More work has been done on the Wild Thing. I drilled four small holes through the motor tube and into the 5/8 inch plug. I then epoxied 4 short sections of dowel into the holes. These will serve two purposes. First, they will provide a bit of an additional anchor for the plug to prevent it coming loose during recovery. Admittedly a small chance but why risk it. They will also prevent me from pushing the forward end of the baffle too far down the motor tube.
I then used the bulkhead I’m not using to mark the fin positions. This will help me get the fin alignment correct.
I then pushed it on to the back of the rocket over the 38mm motor tube.
Next, it was time to epoxy the motor mount assembly into the main tube. I first marked on the outside the position of each of the centering rings. This would help me figure out where to smear epoxy on the inside so I would be sure to push the ring through the epoxy on its way to its final position. Since there were three rings on this motor mount, I needed to smear epoxy for the top ring first. Once I had it smeared all around the inside of the tube I started pushing the motor mount in. Before the next centering ring went inside the tube, I smeared its epoxy inside the tube. Then continued pushing the mount in until I was nearing the last ring. This ring basically fits flush with the end of the main tube, so I smeared epoxy at the end of the tube. I then pushed the mount in the final amount. Once that was done I stood the rocket up on its business end as vertical as I could get it. I was using 30 minute epoxy for this, so I let it cure for a couple of hours before I laid the rocket over.
Now I needed to glue in the upper baffle bulkhead. I mixed up about 10ml of 30 minute epoxy and put my rubber gloves on. I smeared a bit of epoxy just above where the bulkhead was to go and then pressed the bulkhead into place. I then used a finger and scooped out some epoxy from the cup and smeared it around the tube/bulkhead joint. I also smeared some around the motor tube/bulkhead joint. I again stood the rocket up vertical until the epoxy had cured.
I then installed the rail buttons. The lower button was screwed into the centering ring at the base of the main tube. The upper button was installed just above the upper baffle ring.
I need to fill in the spirals on the dummy tubes. I could have glassed them but that would have made it difficult to get them installed on the centering rings, and made it harder to get the fins on. It won’t be too bad to get them filled. Then it will be on to the fins. I’ll start by rounding the edges. Then they will get glued in according to the alignment ring I made. Anyway that will be a future update. That’s it for now, thanks for looking.
Luhman-ations 