5" Wildman Punisher Build

[AndrewGil]

This is going to take some time to fully complete this thread, but I am going to post this now and update along the way.

I recently purchased a 5" Wildman Punisher for my L3. Currently I am waiting to hear back from my 2nd TAP about my documentation before I start building. It is going to fly on a 75mm AeroTech M1550R, I have this killer Dr. Rocket 75/6400 case that is asking to fly. The rocket will be built with West Systems 105/ 206 Epoxy and some colloidal silica for the fillets. It will sport a RRC3 and a RRC2L for electronics, and have a RocketMan 24" Drogue and a 8' RocketMan main. Motor retainer will have a 98mm Flanged AeroPack and a 75/98 AeroPack adapter.

 

[AndrewGil]

Today I have begun my construction of my 5” Wildman Punisher. So far I have drilled holes in the body tube for internal fillets. I have attached my 1” Kevlar Leader to my motor mount tube. I have also gone ahead and attached my switch band to my avbay. While I let this epoxy set up I need to restock my sand paper.

 

[AndrewGil]

Today I did some more work on the rocket. Today I glued in the motor mount with some 5 minute epoxy, as well as tacking in the fins with the remaining 5 minute I mixed up. Once that set I mixed up some West Systems 105/206 and got ready for some internal fillets. Back on Day 1 I drilled holes along the fin cut out's to allow me to inject the epoxy right along the root edge of the fin on the motor mount. While I was fighting a leaking centering ring I worked on my av bay. I drilled and screwed in my charge wells I got from Rocket Junkie, then mixed some 5 minute again and attached my Wago flip connectors on the bulkheads. Lastly, I drilled some holes for shearpins in the body and nose cone, as well as drilling some vent holes.

Now with the new week starting and I have classes it will be a few days till I am able to get back to this.

 

[AndrewGil]

Update: Have not done more work on the rocket being that it is currently in my mother in laws garage and she is a good 45 minutes away and I have classes to take so its more of a weekend project. However, here at the house I have been working on some of my electronics. I started off by soldering around a foot and a half of wire to my rotary switches that way I can remove the sled from the av bay and still have the wire connected. I am waiting for my Featherweight GPS kit to get here so I can work on a 3D printed closure for the GPS module. I am thinking about doing a in-line GPS bay.

This weekend I will be working on laying some external fillets.

 

[Hobie1dog]

those fins look sharp enough to cut you in half

 

[AndrewGil]

Update:

Today I worked on the external fillets. After first marking out my lines for the fillets I thought they were too small and I asked a friend and he also expressed how small they were. After a trip to Ace hardware I picked up some 1/2” PVC pipe and taped out the fillets again. Then I mixed up some West Systems epoxy with some Silica, which I made as thick as peanut butter so I was able to do all three sets at the same time.

While those were going I work on the ebay. I made some witness marks on the booster, switch band, and nose cone so I can align everything for my shear pins.

Tomorrow I am going to work more on my ebay and drill some vent holes, and mount my rotary switches.

 

[AndrewGil]

Todays update:

Went back out into the garage this morning and did everyones favorite thing, sanding, sanding, and some more sanding. I went though some 80 and 120 grit sandpaper to shape the fillets nice and smooth. After getting them how I like them, I ran to my local Walmart to get a tube of Bondo Spot Putty. After getting home I put a good fillet over all the epoxy fillets. I also went around and put some putty in some other little areas that needed a little TLC. While that was drying I drilled out two holes for my rotary switches. I noticed after drilling out the holes the switches were sitting more proud then I liked. So in the absence of a countersink bit I broke out the old relialable dremel and made those hole with a little bit of a chamfer so they sit nice and flush. Lastly I was looking at my rear centering ring and figuring out the next steps on getting my 98 flanged AeroPack on.

Now I am going to work on my ebay sled while I am back at my own house, and my M1550r gets delivered in the next few days. Next weekend I am going to finished sanding the Bondo and get some layers of primer on this thing.

 

[AndrewGil]

Small update,

Today I got my M1550r in the mail. After opening all the grains and making sure they fit into the liner and get all the O rings out, I built the motor.

I had to peel the top layer of the grain cardboard tube so they can fit into the liner. I emailed Karl at AeroTech asking him If I needed to bond the grains. He told me that it wouldn't hurt, but not necessary. I decided not too since this would by my first time doing it.

 

[mrwalsh85]

I like the red theme you are going with. Red motor. Red casing. Red rocket. Please tell me you'll clear coat that thing!

One way to avoid needing to notch the bays for witness marks is to offset one shearpin hole by, say, 1/4" to 1/2". I often do this so that it will only assemble correctly one way. Poka-yoke if you will. If you are putting less than the intended number of shear pins in, then you did not do it right. If you misalign the holes when prepping, you will have 2 less shear pins than intended no matter how you slice it. 4 shear pins? You'll have places for two shear pins, not four. 3 shear pins? You'll be able to insert one shear pin, not three. So on and so forth.

 

[AndrewGil]

I like the red theme you are going with. Red motor. Red casing. Red rocket. Please tell me you'll clear coat that thing!

One way to avoid needing to notch the bays for witness marks is to offset one shearpin hole by, say, 1/4" to 1/2". I often do this so that it will only assemble correctly one way. Poka-yoke if you will. If you are putting less than the intended number of shear pins in, then you did not do it right. If you misalign the holes when prepping, you will have 2 less shear pins than intended no matter how you slice it. 4 shear pins? You'll have places for two shear pins, not four. 3 shear pins? You'll be able to insert one shear pin, not three. So on and so forth.

Sadly I am going to paint it. The red fiberglass is just how the kit comes from wildman. I like your idea on shear pins I’ll have to implement that on my next rocket.

 

[AndrewGil]

Another small update,

I worked on the rocket again this weekend. All I did was sand my Bondo fillets down, drilled some vent holes, attached my 98mm AeroPack, made a ebay sled, and mounted my altimeters. Yes my RRC2L is not straight and no I am not going to fix it.

All that is left for me to do is to drill my vent holes on my switch band, and paint!

 

[David Schwantz]

I have alignment pins on everything. Makes assembly so easy. You are not fumbling with pins that will not go in, do not line up. On your little witness marks drill a small hole into av bay coupler, thread it for a 2-56 screw. Enlarge your marks for the screw head to fit into. Now you have a fool proof way to assemble.
When I am building a rocket, I have it all taped together, everything is marked, now I drill the holes for shear pins, switches, alignment pins, vents holes. Everything lines up perfect this way. Good luck with your flight.
PS remember it is just "hear say" if you don't show us pics

 

[AndrewGil]

Now that it is spring break time. It is time to get back to work on this. I did a ground test of the rocket with 3g of FFFF BP in the booster and 1.5g of FFFF BP in the nose.

Here are the two videos of the ground test:

Booster:

View attachment trimmedGX010072.mov

Nose:

View attachment trimmedGX010075.mov


Now I am on to painting this rocket. Sadly I only have this week to paint it since launch day is 3/18 (weather permitting). It looks there there is a chance of rain in the forecast for that day, so we will see.

 

[AndrewGil]

Well I have just finished painting my 5" punisher. Origilnally I was going to do a checkard board theme. Then I changed that to more of a digicamo, but when I was trying to use a stencil it was not working for me. So, I decided to go buck wild and just "go with the flow". Thus here he is, I have named it "Ace". During the third attempt at painting it I was just going to do diamonds and name it Ace of Spades. However, that didnt work out either, but I liked the name Ace, so it stayed.

Tomorrow I will be launching it at SRA here in Palm Bay, Florida on my AeroTech M1550r.

 

[rfjustin]

Good luck with the flight!

 

[AndrewGil]

Today's flight was successful, it went 11,305 ft. The main parachute came out around 1,100 ft and coasting about 2,000 ft SE from the launch site. I was lucky, the rocket landed in some tall grass and some low hanging trees. They only marks on the rocket were some scuffs from it rubbing against some branches. I took it back to my TAP and he gave me the stamp of approval.

I have included some phots and a video of the launch (note: the video is not taken by me, but by a friend of mine and it was hard to see the rocket at the top of the flight).

View attachment IMG_5524.mp4

 

[Dave S.]

Congratulations!

 

[crossfire]

Get build and flight. What motor?

 

[AndrewGil]

Get build and flight. What motor?

AeroTech M1150R

 

[Upsrocketman]

Nice build and flight! My dad was at the launch yesterday and got video of this rocket going up. Love seeing a redline motor.

 

[AndrewGil]

Nice build and flight! My dad was at the launch yesterday and got video of this rocket going up. Love seeing a redline motor.

Thank you! I am glad you all liked the flight.

Thank you for the video also! I will add it to my collection of photos and videos from the flight.

 

[bunkermonkey9]

Congrats

 

[Theory]

Fantastic! Congratulations on the L3

 

[rocketgeek101]

Congrats!