And how do I repair this?

[Neil]

Well, I managed to score the first CMASS launch of the year... The flight was great, im all happy... I go to fetch the rocket... It all looks good... Then I turn it over... Theres a 2" long zipper in it!!!!

OK. Ive never had one of these little buggers before... How am I supposta deal with em?

attatched is a picture of the damage. If you guys could just tell me how to fix this little pain in the butt....

Thanks!

 

[Neil]

Oh, and its a V2, so I cant very well chop 2 and a half inches off of it... someone suggeted that earlier....

 

[Rocketjunkie]

Cover the nose cone shoulder with plastic wrap and put back in the top of the tube. Using thin CA, let it wick into the tube and harden. If there are gaps remaining, use epoxy or thicker CA and fill in the gaps. Once everything is set up hard, remove the nose cone and sand smooth.

 

[BlueNinja]

I think you *could* butcher it a little bit. Chop the zippered part off and get another piece of tube the right length and a coupler. All fixed.

 

[Neil]

That would be a pain... Theres only like 8" of tube on that thing.... Theres not much room for a coupler tube anywhere.

I like teh CA idea better. Ill try to get my hands on a bottle....

 

[Karl]

CA is reasonably cheap , and it's worth getting more than 1 bottle when you goto buy some CA will give you the better finish , and save ruining a very nice rocket
-Karl

 

[Ryan S.]

you could do that but I would still think it might be kind of deep, what about using epoxy to wick in there?


What I would do it cut the the zipper our, forming a square hole. Then put some wax paper over the nosecone and slide it in. Then put a bunch of fiberglass cloth in the hole to fill it. Or you could mix some milled glass in your epoxy and fill it with that.

 

[Neil]

Thats an interesting idea...

If I were to do the first thing you suggested, what cure time epoxy should I use?

 

[Karl]

I'd say 12min to 30min...5min would be ok but might prove weaker.
-Karl

 

[Neil]

OK... Ive got some 15 minute kicking around...


So I just smear it in there, wait for it to dry and sand it? And the plastic wrap around the nose cone... Then a load of paint on top....

 

[Karl]

Try and get as much as you can inside the zipper. Then rap something like wax paper around the shoulder of your nosecone , and place it in . Leave it to dry , sand it , cover it in CA ( Might not need to do this ) , sand once again then re-paint. Job's a good 'un!
-Karl

 

[Ryan S.]

make sure you use glass on there