Ok Ok Ok................
I ended up going with the Giant Leap sock and aeropoxy resin and 3 oz
cloth for the fins.
I checked into the giant leap sock and the prices were not too bad and
the choice seemed clear. Also, it had proven results on Roger's EZI65.
It seems that the majority of people in this forum feel that glassing
offers some protection, and I too do not enjoy repairing rockets. Once
it's built, I want it to stay built so that I can move on to another
project eventually. I'll experiment on my own a little and if
anyone's interested I'll post some results and maybe some picts. If
this is a dumb thing to do as some suggest, I guess I'll find out on my
own.
Roger if I may; what cloth did you finish with? Some sites suggest a
fiberglass veil. How did you fill in the weave for finishing and what
was the final weight of your rocket?
For anyone; what do you do to prep the rocket for finishing? I have
seen that Kilz and Bin seem to be popular filler/primers.
Roger Smith wrote:
I used a single layer of 2oz. cloth on top of the sock. I used Kilz spray
primer, applying several coats and sanding between each coat. I painted the
rocket with color-changing paint which requires many coats. Then I finished
with a layer of acrylic car wax. So there are many layers of paint on the
rocket. I probably spent $100 just on primer and paint. It looked nice for
a little while, but the wax didn't protect the paint as well as I had hoped.
With the fiberglassing and the other upgrades I made, the rocket weighs
about 4.5 pounds. On an H120 and H165 motors, it flew about 600 feet. Next
month I may try it on an I200 if it's a calm day. Rocksim says it should go
about 2000 feet on the I200. I'm working on adding dual-deployment for it,
but not sure if it'll be ready next month, so I'll hope for no wind. I
don't like walking miles to recover my rockets. :-)
While building my EZI-65, I referred often to the Rocketry Online article at
http://www.rocketryonline.com/tech/tech_ez_01.html . It's an excellent
tutorial.
Photos and video of my Level 1 Certification flight using the EZI-65 are on
my web site at:
http://www.payloadbay.com/article-level-1-certification-1.html
The onboard-camera footage in the video is faked (it's actually from an
earlier Oracle flight), but I've atoned for my sins by actually flying a
digital camcorder on my EZI-65 last Saturday. I'm very pleased with the
results. See:
http://www.payloadbay.com/article-upscale-cineroc-takes-flight.html
Good luck with your project!
-- Roger
Really enjoying all this discussion of the EZI-65. Quite my favorite
rocket.
Coker's EZI is worthless and weak, though. I have what may well be the
most overbuilt EZI in existence, with 3 wraps of 4 oz. glass, .125 G10
fins, etc. etc.. Big I motors are the mininum, and it rocks on a J415.
Dozens of flights on that one, and never a repair (knock on wood).
As Frank would say, "I did it my way".
Indeed. Got downscale ones too, you know.
That design just flies so well. Arrow straight almost always, not too
susceptible to weather cocking yet extremely stable, plenty of room for
avionics and recovery laundry, and with it's fin design they are not
likely to be damaged even under a less than nominal recovery.
Using aerosleeve materials is very easy. No seams, no multiple wraps of
cloth, no loose ends, just apply the sleeve(s) over the mandrel (or tube),
wet it out, and that's it.
Kevin OClassen
True enough. Have you ever seen a rocket or sub munition penetrate
reinforced concrete, e.g. runway busters?
For the most part, glassing is just a heavy method of finishing, but
fiberglass, and other composite materials, can also be used to reduce
airframe mass, by replacing more massive material.
Alan
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