4" Falcon 9 Dragon 2 Scratch Build Thread!!!

[ljwilley]

I ordered the fins Wednesday night, and they had already been cut out by the next morning. Thursday morning, it was already shipped. Today, I already have a notification saying it will be at my house between 2 and 6. All that was free shipping!!!! Fastest shipping I have every had other than from amazon, and they literally had to make the parts from scratch. I am very impressed with SendCutSend. But we will see when the parts get here...

 

[ljwilley]

Fins are here! They turned out great and they fit perfectly!

 

[ljwilley]

Motor mount has been glued in! I also added fillets.

 

[ljwilley]

The first fin just got glued in. I will post a picture of the fins when they are all on the rocket, then I will try to add fillets. I will have to be very careful and shape the filets to miss where the display legs will be.

 

[ljwilley]

Ok, so the Lexan fins are on. I will do fillets next. The only thing is that this rocket it a bit heavier than expected. Let me rephrase that, a LOT heavier. Like, just this piece in the photos below is 960 grams on its own. The good thing about that is that I can fly big motors in it without it going too high. I see an I205 in my future!

 

[Raptor 2]

How thick is the plastic fin?

 

[ljwilley]

How thick is the plastic fin?

quarter inch

 

[Raptor 2]

Wow that’s pretty thick and heavy. What is your intended motor size as the weight is adding up?
Got it, baby H or I motors. No problem then.

 

[ljwilley]

Wow that’s pretty thick and heavy. What is your intended motor size as the weight is adding up?
Got it, baby H or I motors. No problem then.

In case you missed it, I also said that I think I will use a I205 for the first flight!

 

[ljwilley]

Did some masking tape for the fillets; they will have to taper off the closer they get to the aft to make room for the landing legs.

 

[ljwilley]

Finished the fillets using BSI 30 minute epoxy. Everything is glued on nice and tight, but I decided to not show a picture because the epoxy is clear; it looks no different from before it had fillets. Anyway, I will paint the base section next.

 

[ljwilley]

Masked off the fins for painting! (Don't look for the fillets, you can't see them unless I shine a light directly on it.)

 

[ZeroGPrints]

In case you missed it, I also said that I think I will use a I205 for the first flight!

I hope that this is a joke…

 

[ljwilley]

No, no joke. According to rocksim, even with such a powerful motor, it will only go about 1k ft. Anyway, I have added more than enough epoxy filets for it to suffice. The only thing that might break would be the nozzles when it lands, if the landing is too rough.

 

[ZeroGPrints]

No, no joke. According to rocksim, even with such a powerful motor, it will only go about 1k ft. Anyway, I have added more than enough epoxy filets for it to suffice. The only thing that might break would be the nozzles when it lands, if the landing is too rough.

Ok that makes more sense. I guess you should have gone with a 38mm mount though.

 

[ljwilley]

Ok that makes more sense. I guess you should have gone with a 38mm mount though.

I would have, I just did not realize how heavy those fins would be.