fred, thx for the heads up.

Hey Buddy,
Will you be attending MWP this coming November? If so, I will purchase some dye from you there. If not, I will ask Tim to drag some to the event.

ChicagoDave & Bat-mite, thanks for your responses. I just don't do eBay anymore. Not sure why to be honest.....

Tobor
 
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We could also use this thread to share a tube of the blue dye. Seeing as how I'll never use it on another rocket I don't feel the inclination to purchase a container of the dye.

I would be interested and gladly pass it along - lmk Tim .
 
Well, I am making progress...
This morning I injected internal fillet number four of six.

Last week a co-worker buffed out the nozzle for me. Cleaned it up real purdy like :D. Thx Juan!

And last but not least, over the past weekend I completed a little mod to the build. I'll post pics when I can and let y'all guess what the mod is for.... :p
 
Well, I am making progress...
This morning I injected internal fillet number four of six.

Last week a co-worker buffed out the nozzle for me. Cleaned it up real purdy like :D. Thx Juan!

And last but not least, over the past weekend I completed a little mod to the build. I'll post pics when I can and let y'all guess what the mod is for.... :p


Care to share your internal fillet process ??
 
Care to share your internal fillet process ??
I used CJ's method for injecting fillets (Link).
For the amount of epoxy to inject, I started with 10cc (10ml) but that was too much, as it ended up leaking a goodly amount to the bottom fin.

Note to self: Always tape to prevent epoxy from dripping where you don't want it.

Anyhoot, I dialed the amount down to 7cc's and that worked well. Your milage may vary.
 
Okay - so do tell ???? What is it ??
It's a nosecone bay for my EggFinder tracker, but mostly it's an over-thought and over-executed idea that just would not go away. I could have easily used the setup I came up with for my RIM-66 (First pic in This post).
 
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