"About Damn Time." My Level 3 Build

[UPscaler]

Well, my signature has said "Level 3: coming soon" for about 5 years now. It's about damn time.

I am flying a Wildman Punisher 4 fin can with my 4" Mad Dog electronics bay and upper section.

I am currently torn between an M1297 and M1780.

I built the motor mount today. Started where we always do, a nice 60 grit scuff for proper ashesion. If you watched my Punisher 3 build, this will all look familiar. 1" Kevlar strap bonded to the motor tube, and a good fillet along the top centering ring. The lower ring will not get a fillet in order to properly seat the fins. It'll get nice and solid with the chopped CF internal fillets.

For this one, I folded the kevlar strap over and impregnated it with epoxy to prevent any opportunity of this strap slipping out upon deployment.

Fins have been scuffed with 60 grit as well, for both internal and external fillets.


Braden

 

[Tim51]

Good luck with your L3 cert I will be follwing with interest. I like the idea of the 'cross bred' (I was going to say 'hybrid' but that would lead to confusion..) rocket built from WM / MC parts. What sort of altitudes do you expect from your motor choices?

 

[UPscaler]

Good luck with your L3 cert I will be follwing with interest. I like the idea of the 'cross bred' (I was going to say 'hybrid' but that would lead to confusion..) rocket built from WM / MC parts. What sort of altitudes do you expect from your motor choices?

It's actually an old school performance Mad Dog made from cloth G10 tube and a gelcoat/cloth nosecone!

The M1780 and M1297 both sim out to right around 13,000 feet.

I plan on finishing the Punisher nosecone and electronics bay separately and flying it as intended eventually, but with sims estimating between 17,000 and 18,000 feet, I figured I'd weigh it down a bit with a setup I have flown repeatedly with success.

Braden

 

[UPscaler]

Today I drilled all the holes for the injected fillets and got the motor mount installed.

The fin slots were a little tight so I sanded them out to get the fins in. The fit on the fins between the CRs is nice and tight, so we shouldn't be leaking out the bottom holes upon injecting.

Walmart will give you these oral syringes for free at the pharmacy! I like to chop the tips off for a bigger opening.

After injecting I will drill the holes for the aeropack and do a small fillet around the rear ring.


Braden

 

[blackjack2564]

Cj tip: before injecting seal joint between CR and airframe with super glue so injection doesn't leak there.

 

[farsidius]

Good luck with your build and L3 attempt. I love my 4" Punisher. It's a real workhorse and gives you a lot of flexibility in motor choices when flown in it's original configuration.

 

[UPscaler]

Cj tip: before injecting seal joint between CR and airframe with super glue so injection doesn't leak there.

You know it! That's also why I opted to wait to drill holes for the aeropack


Braden

 

[UPscaler]

Fins are tacked in place.

For anyone curious, here it is next to the 3" Punisher.

and how it'll be flown for my L3.


Braden

 

[GRIFFIN]

Following.

 

[jmmome]

Great idea with the oral syringes. Some years ago I bought some large syringes on Ebay with the same intent. Cut the end just as you did. Worked well, but harder than I thought to push the epoxy out.

Now I use a different method- extend the fin tube slots forward by the diameter of the rocket body. cut the tube there so the forward end of the slots are open, epoxy joint-mount each fin on the motor mount tube by sliding the assembly in through the slots after epoxying the aft centering ring to the motor tube (mark the first fin and the first slot so you'll have them correctly lined up at the end). When all fins are joint-epoxied I remove the fins/ motor tube assembly, epoxy the forward centering ring in place on top of the fins and THEN add the internal fillets- as thick as you'd like.

Slide the whole assembly back in though the slots, epoxy in place, and use a coupler both to connect the fins assembly to the rest of the body tube, and also to additionally hold the fin assembly in place.

I like the idea of visually inspecting my internal fillets, so that's the only reason I made this change in my construction technique. Has worked just fine on motors up to "K" size so far.

 

[jimzcatz]

You have done lost yo mind! Yea, you know what I'm saying... SMDH!!


PS: Good luck.

 

[UPscaler]

You have done lost yo mind! Yea, you know what I'm saying... SMDH!!


PS: Good luck.

Thank you! I don't fear altitude like I used to, it'll be pretty managable!



Here are what I think are probably the most textbook internal fillets I have ever done.

The camera angle makes the right side look a bit larger, but in person they are dead even [emoji106]


Braden

 

[blackjack2564]

Can you fillet a fish that good?

 

[GaryT]

Cj tip: before injecting seal joint between CR and airframe with super glue so injection doesn't leak there.

As Cj said I highly recommend this, you don't want to come back and see all the epoxy leaked out via the bottom fin and cured all over it. Been there too huh Jimmy LOL

 

[UPscaler]

As Cj said I highly recommend this, you don't want to come back and see all the epoxy leaked out via the bottom fin and cured all over it. Been there too huh Jimmy LOL

I had the same fate with my 6" Der Red Max. A man can only tolerate so much time with high grit sandpaper before going crazy. It was not pleasant.


Braden

 

[UPscaler]

In my endless effort to mix chopped CF into epoxy effortlessly, I cut the tip off this spade bit. Works great!

Set two is done.



Braden

 

[UPscaler]

All internals are done, and with the same syringe the whole time! Denatured alcohol works wonders.

I also got a cool package from John Clifton! This date and serial are right up my alley, it fits in woth our old Kosdon and AMW hardware [emoji6]


Braden

 

[Lukun7]

Another L3 build thread... Following. Cool rocket so far. Nice case.

 

[UPscaler]

Aeropack retainers just look so good on rockets with this motor tube to airframe diameter ratio.

External fillets up next!


Braden

 

[UPscaler]

First set of externals is done.

I'm back to west systems and 406 filler. Rocketpoxy just didn't do it for me. I love the sandability and shaping you can do with this stuff, as opposed to tons of body filler like my 3" Punisher.


Braden

 

[blackjack2564]

First set of externals is done.

I'm back to west systems and 406 filler. Rocketpoxy just didn't do it for me. I love the sandability and shaping you can do with this stuff, as opposed to tons of body filler like my 3" Punisher.


BradenView attachment 395041View attachment 395042

Me too!

 

[patelldp]

I avoided West early in my rocket career in favor of US Composites due to cost. What a waste of time and money...West Systems is still the best in the game and it's not even close.

 

[UPscaler]

Pretty smooth...but not smooth enough.

Been working so much I had to take advantage of holiday time to get some stuff done!

Braden

 

[UPscaler]

Not bad so far...


Braden

 

[UPscaler]

Alrighty, I was going to leave the fillets as is for my L3 flight and situate painting it afterwards, but since the world's happenings are keeping us at home I am back to obsessing with making my fillets look as close to perfect as I can get them. I set a pretty high standard for myself with my 3" Punisher, so now I'm back to sanding until I don't have usable finger prints.

Getting there. I'll likely do one more round of filling and shaping before I start painting it for real.

I'm a little undecided on a paint scheme, so if anyone has something they want to throw at me, that would be cool.


Braden

 

[Nytrunner]

Paint it like a Corona bottle

 

[David Schwantz]

Braden, your bird looks nice. Love your fin bevels. I like my mouse sander better than my wife, OOPS, didn't say that. With 220 grit it works well to blend fillets into the fin and body tube. If you have never tried one practice on a junk tube to get the feel of it. And never let it stop, keep it moving.

 

[UPscaler]

Braden, your bird looks nice. Love your fin bevels. I like my mouse sander better than my wife, OOPS, didn't say that. With 220 grit it works well to blend fillets into the fin and body tube. If you have never tried one practice on a junk tube to get the feel of it. And never let it stop, keep it moving.

I wish I could take credit for those, but that's how the Wildman delivers them!

A motorized sander for this would be great, but it's kinda hard to get between the fin and body tube with a palm sander. Just have to get in there by hand sometimes.

Braden

 

[Greg Furtman]

Braden, your bird looks nice. Love your fin bevels. I like my mouse sander better than my wife, OOPS, didn't say that. With 220 grit it works well to blend fillets into the fin and body tube. If you have never tried one practice on a junk tube to get the feel of it. And never let it stop, keep it moving.

@David Schwantz What mouse sander do you have? Could you post a pic of it?

 

[David Schwantz]

Hi Greg, this is just a cheapo. Had the nice Craftsman one for, God, don't remember how many years. It died, bought the Dewalt, which is way bigger, nice but big. So found this one at Fleet Farm and it is the same as the Craftsman one. I can get into the whole fillet area, both sides, and with the tip even between split fin rockets. Makes the work go faster.