Repair of dent in cardboard airframe?

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billdz

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One of my rockets has a substantial dent in the airframe after landing on a road. It is an inch or so wide. The recommended repair seems to be cutting the airframe above and below the dent, then slipping in a coupler and gluing the airframe back together without the dented piece. That should work, but I'm wondering if there are any alternatives, since I have trouble making nice straight cuts. It's not enough just to fill the dented area with epoxy then sanding smooth?
 
One of my rockets has a substantial dent in the airframe after landing on a road. It is an inch or so wide. The recommended repair seems to be cutting the airframe above and below the dent, then slipping in a coupler and gluing the airframe back together without the dented piece. That should work, but I'm wondering if there are any alternatives, since I have trouble making nice straight cuts. It's not enough just to fill the dented area with epoxy then sanding smooth?

You may be able to simply press out the dent using a ball on a stick or even a smoothly rounded dowel, then slip a coupler in to reinforce it. Then, finish up the outside with any kind of filler you prefer, including the epoxy you mentioned.
 
The reinforcment is needed, once the cardboard tube has been damaged even just pushing the dent back out still leaves a weak spot. The coupler is that reinforcment. Cutting absolutely straight is nice but not necessary since the two parts separated will be getting put back together again so the cut lines will match up as long as the tubes are indexed to each other properly, and you are going to fill and refinish anyways.
 
I have used Steve's fix a number of times. If sliding a couple down in side the tube is not in the way of nose cone shoulder that is the way to do it.
 
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