Conical Nose Cones

[solrules]

Well, I think I will be doing a (semi) scale Black Brandt II. I have decided on 3" tubing, 1/4" plywood, but I can't seem to find a 3" conical nose cone! On PML's website, the largest they have is 1.5"....Is there any manufacturer that makes conical nose cones (preferably urethane/plastic, but if that does not work out, I might need to get a balsa one to fiberglass). Why are these not common? Is the strength of the conical nose cone substantially less than a olgive?

 

[rstaff3]

Here are some ideas:


Fiberglass:
https://www.scotglas.com/
https://performancerocketry.com/
Wood:
our own sandman

 

[eugenefl]

Not sure if a 2.6" upscale interests you, but <a href="https://www.redarrowhobbies.com">Red Arrow Hobbies</a> has a <a href="https://www.redarrowhobbies.com/rah_nose_cones.htm">Black Brant nosecone/tailcone</a> set for $19.99. Not too bad considering.

 

[sandman]

I can make you a 3" conical nose cone in basswood. Nice and hard!

I can also make the tailcone and the little sholder bump thingy at the rear.

I've made a BT-60 sized upscale Black Brant II so I can scale it for you.

sandman

 

[eugenefl]

...or sandman could custom make it for you. He does some really quality stuff in nearly *any* kind of wood. Everyone on TRF can back his good work. He's pretty quick on the turnaround too!

 

[solrules]

I would love to get one of sandman's custom nosecones! Only thing I am wondering about is the price of such good craftsmanship (im on a rather tight budget). What is the ballpark estimate for a 3" upscale for the tailcone and nosecone? Thanks!

 

[astrowolf67]

Sandman,
What about for LOC 3.9" tubing? I've got a 2.6" Brant, and I'm seriously thinking of a 4" one also.

 

[sandman]

Sure I can do that...but I have to know what kind of wood...

Then I have to go FIND the wood.

Wood is getting harder and harder to find!

Especially 4" by 4" stuff!

And getting "friggin" EXENSIVE too.

sandman

 

[astrowolf67]

Basswood? It'll be flying on I motors. Maybe in the far off future a small J. I want a big BBII, but want to keep it light enough to launch on I's.

 

[sandman]

Basswood is only about 50% heavier than balsa but is about 4 times as strong!

I'm on a search today for some.

Poplar is about two and a half times as heavy as balsa, that's another one I'm searching for, it's REALLY hard. Probably stronger than fiberglass.

Not complaining but, you guys seem to be using up my wood supply fast.

sandman

 

[sandman]

Oh...I forgot to mention something.

Basswood costs me about 5 times as much as balsa!

A 3x3 x 36" balsa is about $6.50

A 3x3x18" basswood is about $18!

sandman

 

[sandman]

Foam is free from a construction site.

I buy the 2" thick stuff from Home Depot...I think it's about $14 a sheet...I forget.

The problem with foam is glassing it after it's turned...the foam part is easy! Glassing takes another week!

sandman

 

[Neil]

Did you ever say the price for a 3" cone? Im still deciding if I want to make one.... I have a lot of other projects on the drawing board right now, so I thinkI will stick to them. How hard is it to glass a cone? Is there anything special you have to do, or do you just put glass on it like you would a tube?

 

[Ryan S.]

you need to cut the glass in parabolic shapes so it lays correctly over the curved surface, then I would imagine alot of sanding so the seams would all go away

I have a webpage with alot of pics of this....lemme find it

 

[Ryan S.]

here are the pics of robert dehates LDRS bird. scroll down and you can see how he glassed thenosecone. I really interesting method

https://www.geocities.com/rdh82000/LDRS/index.htm

 

[Neil]

I still dont see how he did it.... Did he just make 2 pieces of glass the same shape as the cone and lay em on? Rocsim can give you a shape thingy for the cone... If thats how he did it, it wont be too complicated. Difficult, but not too complicated.

 

[Ray Dunakin]

Check with Andy Woerner at What's Up Hobbies. I don't know if he's still making them, but he used to have some 3" conical nosecones that would be almost perfect for a Black Brant.

https://www.whatsuphobbies.com/

Send him an email if you don't see it on the website.

 

[Manwithbeers]

Originally posted by Neil
I still dont see how he did it.... Did he just make 2 pieces of glass the same shape as the cone and lay em on? Rocsim can give you a shape thingy for the cone... If thats how he did it, it wont be too complicated. Difficult, but not too complicated.

I've made a couple foam/glass cones now. The first (ogive) I used a method similar to R. DeHate's method. There was a lot of sanding, trimming etc... I've since found that VCP does a great gore pattern for the material shape.
I've also tried wrapping cloth tape around my last cone (semi-parabolic) and that worked really well. The trick was to make the cone slightly small then add cloth and filler to shape it just so....

Fun project. Took me about 2.5 hours of labour to build my last cone. There is a post on it in the scratch forum called 'A new nose cone'. TTFN