LOC Precision 5.5" Phoenix Missile Build

[DRAGON64]

Alright, I don't want to get too far off topic here, but what exactly is included in the Blue Tube 2.0 special? Seemed kind of bare from the description...

 

[dixontj93060]

Alright, I don't want to get too far off topic here, but what exactly is included in the Blue Tube 2.0 special? Seemed kind of bare from the description...

Yes, very bare. But you get 36" booster, 12" (IRRC) payload, 8" coupler, bulkplate and nosecone; all 4" diameter. So if you were to buy separately a 48" of BT2.0 is at least $39, 8" coupler of BT2.0 is $11, bulkplate say $3, nosecone $20 so you are saving close to $30 compared to buying separately. Yes, you have to have some plywood hanging around to make fins and/or bulkplates to put on your coupler for DD and some eyebolts/all-thread for hardware, but even adding that it is a GREAT DEAL! I would say my Axe To Grind cost maybe $65 (not including the extensive decals, but including buying bell-shaped Slimline retainer) -- pretty good for a 4" dual deploy Blue Tube rocket.

 

[sodmeister]

Oh that`s just great :eyeroll: ,I buggered that deal but good ! I just had a load of B Tube (4" & 6") delivered to my US postal warehouse ,as it`s just too much to get delivered to me here in Canada.So i just got a US address where i pick my stuff up at when i`m heading down there (this Saturday actually) so i save a ton of money on shipping and customs charges.I also get stuff that cannot be ship to Canada shipped there also ,much cheaper.

The next time I plan to be in the US will be in December ,before Xmas.Hopefully the special will still be on ,as well a black friday sales and more.

Thankyou for the link and let`s keep our fingers crossed that it lasts a few more months longer.

BTW- Are you painting your missile the typical colors of the round ?

Cheers

Paul T

 

[dixontj93060]

Well, I'm not a missile expert, but think so... Right now I am planning a white nosecone and found a nice Gull Gray for the body. The decals are from Mark at Stickershock. He has some options on striping color combinations; I chose blue and yellow. So like the picture below, but with yellow stripes at the foremost positions.

Oh that`s just great :eyeroll: ,I buggered that deal but good ! I just had a load of B Tube (4" & 6") delivered to my US postal warehouse ,as it`s just too much to get delivered to me here in Canada.So i just got a US address where i pick my stuff up at when i`m heading down there (this Saturday actually) so i save a ton of money on shipping and customs charges.I also get stuff that cannot be ship to Canada shipped there also ,much cheaper.

The next time I plan to be in the US will be in December ,before Xmas.Hopefully the special will still be on ,as well a black friday sales and more.

Thankyou for the link and let`s keep our fingers crossed that it lasts a few more months longer.

BTW- Are you painting your missile the typical colors of the round ?

Cheers

Paul T

 

[sodmeister]

That`s a great choice and most common scheme,it says "I am PHOENIX"

What a great looking rocket ! Mark`s vinyl are a bonus.

Paul t

 

[dixontj93060]

Had to get out the sanding block and finesse a few places on the "rounded bevels" for the fins as the belt sander was only so precise. After evening everything out, began applying veil layer to fins (sorry for blurry photo).

 

[dixontj93060]

After first veil position cured, I decided to, since I was getting some overlap on the aft end, go ahead and work on the area. As mentioned before, I was a bit worried about the exposed 1" of airframe at this location. Seems very exposed when a 10+ lb. booster hits the ground. So I wanted to add a coupler piece to strengthen the section. I do have some more 5.5" tubing including normal and stiffy couplers, but they are reserved for a large cluster project and I didn't want to chop them up so I searched around for scraps. Found a section of 8" sonotube which, with some modification should work.



5.38" inside diameter leads to about 17" circumference. Marked the arc just a bit more and then will trim down.



Used a jigsaw and cut a section just over 1" wide; again will trim up once in place.



After yellow skin was removed from the sonotube, I trimmed with shears and placed into position. Just a little bit of a gap that can easily be filled with thickened epoxy.



Dipped whole sonotube coupler section into an epoxy slurry and pressed in place to result in a much thicker overall tube wall. You can see it curing here with the gap filled with epoxy/microballoons and epoxy flowing nice and covering complete aft CR (if you look close, might notice the Vaseline damns around the exposed t-nut location to protect from epoxy migration).

 

[dixontj93060]

OK, a bit of a preview on the av-bay that I had said I'd been working on in the background. The BB-81 Phoenix kit comes standard with dual deploy. It includes the well-designed LOC 5.38L av-bay. If you are familiar with LOC av-bays, they utilize a stiffy (thicker) internal coupler on which the aft/fore bulkheads seat and seal the bay. I did go ahead and upgrade to forged eye-bolts but otherwise used the hardware set up as provided. I did though reinforce the bulkheads with a thick Kevlar fabric laminate (which can be seen on the bottom, inside bulkhead on the picture below) that spans the locations of the all-thread and eyebolts and their associated fender washers.



The LOC av-bays come with a 1" switch band, which tends to be fairly small/tight for rotary or key switches. But for this design, I am planning only to have vent holes in the switch band which will provide access to sled-mounted pushbuttons, so the narrow band is just fine. Lately I have been favoring the black-on-black motif for my av-bays. I think it looks kinda cool; and since it is done with 1200 degree BBQ paint that soaks in nicely, it does provide some heat/burn protection.



And then just previewing/testing positions on the bulkhead for redundant charge wells and siren before marking and drilling.

 

[bill2654]

Can you show how you wired your siren please?

 

[dixontj93060]

Can you show how you wired your siren please?

Not hooked up yet, but couldn't be simpler as it is the amplified siren that connects directly into the Stratalogger. I don't have a picture, but on my Formula 98, I just made a narrow slot into the bulkhead. You then feed the three pin connnector through that slot and then place some Goop or equivalent silicone-based sealant around the bottom edge of the siren and place the siren right over the entry opening you had made to seal it all around (probably need to clamp it lightly until the silicone cures). BTW, I do have independent sirens that are extremely loud that I use on bigger rockets. Those require separate power and, in that case, I use a pull plug to operate it. Those for sure are more complicated to install. Comparatively, this is a breeze as the Stratalogger takes care of the timing on when to turn on the siren and has the driver right on the board.
__________________________________

Yesterday I had finished the av-bay bulkheads and took a few pictures of the siren install. Again it is extremely simple. Just use some silicone caulk/adhesive. I have this brand, but any can be used.



An oblong hole was drilled into the bulkhead and the connector for the Perfectflite siren was threaded through. The siren was installed on the aft/drogue av-bulkhead. Use a generous bead of caulk and then clamp in place (siren is sitting straighter than the picture would depict). Let sit until adhesive caulk cures.



From underneath you can see the wiring harness extending through the bulkplate.

 

[dixontj93060]

Almost unheard of... I had 4 to 5 hours to work on rockets today!!! Usually my build time is confined to 30 to 40 minutes timeslots every two or three days, but last night we had rain--a storm that left us without power all night and most of the day. Kinda screwed up our plans for the day, but you sure don't need electricity to mix epoxy and most of my tool are battery operated.

So here are a few pics, but now looking back, it is like, jeez, 4 hours and it didn't seem like I got much done... But there was a lot of measuring and figuring working on the layout for the av-sled. I also finished mounting everything on the av-bay bulkheads. In the meantime I did two fin spans locations of veil layer (only one more--yeah!).



Behind the booster you can see the nosecone. I was able to measure, cut and finish the nosecone insert and lid. I decided to use some neoprene to seal the lid. Works well, but no pics yet. I still have some work to do on the outside of the nosecone with 3 to 4 layers of FG to even it out with the build up on the airframe (first layer shown here).



And then back to the av-sled. Only about 1/3rd done but think I have everything measured out and should go pretty quickly from here. I am using a Stratalogger and RRC2mini for redundancy. The pushbutton switches will be placed on the outside of the rail sleeves.



And then the kinda boring back; although the bulkhead harness connectors will be going along the outside edge of the board here.

 

[JRL303]

Very nice build and details. Where do you get your forged eyebolts from?
Jim

 

[dixontj93060]

Very nice build and details. Where do you get your forged eyebolts from?

The smaller 1/4" and 5/16" are hard to come by. Every so often you will find a lot on eBay for a decent price, but mostly I pick them up at a local fall festival we have in Central Indiana, the Newport Hill Climb. They have tons of vendor tents set up and invariably have three or four "hardware" tents where I get 20 or more for $1 to $2 each.

 

[dixontj93060]

Did some sims with adjusted "as built" weights. Pretty much decided on an L930 Loki White for the maiden flight. Should arc over right at 8K feet.

 

[Neuport]

Very nice build and details. Where do you get your forged eyebolts from?
Jim

Here in Colorado I have found them at McGuckins in Boulder and at Jax in Louiseville. I imagine any Jax would have them back in their hardware section. In both stores they hang on hooks near the end of the hardware aisle. Both have them in a few different sizes. The price is more than dixontj93060 is getting them for. I believe Ace may have them as well but I'm not certain.

Here are some part numbers, sizes and prices from McGuckin. Jax or Ace may be cheaper you could call your closest store.



I have also cut off the shank and drilled and tapped to convert them into eyenuts.

Also, I grind and polish the eyes to make them nice and smooth. The forgings can be a little rough.

Here is one I polished for my Blackhawk. Sorry about the poor picture.

 

[Eric1]

Looking Good Bro! Please post vid of Flight!!

 

[dixontj93060]

Got a bit of work done on this project tonight. Completed soldering/wiring of the av-sled and av-bay bulkheads. Have finished some other things, but pics on that tomorrow.

 

[sodmeister]

Got a bit of work done on this project tonight. Completed soldering/wiring of the av-sled and av-bay bulkheads. Have finished some other things, but pics on that tomorrow.

View attachment 93252

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View attachment 93254

Sheesh ,looking at the 3rd picture of your AV bay ,I thought it was mine for a second (sure does look like it anyway )

Looking good !


Paul t

 

[qquake2k]

McMaster-Carr has pretty good prices on forged eyebolts.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#general-purpose-eyebolts/=iruj63

 

[dixontj93060]

McMaster-Carr has pretty good prices on forged eyebolts.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#general-purpose-eyebolts/=iruj63

Wow, 3X what I like to pay.

 

[dixontj93060]

A few snapshots on the nosecone mods. Normally I would do an all-thread held in by some epoxy slurry and pins and a "spin on" bulkhead. Wanted to try something different though and so have a 2"x4" compartment behind a CR/bulkhead which I placed right at the NC base. I used Gorilla glue to fill in edges and behind, then epoxy to add a fillet.



The compartment is sealed with an extra G10 bulkplate I had in my stash and it has a positive seal with an attached neoprene disk.



Finally, just as a bit of insurance policy, I added six metal pins drilled and epoxied into the lateral perimeter of the NC bulkhead through the NC base (Note: have not cleaned up the epoxy overage yet, thus the "goop" around the shiny metal pin edge).

 

[dixontj93060]

A few little, but important things done in the last 24 hours. First measured av-sled position and drilled vent / switch access holes in av-bay. Epoxied in av-bay fore bulkhead and associated hardware. Marked, drilled and epoxied in #8 t-nuts in av-bay to hold in payload/main chute bay. Marked drilled holes for shear pins in booster and payload bay. Cut indents and epoxied in brass stock at shear pin locations.

Picture internal to av-bay with fore bulkhead epoxied in and, looking closely, the backside of the t-nuts in 4 equidistant positions.



View from outside of av-bay showing vent/switch access hole, payload screw down, and shear pin positions.



Similar brass stock epoxied in appropriate nosecone shear pin locations (not filed down yet; will be done when epoxy cures fully).

 

[qquake2k]

Wow, 3X what I like to pay.

Where do you get forged eyebolts for a dollar apiece?

 

[cwbullet]

Nice av slides, did you fiberglass over cardboard lugs to reinforce them?

 

[dixontj93060]

Where do you get forged eyebolts for a dollar apiece?

See post #43.

 

[dixontj93060]

Nice av slides, did you fiberglass over cardboard lugs to reinforce them?

Yes, both board substrate and lugs have a layer of FG.

 

[cwbullet]

Yes, both board substrate and lugs have a layer of FG.

I have ever done that buy that might help prevent separation. Thanks.

 

[dixontj93060]

I have ever done that buy that might help prevent separation. Thanks.

Yes, it helps the lugs not get dinged up. And regarding the board I do it because I have a ton of 1/16" plywood which works great but needs some flex/twist reinforcement -- takes nothing to put a swatch on each side and press overnight.

 

[dixontj93060]

Last couple of wraps of fiberglass on the nosecone and now the arc of the nosecone intersects the payload body tube "just right."



So now all the structural work is done and my Phoenix if fully ready to fly. Funny though how long it takes to move it from the ugly fly condition that it is in now to the pretty fly condition.

 

[sodmeister]

Can paint be far behind ,or are you going to fly it like that first ?

She`s a beauty !

Paul T