Fin Can Altimeter bay

I'm building a short stubby rocket and plan to mount an altimeter in the fin can area between two of the fins. The body tube is 5.5" diam and 21" long. The distance between the centering rings is about 11" and there are 4 fins total.

My plan is to cut a long narrow hatch (apx 1.5 x 7.5") between the centering rings and mount the altimeter and battery to the inside of the hatch. I can put the baro vent hole very near the top of the fins so there shouldn't be much disturbance.

Is this a bad idea? I've seen this done before but it was usually a more square shaped hatch. I don't think this will weaken the structure too much because where it's located, but before I go cutting out a major section of the body tube, I want to be sure.

Thanks

Reply to
Jim
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I did the same thing on my LOC Fantom. I was worried about the tube buckling at the cut out so I glued in longitudinal (vertical ribs that ran from the motor mount tube out to the airframe tube. These ribs were 1/8 inch plywood. I put one of these vertical ribs every 90 degrees. At the cutout location I made sure that the ribs were set far enough in to allow the building of the closure lip explained hereafter. I glued wide popsicle sticks (tongue depressor size) around the inside edge of the cut out using Devcon 5 minute epoxy. I let half of the stick width hang out over the cutout edge to support the closure. For the curved part of the tube I just uses multiple short lengths of popsicle sticks to make the curve. After the epoxy dried I put some plastic saran wrap around the loose piece of airframe I had cut out. I then put 5 minute epoxy gel all over the lip I had created with the popsicle sticks and pressed the saran wrapped closure into the epoxy gel so that the edges were flush with the airframe tube. Note: I rounded the corners of the closure prior to wrapping it up. The gel then filled in the corners of the airframe cut out to comply with the rounded corners of the closure. The gel also filled in the dips and valleys created when I used short pieces of stick to form the curved part of the closure lip. When it was set I removed the closure. The saran wrap allowed this removal. I had a perfect fit for the closure and a lip that backed it up. I then assembled the closure to the airframe and drilled holes around the edge of the closure for my screws. I glued brass nut on the back side of the cut out lip to accept the screws. I used brass because I had a Magnetic Apogee Detector that I did not want steel screw interfering with the earths magnetic field. It worked great and is very strong.

Good luck with what ever method you use.

KT

Reply to
kimballt

I did something similar to that in the booster of my Terrier Sandhawk. You can see an article with pictures here:

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Reply to
Darrell D. Mobley

After posting the previous message It dawned on me that at a fin can the fins would act as the vertical ribs I previously described. So no need to add additional vertical ribs. My cut out happened to be above the fins so I had to add the longitudinal ribs.

KT

Reply to
kimballt

I reworked my original design and got the size down a bit. Now with your comments and suggestions I feel very good about this. Thanks.

Jim wrote:

Reply to
Jim

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