Dragon Rocketry Red Nova Build Thread

[Upsrocketman]

Well...

I wasn't gonna do a build thread because this was gonna be a quick and dirty build compared to some of my more lengthy projects and I wanted to just fly it.

Then I lost my Jolly Logic...

So here we go again! This will be a build thread for my fully dual deploy capable Dragon Rocketry Red Nova.
Here is how the kit arrived


First things first, this is by far the most well put together kit I have ever purchased. The nose cone is 3-D printed and feels very solid. The tubing is excellent quality and the fin slots are beautifully cut. This is the only kit I have ever seen with everything already marked for fins, rail buttons and other designs. This is the first kit I've ordered from Scott but I will absolutely be back for more.

Go check out Dragon Rocketry and support his awesome work.

More to come...

 

[Wrightme43]

Looking forward to watching you build this. I ordered his Wolverine, and will definitely get the fury of fire as soon as I can.

 

[Upsrocketman]

Over the weekend I got started building the fin can of the Nova. I decided to build it this way knowing that it was going to go in and out several times to check fitment for the e-bay I would have to build. I didn't take any pics of the process but here is where we stand...

The internal filets are with Bob Smith 5 minute. This rocket will likely never see anything bigger than a big I motor so I'm not terribly worried about internal filets strength. Next I measured and cut some 1/8" ply to fit between the top and middle rings to create the e-bay walls.
Once I had those glued in and set I measured the airframe to see where the hatch needed to be.

And cut it out!

Then I cut and glued in the restvof the e-bay to make a flat surface to mount the altimeter on.
And put everything together...


I used part of a coupler to make the mount for the hatch to bolt to.

I'm hoping to have more done this week if the work schedule allows.

 

[Pinetree]

Nice work so far!

 

[DragonRocketry]

Love it. Thinking outside the box. Looking forward to this build.

 

[Scott_650]

Love the ebay build!

Do Dragon Rocketry’s printed nose cones need coated with epoxy like Scott Binder’s Fusion cones?

 

[Upsrocketman]

Love the ebay build!

Do Dragon Rocketry’s printed nose cones need coated with epoxy like Scott Binder’s Fusion cones?

This is the first kit I've built from Dragon Rocketry. The nosecone looks great for 3d printed but it could use some smoothing out. I'm not sure how I'm going to finish it yet. As the nosecone of the Nova is white anyway... I may just leave it raw for fun.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Love the ebay build!

Do Dragon Rocketry’s printed nose cones need coated with epoxy like Scott Binder’s Fusion cones?

I didn't, and it seems to work fine. I sanded with a random orbit sander first, then cleaned NC. When it was dry, I shot two coats of high-build primer. Over that went Bondo spot putty, and more sanding. Again, more primer, sanding. Finally paint. It might sound like a lot of work, but only slightly more than a plastic PML NC.

 

[Upsrocketman]

It's been a busy month since my last update on the Red Nova. I decided to start by prepping the top end of the rocket for electronics. Since there is no room for a standard e-bay, I designed a system to put my altimeter inside the nosecone. It just so happens that standard 2.5 Loc tubing fits almost perfectly inside the nosecone.

I started by drilling holes in the nosecone baseplate to match the coupler bulkplate.
I mounted everything together on the baseplate to make a cartridge that can be slid into the nosecone.
Then I changed my mind and decided to switch to plywood for the nosecone baseplate for heat resistance. I'm not sure how well the 3d printed baseplate would handle black powder charges.

Next up was building the drogue chamber into the airframe coupler. As this coupler needs to handle both housing the drogue chute and shock cord, I wanted to make sure it was robust. I took the standard coupler and added a stiffy coupler to beef it up a bit. The upper bulkplate will be handling the shock cords for both the drogue side and the main side. The drogue side has a welded eyebolt and the main side has a u-bolt. On the bottome of the coupler I cut out a centering ring to reinforce the bottom of the couple so the shock cord wouldn't kink the tube when it deploys.



I mounted up the Eggtimer Apogee that will control the drogue deployment and fit a terminal block on top of the top centering ring so I don't have to open the hatch if I want to do back to back flights.

I'm hoping to get fin filets on this weekend. I will hopefully be flying this in November at the next club launch I can get to.

 

[Upsrocketman]

Back to building!

This past week I finally got around to working in the Nova again. I began working on the nosecone av-bay. I drilled two holes through the body tube, nosecone, av-bay carrier tube inside the nosecone and the av-bay coupler that slides into the nosecone.

The holes are way oversized for the size av-bay I have, but I wanted to use a 1/4" launch lug to directly connect the air outside the rocket to the av-bay inside the nosecone. The tube was glued in place and trimmed to not interfere with the airframe or the av-bay.

As this will be a difficult av-bay to run wires and switches that are accessible from the outside, I will be using an eggtimer quantum or eggtimers wifi switch with an rrc2+. I will be attempting to start painting soon as assembly is pretty much finished. We'll see if Michigan's weather cooperates this week.

 

[Upsrocketman]

The Nova is finally finished! I forgot to take pictures during the painting process, but it's a pretty straightforward paint job. Special thanks to Mark Hayes for the awesome Decals and Dragon Rocketry for putting together this awesome kit!

First flight is planned for the next club launch in March. Time to see how she flies!

 

[DragonRocketry]

That turned out awesome. Get some flight pictures/video.