Coming down the home stretch. At least I hope so!
I added some tee nuts to the final centering ring, to hold the motor retainer clips in place.
Then I whipped up some more epoxy, and placed the final centering ring.
At which point, box of happiness arrived from Rocketarium, several days ahead of schedule!
I still had some leftover epoxy, so I added the rail guides.
Then I started in on the AV bay. First gluing two bulkheads together to make one lid. Then drilling out to run the U-bolt through.
I was also sanding down the aluminum rod that was protruding from the nose cone. Here's a tip. If you are using a belt or disc sander to smooth down the aluminum, it also makes it very hot. Hot enough to melt the nose cone. So I took a little more care with the rest of it, and filled the melted hole with epoxy mixed with glass microspheres. New rocketry scale arrived at the same time. Nose cone plus weight is 667 g.
Back to the AV bay. The way it will work is that the actual AV bay will sit toward the nose of the rocket.
Once it has been slid into the tube into the nose cone, a second coupler with another centering ring slides the AV bay forward.
The epoxy is drying on the coupler centering ring. Once that is all dry (tomorrow), I will use some sort of tee nut (not as wide as the ones I originally purchased, but at least those will work for motor retention) to fasten the 3" body tube and centering ring into the nose cone, then something similar to add the coupler and bolt it on to the first centering ring.
The AV bay is staying unfinished for now - maiden flight will feature motor deploy. However, I have enough space to get two small (RRC2+ and/or Stratologger CF) altimeters in the bay, plus batteries. Not sure if I'm going to use charge wells, or just use vials/latex glove fingertips for the primary charge. And I should be able to use cable cutters for dual deployment.
Oh, and since I've had the epoxy etc out, I also worked on my TriStar clone. The fins and shock cord were all that survived from the original rocket. It was a perfect flight - all three H219T's lit. Up part was super. Then it didn't separate. Sigh. That's why I use DMS for my riskier flights. I'd hate to be out the cost of a rocket, plus three (or more depending on the flight) motor casings.