How to replace a broken fin

[Woody's Workshop]

Had an OOPS moment on an unfinished rocket last week.
The Centuri "Spirit of America" clone suffered a broken fin.
I would have been able to glue it back on, but the dog found it first and chewed up into itsy bitsy pieces.
Below is a pictorial of how I replaced the broken fin.
I first sawed off the remaining part of the fin about 1/3 ways down the fillet. (Pic didn't come out on that)
Next I used my Dremel with a small round bit to chew out the remains of the old fin, and cleaned up the bottom with an X-ACTO knife. I then sanded away the primer on the fillet.
After cutting, shaping, glue coating and sanding a new fin I test fitted into the slot left by the old fin.
When I was happy with the fit, I brushed some water on the base of the new fin, old fillet and in the slot.
This is to soften the glue (TiteBond III) some so the new glue would bit in good.
After about a 1/2 hour I used a tissue and mopped out the water and brushed in some new TiteBond.
Slipped the fin in place, made sure alignment was good, added a bit to the outside to bite into the fillet.
I'll give another coat or 2 of TiteBond and sand to finish out the fillet, Prime and wet sand and paint.

 

[T-Rex]

Looks good! A little paint and no one will know the difference...

 

[neil_w]

That's a very interesting repair. So you basically left the old fillet in place and fit the new fin into the old fillet? Very interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Woody's Workshop]

Yes, left about 2/3's of the fillet on, gave me room to rework the new fin in place.'
It's sanded and ready for primer.