V2 Fins

[swimmer]

Lets see: Which is worse?

Chinese water torture......

Bamboo shoots under the fingernails.......

or...gluing the two halves of the vacuum formed fins together on the Estes V2.............and......having to do it four times!!

The V2 Model 1952 is a fine kit but there is some work needed on the fin design.

Has anyone other than me found this step difficult????

 

[gerbs4me]

yep, those vacuum formed fins are tricky, but they do look nice when fiished

 

[sandman]

Here is a trick to strengthen the fins and not add much weight.

Before you glue the fin halfs together glue one of each half to a .020" thich styrene sheet.Use Liquid weld or some other type of liquid styrene cement.

Then cut the sheet about a 1/16' bigger all the way around and glue the other half onto this.

When the glue drys, sand the edge flush.

 

[stevem]

do a search on this forum for V2 and you will find many many posts on this topic.

I have read through all of them and then decided to build my fins exactly the way the instructions said to anyway.

my V2 has flown 8 or 9 times and the fins have help up fine except for the first flight on an E9. E9 is simply not enough for this rocket. Rocket weathercocked badly, chute deployed about 30' from the ground and a couple of the fins cracked. Glued them back together and since then have flown on F21s with no damage.