This section will be for the repair of the Sky Ruler (Picture 1). After the triple zipper happened (Picture 2), there was not much left of the body tube (Picture 3). The only thing that stopped it both ways was the removable altimeter. Notice the eye bolts (Picture 4). All of them where bent out. I learned a few things about this. No more unwelded eyebolts or use U-bolts.
This was my first scratch built rocket and since it needed so few parts to fix, I wanted to fix it. I bought the parts to repair my Sky-Ruler. It needed a PML body tube and a few other small items. I started off by making the body 1.5 inches longer. This will give me a little more room for the chutes. After cutting it to length, I put two wraps of 5.0 fiberglass on and one finish coat of epoxy after the fiberglass dried (Picture 5)(Picture 6). Next I used joint compound to cover the whole BT to fill all the nooks and crannies and sanded it down to a smooth surface.
Since the original idea of the rocket was to have a removable altimeter and I did not have another 3 inch coupler or a PML piston, I made my own tube coupler/altimeter bay (Picture 7). After sizing up the and cutting a mailing tube I had, I taped the outside and used 30 minute epoxy on the inside to glue the cut sides together (Picture 8)(Picture 9). Then when it was dry, I measured the amount I needed for my altimeter and cut the ends off using my table saw (Picture 10)(Picture 11). Next I started making the end caps for the alt bay (Picture 12). Using some 1/8 plywood for the inside cap ring and 3/8ths plywood for the outer cap, I cut out using my jig saw (Picture 13). I then made them true circles using my circle cutting jig with my router table and sized them up (Picture 14)(Picture 15). I cut all four rings once the size was determined earlier and I glued them together using a drill bit to make sure they were lined up (Picture 16). Once the epoxy is applied and clamped together I remove the drill bit to make sure it does not get epoxied to the caps. I was already using the left over altimeter mounting board from the original altimeter bay so using the board and caps I sized up the home made tube coupler and cut it down to fit (Picture 17)(Picture 18). The test fit was perfect and fit nicely (Picture 19). I will be using furniture nuts and 1/8 inch U-bolts for bay to be anchor points for the bay and the parachute as I have done in previous rockets. Same concept of putting the caps back to back for the drilling process and keeping all the holes lined up was used as well.
