To make my nose cone, I will be using the same method Bob Heninger used to make his nose cone. Pictures can be seen here http://home.att.net/~heninger/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-MerchantID-163011-Publish-t-makestatic-true-skip-5.html I have all the foam that I pickup up from Home Depot cheap. It was damaged and they were going to throw it away. I picked it up for $2.00, my gain. I just need to turn the point of the nose cone from some cull wood (warped select white pine) I also picked up from The Home Depot very cheap.
I had to make some tube couplers and a shoulder for the nose cone. I also cut off about one inch off the end of the tubing for the top of the nose cone shoulder. After gluing the nose cone shoulder together to fit I started cutting the Styrofoam squares. I cut these using my hot wire foam cutter tool and found the approximate center using both corners and making an X to know where to start drilling. I used a 2 1/8 hole saw to cut out the center holes for the tube that was slightly bigger so they would slide on tight.
I glued several cut pieces of the select white pine and let them dry together overnight. Once they had dried, I cut them using a table to saw to square them up. I then cut the corners to make it an octagon shape so it would be easier to shape on the lathe. The then hooked up my 4 jaw chuck and started turning the nose cone tip. Between using my metal tooling and a rasp file, I was able to start to shape it up. I finished off with using my belt sander and running the lathe and a mid-high speed to put the finish sanding on the nose cone and shape it up a bit.
7/15/04 - Today I worked on glassing most of the big parts. I started with three tube couplers (nose cone, alt bay and fin can). After cutting the 7/8 of inch piece out of the tubing, I cut some small pieces of fiberglass to join the cut ends back together. I bought some US Composites epoxy with pumps like the West Systems and man they work great. I was also very happy with the new brand of epoxy as it is half the cost of West Systems. After I got all three tube couplers glassed and drying, I started to work on the body tubes. Using the nylon tube sock, I stretched two socks on one of the tubes. My neighbor happened to be walking by and thanked me for practicing safe rocket sex as the sock he said looked like a rocket condom. Haw haw haw. I had to laugh because I never thought of it that way. Back to work. I setup the tube table and got ready to glass. Working from the ends of the tube in to make sure they are totally coated first, I finished the first tube in about 15 minutes. With the tubes being as big as they are, I used a squeegee to move the epoxy around and coat the sock. Next was the second tube with the same thing two socks.
After getting the tube completed and drying out in the sun, I started working on the nose cone jig. I cut a 2x8 board I had left over from replacing the boards on my deck. Along with some other wood I had lying around I built a quick frame to hold the nose cone. With a few rough measurements, I screwed the frame together after pre-drilling the holes. Then I lined up two small block of wood and screwed them into the end of the top cross boards. These blocks will hold the tube I plan on using to be in the center of the nose cone. This was planned to have a small e-bay as well as a place to stick my tracking antenna with out it getting all bent up. The plus side is the when the nose cone is out, the antenna will be pointing straight down for better tracking of the rocket. Next I grabbed a piece of plywood I had laying around with a straight edge. Using the template from RockSim, I laid the drawing on the plywood so that the centerline was right on the edge of the plywood. Then I traced a line on the outside of the nose cone template and cut out the excess plywood with my scroll saw. Then I cut a small piece of hardboard about 18 inches long and 1.5 inches tall. The hardboard was then glued and nailed to the inside edge I cut from the template. This will serve as a guide for the Rotozip tool to follow and shape the nose cone. The last little items where to make tube center rings to be used as guides along with 4 inch 1/4 inch bolts that are not threaded all the way to be used to hold the nose cone tube in place and be able to rotate the NC and shape the foam.
Now that the jig was built, I got it setup and glued the pieces to the tube and together that I had formed up a little bit with my hot wire foam cutter. I could have used this to do the job, but I wanted to try the Rotozip foam shaper to see how it works. I must say it makes a big mess with foam pieces everywhere, but it sure makes a nice clean shape. I really like the way the nose cone came out. I will use this procedure in the future.
7/16/04 - Today was some clean up work as well as making a few minor parts. I started off by cutting nose cone shoulder center rings for the upper e-bay. This included cutting the mid level e-bay center rings and shoulder rings. After cutting the rings, I epoxied them together and set them aside to dry. Also while I had some epoxy made up, I put a small fiberglass strip on the out side of all the tube couplers and I applied epoxy to the entire outside of the tube couplers. I have found that after the epoxy dries, it helps to strengthen the tube coupler and after it is sanded smooth, helps the tube to slide in and out easier.
7/20/04 - yesterday and today, I applied the joint compound to fill all the holes and cover the foam. I sanded down the nose cone so it was smooth. Then I applied the second coat for any other spots I missed. I did the final sanding and then the application of fiberglass.
7/22/04 - I had a couple of hours before work so I worked on nose cone some more. I had out a finish coat of epoxy on the nose cone the day before. Next I had re-glassed the tip and sanded the nose cone smooth. I had a couple of high and low spots so I filled them and let them dry. I then quickly sanded down the nose cone with 100 grit sandpaper to see what was left over.
7/23/04 - I filled the nose cone and sanded a second time. I plan on doing one small wrap of fiberglass at the shoulder to have a smooth transition from the nose cone to the body tube. I also marked out where the fin can, alt-bay and nose cone corners end up inside the body tube to verify correct space allotment.
7/24 -7/27 - The nose cone had a slight bulge in the middle from the way I made the template and the shoulder was slightly smaller than the body tube when it was on the upper body tube. So I cut about a 3 inch wide piece of fiberglass to bring the edge out and match up with the body tube. I cut the piece long enough to wrap the bottom twice. I also cut the two pieces of all thread for the nose cone bay as well. Using a jig saw, I cut the upper bode tube in half and test fitted the alt-bay.
8/6/04 - Since I was working on the upper section of the body tube, I decided to go with shear pins. Using some #4-40 furniture nuts and #4-40 nylon screws, I drilled three holes in the nosecone bottom plate. I then installed the nuts into the holes and test fitted the screws through the body tube. They work great.
8/8/04 - Another day of filling and sanding of body tubes. I used joint compound to fill the small voids from the nylon sock and any low spots. What more can I say.
