nose cone layup
Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5298OR4B_a4

Tony

Hey Tony, I know WHERE this will fly... but when?

2nd question. Swamp Gas?

Speaking of which, when is BALLS this year? I'll have my 98mm MD project ready and also semi-solid plans for a trip up the California and Oregon coast late in September sometime and it might just be possible to make it all come together.

By the way Tony, great video and great explanation of laying up tubing. Haven't seen the nose cone vid yet. I guess I'm lazy. After making several airframe tubes I decided I could buy better than I could make myself and the same with nosecones if the shape I want is commercially available. In the end, I've focused on doing tip to tip fin layups and machining electronics bay and other miscellaneous parts. Very impressive work.

One comment here, I use chip brushes to apply the epoxy pretty heavily, but then I use various auto-body work plastic squeegees to spread the epoxy and force it into the fabric weave and in general work it around and tighten up the weave onto the mandrel as well as work the weave to keep it straight.

The best tube I ever made was done on a 38mm metal mandrel quite similarly to how you did this layup, but then I slid a top layer of carbon bi-axial sleeve over the whole layup, wrapped the thing in another layer of mylar and then slid the whole thing into a 1.75" diameter piece of heavy heat-shrink tubing and then the whole package was heated from the center out with a heat gun to force the excess epoxy out the ends of the layup. Finally it spent a couple hours in my wife's oven to fully shrink the heat-shrink and heat cure the Aeropoxy. The final surface was like glass and took very minimal finish work.

Question... was the number of wraps determined by computing axial loading or just to provide a convenient wall thickness?

BALLS is Sept 30 thru October 2, 2011. See their web page at http://www.rimworld.com/balls/

I will be in Australia with my honey 8) Odds are I will also miss O'Fest (but you have to admit I have a pretty solid excuse)......

John, I'm thinking it's first flight will be at Aeronaut in August. Then again at Balls..if it does not get 'misplaced'.

Warren, I'm glad you liked the videos. I've tried squeezees..but always seemedd to snag the glass. Thee chip brushes seem more forgiving. I've got more time then money and at this point still like laying things up. I picked ups some of that stff that they put over big boats to winterize them. He shrinks with a heat gun and I think it will leave nice finish. As for the number or weight of glass....I just take a guess at what is needed for the most extreme flight for a given rocket is.

Tony

John, I'm thinking it's first flight will be at Aeronaut in August. Then again at Balls..if it does not get 'misplaced'.

Tony

That sounds great, Tony - Keep me posted. I might come out to Aeronaut this year - would you fly your 54mm then as well?

I would fly to Reno and drive up.... When is Aeronaut? I Googled but didn't find what I was looking for.

John, I'll save you a spot down wind of the "johns" if you want.

Aeronaut is Aug 5-7

http://www.aeropac.org/schedule.html

Here is a video of laying up a coupler on a mandrel.

http://www.aeropac.org/schedule.html

The next video is on how to make a coupler frrom a piece of body tube.

Tony

Tony,

Thanks for taking the time to make the videos and post! Good stuff.

Hi Tony,

Thanks for taking the time and posting your videos, Great information and I really enjoyed watching them. Thanks!

Here's a video on making a coupler from a piece of body tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbyt8r9l7fo

I've started one on making a nose cone mold.

Tony

I'm looking forward to the nose cone mold video.

I have a 29mm mandrel that I have made one set of molds from that I'm not all that happy with, and I'm thinking about making new molds. I saw on an RC aircraft forum that it looks like some people suspend a mandrel sideways in a box and then pour epoxy to make a mold. The "water level" becomes the part line, no parting board required. I'm interested in trying something like this.

Edit: Actually I was mistaken, and they still used a regular part line. But instead of making it stiff with fiberglass, he just used one layer of fiberglass and then filled the box with packed epoxy/sand mixture.

Here's the video on making a nose cone mold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRlWkMmMKl8

I'll have to look in to the method you're reffering to Adrian. Do you have any links?

Tony

Here's one on fiberglassing a cardboard body tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjZNyXsd8gw

Tony