Rube Goldberg Lander

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Motor tubes 1 and 2 were located and had an alignment mark drawn the length of each.

 

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Templates were used to cut the bevels in the tops of motor tubes 1 and 2.

 

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Motor retainers were installed on motor tubes 1 and 2 with JB Weld.

 

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A gloop of putty was applied around the joint of structure 2.

 

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Finally, the retaining rings for the last of the boom struts were glued into place.

 

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And that completes the work to date. When I get home tonight, I hope to finish assembling the last pod base structure and maybe get started on the lug fins of the payload bay.

 

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Today, the last two motor tubes had set up so I installed the knurled rings. Now, all 5 are done... at least for now.

 

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The first ping pong ball of tube 1 was install and set aside to dry.

 

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Letting the glue on ball 1 of tube 1 gave me the opportunity to sand the putty from tube 2.

 

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I decided that some more putty would be needed but first, the existing patch would need to be hardened with thin CA.

 

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The rest of the balls were glued into place on boom tube 1 and now I have 4. Coincidentally, the plan happens to call for a total of 4. These just need to be cleaned up a bit.

 

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To this point, virtually all the work has been done on projection from the main part of the rocket. Tonight, I began work on a small part of the main body. I worked on the payload bay. Specifically, I worked on the lug fins of the payload bay.

"What the (*&@#$ is a lug fin?" you might ask.

Its what's coming up next!

 

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There are to be 12 lug fins spaced evenly around the payload bay. To get them located, I generated, printed and cut out a template for 12 fins on a BT80 from the Template Widget. The template was taped onto a 9" section of BT80.

 

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Tick marks matched to the template were scribed onto the tube.

 

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An Estes Angle was then used to run the lines the length of the tube.

 

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And the pager just went off so I guess this will have to wait.

 

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I located my supply of BT2.5 tubes and marked one at 9".

 

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A miter box and razor saw was then used to cut the tube to length.

 

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This process was repeated to make a total of 12.

 

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The tip of one of the tube was then aligned with the 45 deg slot of the miter box so that it could be cut again at that angle.

 

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This too was done again a total of 12 times.

 

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One of the angled "lug fins" was then carefully aligned with one of the lines placed on the payload tube and glued into place with Titebond II.

 

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A second application of putty was given to boom assembly 2 and a first application to assembly 1.

 

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Three more lug fins were installed in this session for a total of 4. The payload bay was set aside to dry.

 

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Now, church is over; I have finished posting yesterday's update; I am no on call again for the hospital until 7.

I think I am going to go out and do some building.

 

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Well I started the day by sanding the putty on boom assembly 2.

 

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This time I was satisfied so I hardened it with CA and called this one done.

 

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The putty on boom assembly 1 got its initial sanding down. I was mostly OK but had a few small pieces that still needed filling.

 

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The sanded filler on boom assembly 1 was hardened with CA and set aside to cure.

 

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Figuring I might as well get it over with, I carved up three more balls and finished the last of the boom struts for now.