Forgot the launch lugs

[Marlin523]

Can not believe I completed the rocket, primered it, painted it, and realized no launch lugs. Really dumb. Do I need to scrape away some paint before glueing them on?

 

[troj]

Can not believe I completed the rocket, primered it, painted it, and realized no launch lugs. Really dumb. Do I need to scrape away some paint before glueing them on?

Welcome to the club! I've done the same.

Yes, you do need to scrape away paint in order to get a good bond.

-Kevin

 

[dpower]

Can not believe I completed the rocket, primered it, painted it, and realized no launch lugs. Really dumb. Do I need to scrape away some paint before glueing them on?

Member here too - at least you realized it before trying to put it on the pad

 

[BsSmith]

I've done the same.

Luckily though, I had 15 min epoxy in my flight box, so I epoxied an Aerotech igniter tube onto the rocket and launched it anyways.

 

[mperdue]

I've lost track of how many times I've made this mistake. It can really mess up a good paint job...

 

[GRIFFIN]

Rail buttons??? no glue!!!

 

[UPscaler]

Rail buttons??? no glue!!!

I agree, and you can get them for 25 cents a piece at railbuttons.com

 

[madsen]

If God did not want you to use launch lugs--he never would have invented them.

 

[MarkII]

If God did not want you to use launch lugs--he never would have invented them.

Orville Carlisle was The Almighty One??

Mark K.

 

[powderburner]

What you do is, you say something clever and sophisticated-sounding, like "I was going to use a tower launcher, but decided against it" or if the rocket is big enough for this one to be believable: "I thought I might use rail buttons but changed my mind"

 

[Evo666]

I have a story similar to yours but my launch lugs were improperly aligned with each other so it doesn't slides easy on the rod. So what I did was use a cotton swab and cleaned an area with paint with acetone all the way down to the bare tube. Then I attached lugs with a rod so i know for sure its aligned. All of this was a day prior to its maiden launch.

 

[Bone Daddy]

Hear me Father for I have sinned.

I was so focused on finishing this rocket to a standard I never tried to achieve previously, that I finished the blue body tube without masking off for the fins (although I did mask off for the pods, go figure).

Same deal with the launch lugs, although I actually built the darn thing without even thinking about launch lugs. (see my previous thread for more embarrassing details.)

The launch lugs I just superglued to the painted body tubes. I've done this before (slow learner) and have had no problems.

I tried this with the fins also. Worked great for its maiden voyage today, but a fin detached on a soft landing. I'm just going to epoxy them in place.

And never make this mistake again.....................................

 

[ScrapDaddy]

You can make your own piston launchers, I keep a couple 18mm-29mm ones becasuse I tend to never put lugs on my scratch builds.....,there are no instructions to remind me to do so..... butif you don't scrap off the paint the bond will only be as strong as the paint bond to the tube....:y:

 

[Evo666]

^ What he said about strong as the paint bond is true.

 

[Marlin523]

Used my Xacto knife to scrape down past the primer, put the lugs on it, and hit them with a little paint. It came out great.