What’s on your bench

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Little threadsurrection here. Ordered up our first two fiberglass kits, to stretch our experience with. Mach 1 BT-20 Micro-Mamba for my son, and the BT-50 Callista for me. Should be interesting, working with glass.
 
A whole heap of tools that have been used on jobs on my car and on installing a new gate controller for our side gate. Both are now largely finished. Once I get all the tools squirreled away in their homes I have a desk lamp to repair for my daughter. After that I will finish masking my Estes Saturn V kit (#1969) that I started masking back in August last year, and then apply the black.
 
PML 4" Black Brant X with 54mm mount and Kwick-switch kit. Found in the back of the garage. It's 20 years old and was mostly sealed away except for a few mouse holes. The instructions were a cozy nest for some critter. Downloaded a .PDF of the instructions and I'm good to go. Wonder how brittle 20 year old phenolic tubing is? Suppose I better glass it?
 
What's on my bench? A few small things to repair and/or paint, and so much junk I can hardly find them.
Update: There's hardly anything on my bench, which is progress. Now stuff is shoved with little rhyme or reason into a half dozen boxes, but it's progress.
 
Today I bought a Milwaukee Hackzall (smaller sized reciprocating saw) to shake my rattle cans.

My thought process... “I already have a number of the Milwaukee tools, two chargers, six batteries, have been pleased with them all, and I need to cut down some “volunteer” saplings growing on my side yard where the temperature on a cool summer day is near 100 degrees...”

The three most expensive words in the English language: “Might as well.”

Now I need to order the recip saw paint can shaker from Amazon.

In for a penny, in for a pound....might as well.

PS. We both need to do a follow-up report and compare notes.
 
I will jump in the mix here

currently working on a loc procession 5.5 diameter 38mm minie mag
Have a apogee slo-mo to build and a classic Estes der red max
 
Currently on my work table.

Aerotech Mega Initiator - Fin Can built - afraid to epoxy into the sustainer
Estes Super Neon XL - started gluing the bt fins on to the sustainer
LOC/Precision LOC I - gluing motor mount and fins on this evening
Long Scott rev5.5 (Virtual NARAM C Super Roc scratch build) - building sustainer
 
Have a apogee slo-mo to build...
I have a Slo-Mo that has had fins reattached several times - almost one every flight.

I strongly recommend that you sand a little concave curve into the fins' root edges by wrapping sand paper around a piece of BT-20 coupler and running the fin across it at the correct cant angle. That way when you glue it to the motor mount it will sit securely and have plenty of contact area for a good, solid joint. I didn't think of that in time for mine, and now the fin can area looks like heck for all the repairs.
 
I have a Slo-Mo that has had fins reattached several times - almost one every flight.

I strongly recommend that you sand a little concave curve into the fins' root edges by wrapping sand paper around a piece of BT-20 coupler and running the fin across it at the correct cant angle. That way when you glue it to the motor mount it will sit securely and have plenty of contact area for a good, solid joint. I didn't think of that in time for mine, and now the fin can area looks like heck for all the repairs.
Great information thank You for sharing I will definitely look into doing this
That’s interesting...
 
No, I didn't. And yes, I might. The issue here, though, is that the fins are canted so the root edges should be slightly curved. They're TTW, so if only the tab roots were curved it would do. But with the edges straight, the fin rocks on the MMT and only makes contact at one spot.

They're laser cut, of course, and it wouldn't have been so hard to put the right curve in the drawing they're cut from. It's the first complaint I've had about quality from Apogee, and so far still the only one.
 
I have a Wen 4 x 36 inch belt sander I just put on my garage workbench for my larger plywood fin sanding (among other things), and still have two of three in progress Mach1 Trivectas on my basement bench, which is more just a work table...
 
I have a Wen 4 x 36 inch belt sander I just put on my garage workbench for my larger plywood fin sanding (among other things), and still have two of three in progress Mach1 Trivectas on my basement bench, which is more just a work table...
I also have a 4x36 inch belt/disc sander that I have mounted on a HF wheeled equipment dolly. I mounted a plywood shelf on the bottom for a small Shop Vac running through a Dust Deputy to collect the sawdust. Even so I roll the tool out of the garage shop and do my sanding on the driveway.
 
I picked up a collection from a guy a couple of weeks back so I'm in the process of restoring a couple of them. Will attach pics when I get home.

- Estes SR71 Blackbird. In pretty nice shape overall. The front to the paper shroud was dented and torn so that had to be cut out and replaced and the fins were at wrong angles from poor assembly or just sitting for years so they were cut off. All tubes were sanded and reassembled. It's currently in satin black paint waiting on decals.

- Big Bertha. In decent shape overall. I think this one was assembled with school glue or rubber cement as I was able to pull the fins off without pulling up any of the body tube. The motor mount was also removed with a light pull. It came out clean and didn't even bend the paper centering rings. I sanded the entire body tube down to get rid of the runs and drips in the paint then began reassembly. I was able to reuse all 4 fins, the body tube, launch lug and nose cone. The motor mount was replaced with a 24mm mount with plywood upper ring. I used the normal Kevlar around the motor mount and about 6 ft of elastic for the shock cord. Currently waiting on primer.

- Maxi Alpha 3. This one was the worst of lot. The body tube was soft and dented in a couple of places so I opted to replace it. The good news is this one appears to have been built with school glue as well even on the plastic parts. There were globs of glue holding the fins in place and you could see were someone had done numerous repairs over the years. A few tugs on the fin can and it separated from the body tube. I was then able to pull the top ring off and remove the fins without damage. Most of the glue simply peeled off in large clumps. I then soaked the plastic parts in hot water for an hour to soften and remove the rest. It literally dissolved with the sprayer on the sink. The lower body tube was also soft so It was replaced.

The Fin can was reassembled using epoxy. The motor mount / stuffer tube was in good shape so that was reused however I did cut the tube just above the motor hook and insert a motor block as this rocket didn't have one. The stuffer tube was then coupled back together and the upper centering ring was replaced with a plywood ring. 300# Kevlar was attached below the upper ring for an anchor point for the shock cord. Just finished up doing the epoxy fillets on eht fins. Needs a 3/16 launch lug and some primer before painting. I have a nylon 18" chute waiting to go in and designing my own version of the Maxi Alpha 3 decals to be cut from vinyl.
 

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A few chemistry experiments - working on some potential propellant formulations.

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