My Badd Azz Space Cowboy

My first build thread is the awesome Badd Azz Space Cowboy. After reading about the design by Jim Hendrickson and David Reese, and the construction by Eric Foster at Badd Azz, and the performance of the rocket (all on TRF), I had to have one. I mainly followed CJ's Space Cowboy build manual. Most of the hole work was done at Badd Azz. This thread will not duplicate the other threads, but will focus on areas not covered in depth. Also, my rocket is nearly done. I am launching in a few weeks and am really excited about it. I am starting with the av bay so that I can post in cwbullet's av bay contest thread. I am not in the contest.

I started by getting a custom av bay from Eric at Badd Azz. It is really amazing. It was designed for one 9 V battery to run two altimeters. I modified it a bit for two 9V batteries. I hope that Eric does not mind. Here are the first pics. I will add more tonight.




Bay with MissileWorks RRC3. I added the 1/4 inch quick links from Apogee. I used a piece of aluminum angle from Orchard Supply Hardware or Home Depot to secure batteries. Will be clear later. The electrical tape just covers the hole in the sled and keeps the batteries from slipping around while I assemble av bay. The sled bears the weight of the batteries. Holes in the tape match holes in the sled and allow zip ties to secure batteries.




That is nice. Sled had pre drilled holes for RRC3. I drilled them out a bit to accept 4-40 PEM nuts, then mounted with 4-40 button head screws and used 6-32 neoprene washers. PEM nuts, screws, and washers from MissileWorks.




I mounted a MissileWorks RRC2+ on back of sled with same mountings as RRC3. The small altimeter allowed me to mount two Schurter switches (Aerocon) in the sled.




The aluminum was from a 0.019 inch thick 12 x 12 sheet from Home Depot. This was easy to cut and bend, not as easy to drill without a drill press. The bit kept sipping around on the aluminum, thus it came out a bit crooked. The larger holes for the switches were also a bit tricky. Large drill bits just shred the aluminum. I used a smaller bit and then filed out the hole until I got a good fit. Then I took a triangular file to make notches for the ridge in the switch that keeps the switch from spinning around in the holder. Turned out well overall.





Pretty clean from the side views. I will post more tonight and put a link in Chuck's av bay thread.

Completed my av bay.





















Overall, I was pretty happy with the build. Could use a better soldering iron. I only used part of each Schurter switch. I was going to use the whole switch with the proper wiring connections, but the soldering was not working out with my big clunky soldering gun. Since I had the original av bay and the new custom av bay, I can change the ejection wells to aluminum color to give a different look.

Next up, the nosecone and CSI tracker.

For the nosecone, I first epoxied in the fiberglass shoulder into the custom molded nosecone with Proline 4500. The nosecone came with a bunch of surface holes that were probably from popped air bubbles during the molding process. After a light sanding, I coated the whole outside of nosecone with Aeropoxy Light, and sanded off about 99 % of it. Then I primed with my favorite primer, Dupli-Color High-Build filler primer. I filled a couple of holes and low spots with Bondo Glazing and Spot putty. My intention was to sand nearly 99 % of this primer off. After a little sanding, the whole thing was smooth, and I left it on.



If you look carefully at the next pic, you can see the wound kevlar thread in Eric's molded cone. You can also see the numerous pink dots that were holes and are now filled with Aeropoxy Light.



The next photo shows plenty of room for a CSI transmitter. I will fill with some kind of padding.



Since I bought Eric's custom av bay, I had extra aluminum bulkheads. One was tapped for 2-56 screws. Since the bulkhead was for an av bay, it had extra predrilled holes. I filled these in with small screws. I drilled out a center hole for and eyebolt. I received a functional eyebolt from Badd Azz, but I went with nice shiny ones from AeroPac. Sealed the eyebolt screws with Loctite Blue.



I bought 5/16 inch stainless steel 2-56 screws, as well as a countersink drill bit (#2846A122, 3/16 inch body diameter, 3/16 inch shank diameter, cheap one, nothing fancy) from McMaster-Carr. I used the CJ and Wildman technique of putting flashlight in nosecone, insert aluminum bulked, mark one hole, drill hole, add screw, mark second hole, drill, add screw, mark third hole, and drill. The drill bit moves around a bit on the fiberglass. I then bored out the countersink holes with the countersink bit. Worked very well.



I had to sand out the inside of the payload tube well so that the nosecone couple slid in and out easily. Still needs sheer pin holes drilled. Overall, I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

That av-bay is stunning machine work. My one idea for improvement is to use LiPo rather than 9v, which'd cut a lot of length off the sled.

Nice job on the aluminum angle. That is tough to drill.

Zeroignite said:

That av-bay is stunning machine work. My one idea for improvement is to use LiPo rather than 9v, which'd cut a lot of length off the sled.

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Eric's dedication to his products is unbelievable. I agree with the LiPo. I am trying one out on my Mariah 38. I am not yet set up for recharging them on an extended flying trip. They are small. That might be my next step up.

cwbullet said:

Nice job on the aluminum angle. That is tough to drill.

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Thanks Chuck. Your av bay thread helped motivate me to push this out. Nice thread. Great idea.

Now on to the booster and fins. I pretty much followed Jim Hendrickson's threads:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...nual-you-asked-for-it!&highlight=space+cowboy

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...ond-airfoiled-fins&highlight=crazy+jim's+ldrs

These threads are really good. The hole work was pretty much done by Eric at Badd Azz.

Here is how my fins turned out.

View attachment 173921

I cut 10 or so slots in each fin root to about 1/8 inch deep with a hacksaw. I then enlarged the slots a bit with a small triangle file. After sanding the appropriate area on the tube for fin attachment, I roughed up the area heavily with a hacksaw. I then tacked fins on (one at a time, allowed to dry, then 2nd, etc.) with JB weld using Badd Azz fin guide. All per CJ instructions. After all three fins attached I made made fin filets with Proline 4500 two fillets at a time and allowed to dry. After all six filets were done and dried (three sets), I sanded pretty well. Fillets turned out very nice. I coated them with Aeropoxy Light and sanded down again. I might have overdone the Aeropoxy a bit. Could have sanded down further. I put a finishing coat of Elmer's Wood filler (diluted with water) and did final sanding. This really fills in surface irregularities. Final fillets were extremely smooth. Should look good painted.

For motor retention, I went with Aero Pack 54 mm minimum diameter retainer. I wanted to be able to use either AMW 2550 motor (for L985 or L1276), CTI 6XL motor (for K300, L935, and L1030), or CTI 6-grain motor (for K1440). There is also a 38 mm adapter / motor retainer that came with the Space Cowboy should one desire 38 mm motors. The longest motor is the AMW 2550. I obtained a forward closure from Robert DeHate of AMW that was tapped to fit the Aero Pack bolt. The standard AMW forward closure is tapped for a different bolt size.

View attachment 173923

I used a liner from a CTI for AMW L985 load, and assembled the motor (without fuel grains) to position and epoxy the Aero Pack retainer.

View attachment 173924

The above pic shows an Aero Pack extension fitting into the AMW 2550 forward closure. I won't actually need an extension for the 2550 motor, this just shows the nice fit. The 54 mm minimum diameter was too big for the Badd Azz tube. I sanded the inside of the entire length of the the booster tube. I had to slowly file and sand the retainer until it would fit and slide all of the way up the booster tube. I secured eyebolt in retainer with Loctite Blue, tied kevlar cord to it using Palomar knot. I scuffed up inside of booster tube where retainer would be epoxied, with 60 grit sandpaper according to Aero Pack instructions. I attached retainer (with no extensions and after oiling bolt) to 2550 forward closure, slid entire assembly to just where bottom (aft end) of epoxy would go. This way, it was impossible for epoxy to get aft of the retainer. I applied JB Weld /acetone 2 /1 using a dowel that was marked the width of the retainer. The motor/retainer assembly was pushed into place such that the aft snap ring retainer hit the body tube. The assembly was twisted a bit to help spread the epoxy around. Dried at around 75 degrees overnight, then baked in hot car at around 90 degrees (after taking motor out) for 5 hours.










You can see where the motors roughly come in the booster and you can see the dark band in the booster where the retainer is.

Next pic shows the extensions and hardware for attaching shorter motors to the internal retainer.



Two types of reducing couplers are on the right. One is a two piece coupler, and the other is a one piece. These are for reducing the Aero Pack bolt to the correct size for the tapped CTI plugged forward closures. Small red piece is for tapping a non plugged CTI motor such as the K1440.



Starting to put the rocket together:



Nearly completed rocket. Need some holes drilled, ground test, primer and paint. I got distracted on this shot. Will replace.



Coming along. Leaving for Mudroc two weeks from tomorrow. Should be fun.

Outstanding!

Doing great work there Chris. Like how you utilized the NC for tracker...... THAT will definitely come in handy.

Is that coupler nut a reducer also? Bought ..... or re-tapped on one end by you?


What are your intentions for first flight motor wise?



Good luck on your flights!!!

blackjack2564 said:

Outstanding!

Doing great work there Chris. Like how you utilized the NC for tracker...... THAT will definitely come in handy.

Is that coupler nut a reducer also? Bought ..... or re-tapped on one end by you?


What are your intentions for first flight motor wise?

Good luck on your flights!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks Jim. I couldn't have done it without you, Eric, and David's design and work, your manuals, and a lot of help from TRF'ers. I got tips about the tracker from you and Richard Evans of LUNAR. He does some nice stuff. Then I realized that I had the extra bullhead and it fell into place pretty easily.

The couplers are reducing couplers from McMaster-Carr. The one piece unit is part # 92499A154 18-8 Stainless Steel Male-Female Thread Adapter, 1/4"-20 male end, 5/16" Female end. Idea from TRF. Two piece unit is part # 98434A110 Reducing coupling nut, 1/4"-20 & 5/16 "-18 size, 1 " length, 7/16" width. The screw is part # 94355A548 Nonmarring Flat Point Socket Set Screw, 18-8 stainless steel, 1/4"-20 thread, 1" long, pack of 10. Idea from Aero Pack.

As far as motors go, I am taking up a lot. I will see how it goes. If all goes well, and I can launch and recover okay, I will hope for one launch a day. I will probably launch the CTI K300 first. I want to do it on a 12 ft. rail. Not going to worry about towers and stuff. If I can't get the long rail, I will probably launch on CTI L935 first. I should try it out on smaller motor, but probably won't get that done. Third motor in line is K1440. I am also bringing a CTI L1030 if I can do two a day, we will see. Also bringing CTI for AMW L985. Probably will launch that in my Nike Smoke. If I can get the K300 and L935 launched and recovered safely, I will be happy. Everything else would be a bonus. I have all of the motors. Also bringing up motors for other rockets. Hoping for a heck of a launch! Will let you know how it goes. I feel honored to have a Space Cowboy and custom av bay. The av bay weighs a bit, but it is really nice. Whatever alt. and velocity I get will be great for me. Using rail buttons. It is going to be awesome.

Eric's nice 38 mm adapter / retainer.







For $30.00 you get a chute, kevlar shock cords, and the nice adapter / retainer. Very nice deal.

Here is my little buddy with the Space Cowboy.

Really nice work. I love Eric's rockets.

Jiffycoil said:

Really nice work. I love Eric's rockets.

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Thanks. And yes, Eric's work is amazing.

WOW

That is one Hecka of a build thread!! Great job!!!

I have to agree on the workmanship. I can't wait for the 75!

It won't be much Longer! :wink:

That is great news. Good job on the build.

Thanks Eric and Chuck. With Eric's great product, and all of the TRF talent surrounding it, I wanted to give it a max effort. I am sure that it will launch fine, wish me luck on the recovery!

Excellent build job. Glad you're planning to air it out over Black Rock, it's perfect for a high flyer like this! Looking forward to a flight report.

daveyfire said:

Excellent build job. Glad you're planning to air it out over Black Rock, it's perfect for a high flyer like this! Looking forward to a flight report.

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Thanks David. And thanks for all of your design input and simulations. I read all of the stuff that went in to this rocket, and the build manuals. All I have to do is follow directions. That is what makes this sport, and TRF great. I am pretty excited about it. The biggest rocketry thing that i have done by far. Looking forward to it.

I completely finished the build today, except for primer and paint. I got a 10-pk of rail buttons from Dog House Rocketry cheap. These had 1" screws. I switched with 3/4 " screws and filed down screws to correct size. I installed the kevlar shock cords. I tied palomar knots to small quick links. I had previously dipped all ends of the kevar in epoxy and let dry. This was to help keep from fraying. I installed chute and kevlar pad chute protector (from GLR). I loaded ComSpec transmitter in nosecone. My booster slid out of the coupler way to easy. I added two shear pins to hold it together. I figure better safe than sorry. I drilled holes in air frame to allow small screwdriver access to the Schurter switches. With a little practice, I can turn the Missile Works RRC3 and the RRC2+ on and off relatively easily. I put a 1.0 g charge of BP in one nosecone ejection canister and one in the booster side ejection canister and sealed them up. I sealed up the whole rocket (full up with motor, less actual reload) and ground tested. 1.0 g of BP in the booster side was more than enough and easily blew the sections apart breaking the shear pins, without breaking the nosecone shear pins. I could probably cut back from the 1 g here, but will keep it. The 1.0 g charge in the nosecone side seemed to be perfect. I cleaned everything up and will primer tomorrow. Even the unpainted rocket looks Badd Azz! Paint scheme will be simple. Starting to get excited. I will leave for Black Rock on Thurs.

Chris, I can't wait to hear about your flight!
I hope it is as spectacular as this build thread!!!

Eric1 said:

Chris, I can't wait to hear about your flight!
I hope it is az spectacular az this build thread!!!

Click to expand...

fixed that for you Eric! LOL!!

Thanks!

Eric1 said:

Chris, I can't wait to hear about your flight!
I hope it is as spectacular as this build thread!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks Eric. Definitely getting excited.

To finish the rocket, I went with Dupli Color high temp engine paint. This had a 7 day cure time. One can apply all of the primer and paint coats in one hour, or wait 7 days between coats. I was leaving in 5 days. I elected to go with it anyway and do it all in an hour. The paint job turned out okay. I went for yellow on top part of rocket, orange on bottom, and kind of a yellow fade for the transition. I would have benefited from letting primer dry, doing a light filling, then painting, light sanding, and another coat of paint. Overall I would do the paint differently next time, but it was satisfactory. I was going for high visibility colors.


View attachment 175610

Here is the rocket on the pad. i call it "Badd on the Padd." The fade portion looks a little funky, but I got past that. I drove to Mudroc Thurs. It was incredibly windy, but awesome. Friday was equally windy. I was going to launch on a CTI K300. I was a little worried about the speed coming off of the rail with the wind. A team launched a real high flier and recovered fine. Hopefully they will post that somewhere. There were a couple of other nice launches and I decided to go. I was pretty pumped with the altimeters chirping. The rocket took off and weather cocked a bit, and then took off straight. The motor burned a long time (8.4 sec). We had great visibility and the motor left a nice smoke trail to the rocket. The LCO called "event" and we could see two dots of smoke for the apogee charge and backup charge at apogee +1. The ComSpec transmitter was chirping away. I did not time it, but we tracked it for at least three plus minutes. The LCO agreed with me on the direction. I took a compass reading several times. I walked back to get my car which took at least two more minutes and still had a chirping signal (total tracking time was at least 5 minutes conservatively. Probably 7 + minutes or more. I drove down past flight line to where I could drive out to my heading and no more signal. People told me that the playa eats signals on the ground and to get within one mile of it. I spent good parts of two and a half days looking for it with no sign of signal.

Several possibilities:

1. Rocket crashed. It did not come in ballistic, I am sure of that. We saw the apogee event. I tracked it in the air for a long time, final signal seemed to have a constant general bearing. Total tracking time at least 5 min. probably 7 + or more.

2. Rocket dragged by wind into area hard to reach and obscured transmission. Definite possibility.

3. Battery in transmitter knocked loose while dragged on ground. People told me that I should have taped the battery inside the case. I taped outside the case.

4. Antenna snapped on ground while being dragged. Definite possibility.


Overall the flight was awesome and I am honored to have have built and flown it. Black Rock is also awesome, and I met some great people. The rocket might still show up. Tony Alcocer was helping me look for it on his dirt bike. There are also many more launches there. There is definitely an area around the perimeter of the lake, about a half mile before you hit the dunes, that was unaccessible by my car. A 4 wheel truck or dirt bike could do it. I hiked to the dunes once, but there was too much ground to cover for me around the whole perimeter. The winds were amazing. I had another flight of a LOC IV on a CTI H123. Easy up, and easy down. No problem. But the wind started dragging it at an amazing rate, causing significant damage to the top of my booster tube. I had to drive my car in front of it and block its progress! I probably underestimated the winds. The story did not quite end how I hoped. The build and flight were awesome. Maybe the story is not quite over.

Well Dang it Chris. I hope you get it back, Great write up. I'll bet the flight was exciting!

Great work on the rocket!!

I hope it is found though

4kids49 said:

To finish the rocket, I went with Dupli Color high temp engine paint. This had a 7 day cure time. One can apply all of the primer and paint coats in one hour, or wait 7 days between coats. I was leaving in 5 days. I elected to go with it anyway and do it all in an hour. The paint job turned out okay. I went for yellow on top part of rocket, orange on bottom, and kind of a yellow fade for the transition. I would have benefited from letting primer dry, doing a light filling, then painting, light sanding, and another coat of paint. Overall I would do the paint differently next time, but it was satisfactory. I was going for high visibility colors.

View attachment 175496

Here is the rocket on the pad. i call it "Badd on the Padd." The fade portion looks a little funky, but I got past that. I drove to Mudroc Thurs. It was incredibly windy, but awesome. Friday was equally windy. I was going to launch on a CTI K300. I was a little worried about the speed coming off of the rail with the wind. A team launched a real high flier and recovered fine. Hopefully they will post that somewhere. There were a couple of other nice launches and I decided to go. I was pretty pumped with the altimeters chirping. The rocket took off and weaner cocked a bit, and then took off straight. The motor burned a long time (8.4 sec). We had great visibility and the motor left a nice smoke trail to the rocket. The LCO called "event" and we could see two dots of smoke for the apogee charge and backup charge at apogee +1. The ComSpec transmitter was chirping away. I did not time it, but we tracked it for at least three plus minutes. The LCO agreed with me on the direction. I took a compass reading several times. I walked back to get my car which took at least two more minutes and still had a chirping signal (total tracking time was at least 5 minutes conservatively. Probably 7 + minutes or more. I drove down past flight line to where I could drive out to my heading and no more signal. People told me that the playa eats signals on the ground and to get within one mile of it. I spent good parts of two and a half days looking for it with no sign of signal.

Several possibilities:

1. Rocket crashed. It did not come in ballistic, I am sure of that. We saw the apogee event. I tracked it in the air for a long time, final signal seemed to have a constant general bearing. Total tracking time at least 5 min. probably 7 + or more.

2. Rocket dragged by wind into area hard to reach and obscured transmission. Definite possibility.

3. Battery in transmitter knocked loose while dragged on ground. People told me that I should have taped the battery inside the case. I taped outside the case.

4. Antenna snapped on ground while being dragged. Definite possibility.


Overall the flight was awesome and I am honored to have have built and flown it. Black Rock is also awesome, and I met some great people. The rocket might still show up. Tony Alcocer was helping me look for it on his dirt bike. There are also many more launches there. There is definitely an area around the perimeter of the lake, about a half mile before you hit the dunes, that was unaccessible by my car. A 4 wheel truck or dirt bike could do it. I hiked to the dunes once, but there was too much ground to cover for me around the whole perimeter. The winds were amazing. I had another flight of a LOC IV on a CTI H123. Easy up, and easy down. No problem. But the wind started dragging it at an amazing rate, causing significant damage to the top of my booster tube. I had to drive my car in front of it and block its progress! I probably underestimated the winds. The story did not quite end how I hoped. The build and flight were awesome. Maybe the story is not quite over.

Click to expand...

Great rocket and congrats on the successful flight! Sorry to hear about the loss of the rocket; hopefully it is found at one of the launches later in the season.

My very limited experience at Black Rock with RF trackers (Com-Spec, Rockethunter, and a Falconry unit) is exactly the same as yours. Once the rocket is on the ground, there is NO signal. One of our rockets was found by another flyer; even within a few feet of the rocket: no signal. At Smoke Creek, I lost the signal to my Hamster Dance rocket once it landed; interestingly enough, I regained signal after I left the lakebed at the foothills of the surrounding mountains. Walking back to the playa from the mountainside, I was able to walk right to it. Very odd experiences from our group that has been using these trackers since the inception of Rockethunter....GPS is definitely the way to go out there!

-Eric-

Eric1 said:

Well Dang it Chris. I hope you get it back, Great write up. I'll bet the flight was exciting!

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Thanks Eric,

It was amazing. I learned a ton building and launching at Black Rock. It might come back. I will try to get the photo uploaded. I am not sure what the issue is.