Fiberglassing
I decided to fiberglass the LOC 5.5in tube.
BEFORE
I glassed the BT with 1 wrap of 6oz
glass. AFTER
Process:
I started construction on 4/15/01.
I removed the glassine coating from the outside by
pealing it off.
Seeing as this was my first attempt at pealing this coating
off it was a bit nerve racking, not wanting to destroy the tube.
I was
concerned that the amount of paper peeling off might vary and make the tube
look all bumpy. Well the peel was great. It made the tube very coarse allowing
the fiberglass something to bight into. Also in pealing the tube it made the
diameter a little smaller so that when the glass was added it wasnt much bigger
than before glassinghus allowing the nose cone to fit very well.
Before pealing it was 5.54in and after fiberglass it
was 5.58in.
It would have been even
smaller if I vacuum bagged it.
Because I didnt vacuum bag it the outside had a nasty weave to
it.
I decided to paint resin on the
tube to fill this weave.
First I
built a rocket rotisserie
so that there would be no drips.PIC1 and
PIC2
I sanded the fiberglass
so the resin would have something to bight into then painted resin
on.
Fired up the rotisserie
and rotated the rocket to make the outside smooth.
It worked great!
Tube slotting
You may have noticed from the pictures of the rotisserie that the tube was slotted.
I slotted this tube on my table saw. I just built a
jig to hold the tube steady.
It was quick
and easy. So quick in fact that I didnt get a picture of it.
I got the idea here http://www.vahpr.com/Ts/TS2.html
