I like trying kits from a variety of manufacturers to see what each one does differently. I've tried to build at least the first kit from a given manufacturer stock to get a better sense of things.
I stumbled upon the Klima Andromeda on Apogee's website: a 4x18mm cluster in a 50mm body tube, 2.5'ish long. Looked like fun.
https://www.apogeerockets.com/Model...-4-Model-Rocket-Kits/Andromeda-Cluster-RocketApogee has great pictures of the kit (better than mine) so I'd recommend looking there for good views of the individual components. The instructions are clear and in 5 or 6 six languages.
I started with the motor mount, which is a pair of CNC'd lite ply centering rings and 4 glassine-less 18mm motor tubes, plus a screw/nut/washer motor retention system.
You start by gluing the screw and one nut into the aft centering ring. From there the four motor tubes get glued into the fore centering ring, with its cool included thrust rings. I really like this component. Finally the aft ring slides into the four motor tubes. I hit my first small snag here, though: I thought I was pretty liberal with the TB3, but the aft ring started to get stuck and I had to push down pretty hard to get it to the right location. I snapped off a section, luckily it fit back in well and I just glued it in place. The lite ply combined with the thin walls of the centering ring is pretty week at those thin points.
While the motor mount dried, I skipped ahead a step to the baffle, which will be mounted in a zipper-less fashion in the central coupler.
It's a pretty simple half moon affair with an anchor hole at one end. Went together easily. The coupler is very thin walled but that's fine when strengthened by this baffle. I'm a little concerned about the lite ply hole as the recovery attachment.
Then I glued the motor mount into the lower airframe. There's a small tool to help line up the fin slots with the valleys between the motor tubes that was helpful, though there was a bit more play than I would have liked. I don't think I lined them up perfectly, but they're close enough.
The recovery harness is a length of kevlar that attaches to the baffle followed by a length of elastic that gets tied to the nose cone. The nose cone gets glued to the front of the upper airframe. The nose cone is very smooth and glossy and slightly larger in diameter than the airframe.
I built that section stock; the eyelet seems solid and the elastic is relatively thick.
I stumbled upon the Klima Andromeda on Apogee's website: a 4x18mm cluster in a 50mm body tube, 2.5'ish long. Looked like fun.
https://www.apogeerockets.com/Model...-4-Model-Rocket-Kits/Andromeda-Cluster-RocketApogee has great pictures of the kit (better than mine) so I'd recommend looking there for good views of the individual components. The instructions are clear and in 5 or 6 six languages.
I started with the motor mount, which is a pair of CNC'd lite ply centering rings and 4 glassine-less 18mm motor tubes, plus a screw/nut/washer motor retention system.
You start by gluing the screw and one nut into the aft centering ring. From there the four motor tubes get glued into the fore centering ring, with its cool included thrust rings. I really like this component. Finally the aft ring slides into the four motor tubes. I hit my first small snag here, though: I thought I was pretty liberal with the TB3, but the aft ring started to get stuck and I had to push down pretty hard to get it to the right location. I snapped off a section, luckily it fit back in well and I just glued it in place. The lite ply combined with the thin walls of the centering ring is pretty week at those thin points.
While the motor mount dried, I skipped ahead a step to the baffle, which will be mounted in a zipper-less fashion in the central coupler.
It's a pretty simple half moon affair with an anchor hole at one end. Went together easily. The coupler is very thin walled but that's fine when strengthened by this baffle. I'm a little concerned about the lite ply hole as the recovery attachment.
Then I glued the motor mount into the lower airframe. There's a small tool to help line up the fin slots with the valleys between the motor tubes that was helpful, though there was a bit more play than I would have liked. I don't think I lined them up perfectly, but they're close enough.
The recovery harness is a length of kevlar that attaches to the baffle followed by a length of elastic that gets tied to the nose cone. The nose cone gets glued to the front of the upper airframe. The nose cone is very smooth and glossy and slightly larger in diameter than the airframe.
I built that section stock; the eyelet seems solid and the elastic is relatively thick.
