Stuck Baffle

[nukemmcssret]

I am building a rocket and as I am inserting the baffle I hesitate for a second and it stops sliding. ARGH!!!! Now it is not in the tube half as far as it should be. What to DO??? Do I cut the plywood baffles and use wadding? I do not want to destroy the tube. Any suggestions? :confused2:

 

[bradycros]

Cut the tube above the fins, leave plenty of room for a coupler, turn tube 180 degrees, glue in coupler,then glue tube back on to coupler. Fill joint with preferd material, sand, paint. Ta Da!

 

[n5wd]

Or, you can acquire another piece of body tube and cut it so that it goes over the stuck baffle and leaves you enough room for whatever you were going to do (some folks have the baffle at the top of the booster - that's known as an anti-zipper design - some folks put the baffle deeper into the booster so that the chute and shock cord can go in there.

 

[Peartree]

While others seem to be able to do this, my attempts have been absolutely miserable. The glue always seems to grab before I want it to, regardless of how thin or heavy I put it on. When it happened to me, I have a) left the baffle higher than I really wanted to and in other cases b) sliced the BT to get the baffle out and started over with a new tube.

I don't use glue for baffles any more. I've switched to epoxy so I can slide and position before it sets and not worry about it grabbing.

 

[nukemmcssret]

Thanks for all the imput. I think I will cut above the fins and flip it over. Thanks again. Nukemmcssret

 

[bradycros]

When I cut a tube , I wrap a strip of paper around the tube and use it as a straight edge to draw aline around the tube. Remove paper, lay tube on the cutting board. Lay the flat part of the x-acto blade on the line and the tip just up and off the tube. Now PUSH the knife AWAY from you. You'll find that as you push the knife along (keep the tip up & off the tube) that it's like driving, but insted of driving a car your driving a knife. Your not trying to cut the tube at this point, your making a channel for the tip of the knife to follow when do start to cut the tube.
After you have gone around the tube a couple times lift the knife up so the point is in the channel and Pull the knife TO you. You'll find the knife follows the channel. Firm even pressure and several full rotations of the tube will produce a nice cut.
Use The flat of your finger nail, or the handel of your knife to flat'in out the bump the cut made on the inside of the tube ends.
I like to take a q-tip and dip it in thin ca, then put it on the ends of the tube. This makes all the paper fuzzies hard. Sand them off with some 320 grit sand paper. Now your coupler will slide right in. If it doesn't, sand more.