SPIRIT PROJECT
Tom Blazanin

With the 2009 season over, at least for me when I buried another rocket in Black Rock, I figured I'd get busy and work on my LDRS-19 rocket called SPIRIT. I had some leftover 4" fiberglass tubes and G-10 sheets laying around and I also had an old old old fiberglass nose cone I had made back in 1990 (20 years ago!) I quickly drew up an idea for some spiffy hard to make fins and SPIRIT was as good as done.

Once the fins were cut, shaped and beveled (not an easy task) I eploxied them onto a 3" motor tube. Because of the desired extra length the airframe was extended 10" with a heavy duty coupler. The airframe was slotted for three fins all the way to the end of the tube so the motor tube and fins would then slid into place. Heavy fillets of Duraglass (love that stuff) hold the fins securely to the motor tube which was then slid into the airframe. The fore and aft centering rings got a heavy dose of epoxy and the tail end was secured.

The three fins, once cured in place, were then bonded to the airframe externally with a good run of Duraglass. This stuff is strong thick epoxy usually used in automotive repair. It is best worked just at or after it kicks off cause once its hard it is hard to sand or shape. A nice fillet of Bondo finished the job. Bondo, on the other hand, needs some grating at kick off but is best sanded once it hardens.


Clamps were used to hold the tail tight with the
centering rings until the epoxy cured.


With the Bondo fillet sanded and primered a thin run of
Glazing Stain finishes off the fin fillets.

With the tail end finished; motor anchors inserted and tail filled flush, it was time for final primer. Luckily Indian Summer arrived and nice painting weather was convenient. Click HERE to see the finish primered tail.

The nose cone got reconditioned after a bunch of years getting banged around. It wasn't all that bad but while working on it and reminiscing of the days when I made it out of a two piece mold I got the brilliant idea to make another two piece mold project with a newer longer nose cone. So instead of the standard 5 caliber nose cone usually seen on rockets I would have a 7 caliber nose cone.

At the present time the mold project in being worked on and the old 5 caliber nose cone sits atop the SPIRIT at this time. Once the new nose cone is finished it will replace the old one.

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