Glass em tip to tip.
But you might want a little heavier glass.
20 min. epoxy is fine, but is an expensive way if your doing a lot.

I'll probably get overruled, but I'd recommend cutting the fin completely out and putting in a new one by the original method. I've had similar damage happen with my L1 (also LOC), and repaired with more glass and epoxy each time, but it just keeps getting heavier, which leads to more landing damage and buying larger more expensive chutes, yadda yadda yadda.

LOC has VERY undersized chutes for our altitude, and I think you've found that their shock cords leave something to be desired.

BTW, I still have that damage to repair on mine, but I've got 3 layers of tip-to-tip glass to hack through as well. 🙄 😥

-Ken

to name a few have really undersized chutes for us.

I've given up using chutes supplied with the kits. I like the Skyangle chutes.

Grind out your fins with a dremel all the way to the motor mount and glue in new ones using slow cure epoxy.

I've done this on numerous rockets.

Then it's the problem of balancing chute size for minimal damage against a long walk.

I think the root of the issue -- no pun intended -- is wooden fins. PML is a great, low-cost resource for cutting G10 fins. The fins are a bit more expensive up front, but when you calculate all the surgery you may have to do to fix a rocket, it seems to make sense to forego the wood and go with glass.

My L1 rocket was a Loc Vulcanite. I loved the rocket, but I got so tired of fixing it up that I created a rocket that I called the "Vulcanot", which was the same rocket done without wood and without paper. It was far, far more durable and forgiving...

Regarding chutes - you are on the money there. Most are undersized for our elevation. I have a smattering of sizes that I move from rocket to rocket.

Excess in Moderation is a LOC Fantom EXL with G10 fins. I don't know how it hit hard enough (it appeared to be coming in quite gently) to tear through the core and 6 layers of glass (3 t-t on each side). I think I started with too thin (1/16") G10. I have a chunk of 1/8" that will be used for the replacements (with no t-t).

Plus, with each repair, there's less and less of Art's paint job showing! Bah!

-Ken

I dont care what you all say! 😉 I repaired mine, just stuck the fin on with five minute, glassed it tip to tip with 20 minute. Flew it 2 more times before I lost it. 😆 See all that time I saved!! 🙂 Grinding...BAh.
sanding....Bah paint... who needs it? 8)

Sorry you lost it.

I like using the Dremel with the little cut off disks on them for fillet/epoxy removal. It makes a surgical cut w/o taking too much material off.

I concur on the LOC fins, holy cow they just don't seem strong enough w/o glassing. I have a new I-Roc that I'm thinking about taking the wood ones off of and putting in some G10 ones. A 5.5" bird just shouldn't have bare wood IMO.... Plus, it really needs a 38mm motor mount not 29....

Where are you at Rich? I have a big sheet of 1/16" G10 we could cut some fins out of, it is a bit thinner than you may like though.... Or, check out Giant Leap's or PML's fin pages. Both are fast shippers and good people.

Sorry you lost it.

Ah look at the bright side I dont have to store it any more!

All in all, I'd have to agree with Ken. For L1, straight plywood should be just fine (unless you're going for something in Adrian's style 🙂 ). I would have to say that 1/8 seems a bit thin though, 3/16 or 1/4 would be alot better. G10 and fiberglassing are both good options as well.

One thing to consider is where damage is likely to occur. On a cardboard rocket with just the fins reinforced, if the fin hits hard, G10 and fiberglass are strong enough that it may be the fin can assembly that takes the damage. A fin repair is likely much less work than a fin can rebuild.

Just for some reference, I flew a modified Binder Excel+ at Ofest on an I566 and an I285. It has un-reinforced 3/16 plywood fins (beveled @5 deg. to a 1/16 wide edge). According to the RRC2-mini, it reached 600fps on the 566, and 640fps on the 285. Probably some error there, but even if it's 10% off, that's still pretty close to 600fps on the 285. In addition to that, on the landing from the 566 launch, it landed fin first with no damage at around 20fps. One thing I like about the fins for this particular kit is that there are no hard edges, which from an engineering perspective is a very good thing in this application.