My Level Three Project Construction

Construction will be updated here as it begins. With complete pictures and details as I go.

Epoxy used in this construction will be Aeropoxy with milled fiberglass, bulkheads, and centering rings will by 1/2" birch ply. Fins will be from 1/4" birch ply. All hardware, all thread and u-bolts will be 5/16" and recovery harnesses will be 1/2" tubular kevlar.

The entire rocket will receive on layer of Aerosleeves 9.6 oz as well as a veil layer of 2 oz fiberglass. The fin can area will receive an additional layer of 6 oz fiberglass tip to tip across the fins for additional fin reinforcement.

Having most of the airframe parts at this time I've gone ahead and started construction. There's allot of things to do with this build so this page will be picture intensive, suggest viewing with a highspeed connection or walking away for a few minutes to allow it all to load.

The first thing to do was to get the airframes glassed. Each airframe is covered with an Aerosleeve of 9.7 oz then a veil layer of glass.

The Aerosleeve cut to length and fitted to the tube and now applying the Aeropoxy to wet the glass down.

First layer of glass curing. I allowed this to cure a couple of hours until it tacked up and then applied the veil layer over all sections except the booster which will get it's veil layer after the tip to tip glassing of the fins.

After the glass has cured some it's time to trim the excess off the tube ends. This was done with a fresh blade on a hobby knife. The glass is not completely hard yet so this is easily done. You can also see the tape on the inside of the tube to keep epoxy from building up there on the inside of the tube.

Tubes trimmed and ready to cure. I'll heat cure these on Monday to finish the curing process. Notice the difference in appearance between the center tubes and the outside tubes. The center tubes are for the booster section and have not received a veil layer yet at this point.

Next I did a little prep work on the centering rings. The top two rings needed to be drilled for the allthread that will be used in the zipperless design.

Drilling through all four coupler bulkplates for the allthread that will be used in the avionics bay and in the booster zipperless design.

First thing I finished today was sanding the centering rings to fit the motor tube as well as inside of the body tubes.

Finally applying some epoxy. The two middle centering rings are epoxied to the motor tube. The bottom and top centering ring are not yet epoxied onto the motor tube to allow for internal fillets to be applied to the fins later.

While the epoxy was drying I started in on the fin slots on the booster tube. This is phenolic tube with a layer of 10 oz glass over the top of it. So I started the cuts and then scored through the fiberglass to the body tube with a dremel tool.

After that I used a hacksaw blade to cut down the length of the fin slots and finish up the cutting.

While waiting for the dremel tool battery to recharge I began working on the couplers and getting them sanded to a nice even and snug fit. It took about 20 minutes of sanding and working with the electronics bay coupler and about 30 minutes of work on the booster tubes zipperless coupler to get them to fit very nicely.

Drilling holes in the rear centering ring for blind nuts to be installed in.

Doesn't look like much got done but I spent well over 8 hours today working on everything, mainly just working on the fit of all the parts. Now that this is finished everything should start moving along quickly now.

Back to work today. First thing I did was get the booster section all thread setup and bolted into and epoxied into the bottom centering ring of the top fin set.

Applying epoxy to the nuts on the allthread, the allthread extends 36" up from the bottom of the centering ring. The motor tube and centering ring are inverted here.

Motor tube and centering rings resting on the end of the booster section tube upside down while the epoxy dries over the nuts.

Next I used a scrap section of airframe tube and a scrap section of coupler tube to fit the Electronics bay end caps.

Using the above scraps I sanded and fit the coupler bulkheads and airframe bulkheads until I got the fit I wanted. Then they were tacked together using some medium CA.

Top of the cap which will have much more added to it in the future. Holes are for the allthread that will run through the electronics bay.

Underside of cap with Aeropoxy with milled fiberglass applied to nuts and retention plate.

Side view of the electronics bay end cap. Two 1/2" ply bulkheads, one airframe and one coupler.

While all this epoxy was drying I sanded down the inside, top, of the payload section to accept the PML nosecone. I also setup and epoxied in the bulkhead into the nosecone as well as the ubolt for recovery system attachment.

When the epoxy had set enough on the booster section allthread nuts I then inserted the motor tube into the booster section, dumping in one ounce of epoxy between the centering rings through one of the fin slots just before I seated it into it's final position, this will cover the nuts some more as well as coat the bottom side of the centering ring.

Some more work done today. First the nosecone we worked on yesterday showing the cone and the bulkhead we installed into it yesterday.

The bulkhead we installed into the cone yesterday. We still need to fiberglass and epoxy this side of the bulkhead yet.

Then today we got to work setting the fins. The fins are being initially set with 15 min epoxy and will then be filleted in with Aeropoxy with milled glass added.

First set of fins being tacked onto the motor tube. Would be nice to have a garage and/or work room but I don't. Everything I've ever built has been built right here on this computer desk and in the laundry room depending on what I'm needing to do.

After about an hour and a half the 15 min epoxy had setup enough I could move the tube and set the second set of fins. Here I've had to change rooms though for added space needed.

Now the fins are tacked on, this is not the overall size of the booster section however. Another 6" piece will get added to it later, I did it this way to have more room and the ability to get to the upper fins internally for fillets. That last 6" piece will get added and held on via a coupler internally and fiberglassed externally.

The top fin set is sitting on top of their bottom centering ring. Here I'm pouring about 12cc's of epoxy mixed with milled fiberglass in-between each fin to coat that side of the bottom centering ring.

You can see down from the top here to the upper fin set's bottom centering ring, it's coated now and curing.

Now that the other coating has cured the booster section is flipped over and the top centering ring for the bottom fin set is now coated with epoxy with milled fiberglass added.

Now looking down from the business end to the centering ring, shining because it's coated with epoxy, the epoxy also flows into and attaches to the fins so that the fins, centering ring, body tube, and airframe tube are all joined together with one pour.

Waiting on epoxy to cure that's all we could finish today. Next up will be applying internal fillets to the fins, then inserting the double walling from the couplers, then attaching the final section of booster section body tube as well as the coupler and bulkhead for the zipperless design. After that's all finished tip to tip glassing on the fins and the final veil layer of glass for the booster section.

All I got done today was internal fillets on the rear fins. This was done with Aeropoxy with milled fiberglass added. Fillets were applied to the fin motor tube joints as well as the fin airframe joints.

As you can see I had to come up with something to reach down the tube, in-between the airframe tube and the motor tube, that could apply the epoxy for the internal fillets. This was done with a wooden dowel and a plastic spoon.

Here the upper fins have tape applied to keep the internal fillets from running out the fin slots.

And here using the tool to get the epoxy way down there. I build this fin can in two pieces, when complete it will be as long as the allthread and this is the main reason that I did it this way, to ease application of the internal fillets to the upper fins and other components. There's still another centering ring that needs to be installed to the top of the upper fins as well as another piece of airframe tubing, bulkhead, and coupler.

Every single fillet was comprised of 10 cc's of Aeropoxy as well as 5 cc's of milled fiberglass. So each fin basically will have six fillets of this size, two to the motor tube, two to the inside of the airframe, and two to the outside of the airframe.

Next I started in on the Altimeter bay. Ejection wells and terminal blocks were CA'd into place.

The washers are there to insure that I'm leaving enough space for everything.

After things were tacked on they then received fillets with Aeropoxy and milled fiberglass. Here are basically all of the components of the altbay minus the all thread.

The coupler section is 14" long, when you figure port holes for the altimeter with a 6" diameter by 14" long bay they come out being huge. Larger than what I wanted, so the extra bulkhead seen here that is now sitting on top of the coupler will be placed 7.5" down from the top of the altbay to shrink the size of the compartment that the electronics will be in. This allows me to get away with 4 1/4" port holes instead of 4 1/2" port holes.

Next was my least favorite part basically because I'm not good with a soldering gun. With a little help from Devin though we got it figured out and got all the wires soldered to the terminal blocks and to the Missileworks switches.

Terminal block leads are all green and black, and switch leads are all red and black.

Here's is one of the end caps for the Alt bay pretty much completed. Ejection wells installed, terminal blocks installed and everything epoxied into place and all holes sealed with epoxy.

Here the bottom end cap of the Alt bay is installed with the allthread and is now being permanately secured to the alt bay coupler with a generous pour of epoxy.

Here is the inside of the altbay currently, half of that space will disappear when I install the extra bulkhead. Tomorrow we'll try to get the bay finished up.

Well things finally came together today. It has been seeming like I've been doing allot each day and yet nothing seems to get done. I knew from past experience though that at some point it would all seem to come together at once as I've been working on multiple sections or aspects at the same time, and today it did.

First thing today was back on the altimeter bay. First I installed the altimeter bay bulkhead. This takes the 14" alt bay down to a 7" compartment which makes the port holes much more manageable, 4 1/4" diameter holes. You can also see my first mistake here as the wires to the terminal blocks aren't paired up and I don't know which wires go to which blocks.

The epoxy is poured and now ready to cure. Also you can now see that the terminal wires are now paired off. I had to do some testing with the wires to find which went where but I got it figured out.

Next I took some coupler sections and coated them with epoxy to double wall the booster section between the fins. This entire rocket is double walled with coupler tubes as well as fiberglassed.

Here the sections are installed and pressed into place with popsicle sticks. I'm half considering leaving the popsicle sticks in place and coating them with epoxy to add strength, not really sure if that would do anything or not.

Next I got ready to install the top centering ring into the fin can. First I poured 30cc's of epoxy down into the booster section.

Then I used a piece of coupler tubing to tap the centering ring down and into place seated against the top of the fins.

Now working quickly I took the booster section coupler and coated it with epoxy.

Then the final piece of the booster sections airframe is slid onto the booster section. This had been left off before to make it easier to work in the fin can and on the top fins.

Now everything is set into place, I then measured everything to ensure that it was in it's correct position. My coupler tube was perfectly cut within a 1/16" of the needed length, sitting just off of the top centering ring and leaving 6" worth coming out the top for the zipperless design.

Now all of this since that initial pour of epoxy into the fin can was done quickly for this reason, now the hole section is inverted to allow that initial pour to drip down and coat the underside of the top centering ring.

Some of the above pictures were a little crooked, that's because I'm at home and my only helper is my 5 yr old son Tannor, so he's taking pictures for dad today as well as many of the others that have been taken, he's not doing too bad.

Now all of that took a while and the epoxy pour in the altimeter bay has cured, so it's back to work on the alt bay. Next thing was 4 1/4" diameter port holes drilled into the altimeter. After that I drilled two 1/2" holes for the electronics switches and installed them.

Another picture about the same but I had to include this one as these three have been a big help throughout the whole build process so far. Meesha, Devin, and Tannor left to right, when dad yells for help they come quick and help out allot.

Now, the things left to do include tip to tip glassing of the fins, veil layer of glass for the entire booster section, external fin fillets, drilling some more holes for vent holes, and for shear pin holes. I'll also need to install threaded inserts into the bulkplates on either end of the altimeter bay to secure sections of body tube. After that it will be time for some ground testing and getting to work on painting.

Today got to work on the tip to tip glassing of the fins, each set received one layer of 6 oz glass and one layer of 2 oz glass for a veil layer. Went ok but not as well as doing just tubes alone, had a little trouble working out bubbles but got them worked out only for a few to re-appear during curing but nothing that's going to be a problem.

First the tube and fins were wetted out with epoxy, then the glass was applied and then trimmed down a little bit.

Finishing out this layer of glass, after it was fully wetted out the veil layer was added directly over the top of it.

After the fins were glassed the remaining booster is glassed now with a veil layer. This also help to tie in the second piece of booster tubing making it all one piece now.

Now the entire booster section is glassed and curing, will go in the oven tomorrow to finish curing.

After I finished with the booster section I cut out the altimeter sleds from some 1/8" ply I had handy, then I applied a layer of 6 oz glass to each side of the plywood, covered both sides with wax paper and then applied weight to the top of them to press out the epoxy.

Didn't get a whole lot done but some little things and external fillets on the fins.

First thing I did was drill holes to match up with the RRC2's for the nuts to attach the altimeters to the sleds.

Next I epoxied the tubes to the sleds, I used the cardboard tubes that come with AT high power reload kits, the ones that the igniters are stored in. These work nicely for many things to include 1/4" launch lugs. They also fit nice and snug over the 5/16" allthread I'm using in the altimeter bay.

The first fillet of epoxy is applied to the tubes and is now cured waiting the second fillet.

The bottom side of the altimeter bay has epoxy applied to the nuts to secure them in place.

Next external fillets are applied to the fins. That's 16cc's total per fillet. 10cc's of Aeropoxy and 6 cc's of milled fiberglass to each fillet.

Yesterday the booster section was placed in the dryer for one cycle of 3 hours at 125 degrees to cure the fin fillets.

Today I got to work fiberglassing the booster sections coupler with one layer of 6oz glass internally, this was a little difficult with the allthread in the way but I tied them together and out of the way and got the glass in ok.

After getting that complete the next step was to fiberglass the nosecone bulkplate with one layer of 6 oz fiberglass, securing it into place.

Next the rear centering ring was dry fit, after I was happy with the fit I made a pour of epoxy into the rear of the booster section.

The holes for the blind nuts were coated and filled in with vaseline, and then the rear centering ring was installed. After that the booster section was turned over allowing the freshly poured epoxy to drip down and self level coating the top of the rear centering ring. This was a 30cc pour with 8cc's of milled glass added.

Again the holes for the blind nuts were coated and covered on this end with vaseline, another 30cc's of epoxy was mixed up and the outside of the rear centering ring was coated.

After that construction was complete for today. I spent the rest of the day completing and organizing paperwork for my Level 3 TAP's, I put together two identical notebooks with this information, one for me to keep and one for the TAP's.

Rocket was taken down to one of my TAP's today, Lanie Cross in Des Moines and given a once over. We discussed the build and how it was done as well as ground testing and the flight plan.

I installed the bulkhead into the zipperless coupler. This was done by an epoxy pour down and through the motor tube while the booster section was inverted. After that dried I used one layer of 6 oz glass and glassed the coupler in from the top side. It also has the three pieces of all thread securing it in place, held by fender washers and nuts.

Today I finished drilling shear pin holes for both the booster section and the nosecone for the main. Each section receives four 2-56 nylon screws.

After this was complete I ground tested the booster section. Infocentral calls for 1.09 grams of black powder, I went with 1.25 on the ground test and it worked very well cleanly shearing all of the nylon screws, and with the wadding and kevlar chute protector I didn't scorch any of the nylon or recovery system.

After that was complete I went ahead with a final sanding then a wash with some soapy water. Then SuperFil was applied to all necessary areas. Tomorrow should be ready for another bit of sanding and primer.

Yesterday's SuperFil is sanded and everything is ready for primer. Coupler is taped off and covered.

Two heavy brushed on coats of KILZ primer, sitting and drying now. Should get sanded up on Friday.

Thursday last week my R16 came in from the Rocketman. So Friday I did some ground testing to find out that it would not deploy out of the main bay. It was too tight, the charge would hit the bottom end of the chute and just mushroom it out and stick it worse.

If I packed it tight, the charge gases would then just go around the chute and deploy the cone, the 24 oz cone didn't carry enough weight to drag the 3.5lb chute out of the bay.

So Saturday I went to the launch in Pickrell, Ne and learned more about packing parachutes and deployment bags. Turns out I'm going to need to use a deployment bag with my setup to get it to work right, and reliably.

My wife has made me a couple of deployment bags in the past few days and this will be the one we use.

Here the bag (8"x16") is loaded with the chute folded, lengthwise and then rolled in on the width. The shroud lines are then run through the loops. This setup will work fine with a 7.5" tube, but we're going to need to S fold and stuff both the chute and lines into the bag for our 6" body tube. It works well in that configuration.

The electronics page will change soon to the Electronics/Recovery page at which point I'll detail with photos the loading of the chute into the bag.

Here is our R16 made for us by the Rocketman. Custom colors of yellow and black to match the Thor.

Devin trying to hold the chute, every time a gust came up it took him down the field.

Got the rocket painted today also, but waiting on decals still, as soon as they get on I'll update again with completed pictures.

Well as of today I'm declaring this project complete to the point of ready and able to fly. Finished up painting today, which of course is a requirement for flight.

Waiting on the decals that should be here in a few days, then they will be applied and the entire rocket clear coated.

Thursday I should get the electronics page updated and complete as well as changing it to the Electronics/Recovery page, will show details of the electronics bay as well as the parachute and loading of it into the deployment bag.

This is one of those paint schemes that without the decals I can't stand, don't like the look at all, but once the decals are placed on it all comes together and looks very sharp to me..

Overall it came out heavier than I thought it would, when we put it together for this picture everything was placed inside of it except the motor, all recovery components and hardware was thrown in and then it was weighed showing a total weight of 33.5 lbs. Loaded weight with the motor will be 45 lbs. Nice weight overall, had to adjust the sims some but I still like what they are showing. Next pics will be with the decals on.

The Design	The Parts	Construction
Electronics/Recovery	Flight	Conclusion