4" LOC Nike Zeus Build for L2 Cert.

[Ron Soto]

Preamble:

ABM's... gosh, i just love the way they look. This kit came boxed with the Athena and were protected from bumps and bruises. One thing i did right away was look at the MMT. In my wifes' previous Athena build, we found that the MMT for the Athena was too small. where, instructions stating placing the CR's 1/8" from end of MMT... BUT, we found that the MMT was too short and used 1/16" (several others stated the same on my build thread.) This said, the MMT for the Nike is 14" long which will accommodate an Aero Pack Tail Cone motor retention assembly. (a quick rocksim shows that the Nike will travel an additional 400' from the original flight 'max altitude feet' with the tail cone assy. installed. Pert Cool..

first thing i did was remove the glassine from the MMT and tried to place the CR's onto it. i'll have to do some sanding to the CR's before i can do any testing.

The weather here in Florence has been brutal lately with temps in the 90's and humidity in the 70's.. yuck! I've started the AC in the shop and will see how it performs here in the SC heat & humidity.

Ron

 

[Ron Soto]

when doing my research i found that using the Aero Pack Tailcone Assembly will provide a much less drag at the rear of the BT, thereby increasing my altitude between 375' and 503' depending on the differing motors and other variables. SO.. i've already got the kit.. so i went ahead and went to Wildman and purchased the Aero Pack 5439A Assembly. Unlike the Athena where the MMT was barely long enough, the Nike has a 14" MMT which will give me enough room to mount the assembly.

and, i ordered several motors and other accessories from Jonathan from newcenturyrocketry.com. basically an assortment of H's, I's, and a J. for my L2. As for launching that J at Dalzell.. that's a hit and miss with the wind (and at this past launch, i saw several rocketters heading into the trees to recover their rocket.. i'll NOT be doing that. i put way to much work into my vehicles for that) . Abet, when i run the simulations on rocksim (using 10mph steady, and 15mph gust) each time i run the sim.. the recovery is darn near the launch point.. (any thoughts on that?)

r-

 

[Ron Soto]

I actually pulled everything out and did an inventory of the parts that were supposed to be in the Nike package.. come to find out I'm short one coupler.. obviously a quality assurance failure from LOC.. and this is something I wouldn't expect.

I did dry fit the fin can after a little love sanding on the CR's. Everything looks good there. But I cannot build the fin can until the tail cone arrives from Wildman due to fitment.

Next I used a light hammer to insert the T-Nut flanges into the aft CR, and attached the eye bolt to the forward CR.

I looked at the NC.. LOL. This is gonna require some work prior to any finishing. (I can feel my arms and hands aching already from the 800 grit )

Today I sanded the glassine from the payload section using both a ruff sanding sponge, and 400 grit sandpaper.

 

[RokitFlyr]

Nice. Just a thought, is the missing coupler hiding in one of the airframe tubes? It happens.

 

[-Slick-Ice]

Exactly what happened to me. I knew I saw it in the box when I opened it and somehow ended up WAY inside of another tube.

 

[Ron Soto]

Nice. Just a thought, is the missing coupler hiding in one of the airframe tubes? It happens.

My very first thought.. I checked 3 times.. and just went out to the shop to check again.

R

 

[Ron Soto]

i'm still waiting for the Aero Pack tailcone which will arrive a little later on today (i need this to start on the fin-can).. which is VERY fast shipping from Wildman as i ordered the tail cone on this past friday. I was also able to order 2 pull pin switches which will arrive in a few days. And LOC is sending my coupler priority mail so will probably get that in a couple of days.

Today,

sanded all 12 fins in preparation for placement and finishing.
applied thin CA to the top or aft payload section BT which ever i decide. the end of the BT was soft so i wanted to strengthen it up.
sanded the booster BT with 400 grit sandpaper to remove the glassine. the payload section was previously completed.
the spirals on the payload section.. i pushed in putty which will be sanded down with 400 and 800 grit sandpaper.

 

[Ron Soto]

The aero pack 54mm tail cone assembly arrived yesterday evening, so today i set out to start fitting the fin can together.

the MM tube needs to be 1.87" protruding from the aft end of the booster BT. So i started there, measured up and started placement of the aft and mid CR's ensuring that the notch's on both the aft and mid CR were aligned for fin placement. this was achieved by eyeballing the first time, removing the fin-can.. and adjusting the placement, and reinstalling the fin-can until notches were placed within BT cutouts. CR's were then marked with for placement for the 'just in case'.

after setting up the fin-can, i dry fitted the tail cone assembly. whilst the instructions state that there 'could' be a gap between the top edge of the tail cone and the bottom edge of the BT.. i found that the fit couldn't be much better.

yesterday, the payload BT was sanded with 200 and 400 grit sandpaper to remove any glassine and the spirals on the payload BT were filled with putty. today after drying, i used 200 & 400 grit sandpaper to start smoothing out the payload BT.

The booster BT was sanded with 200 & 400 grit sandpaper to remove any glassine, any divots were filled-in along with the spirals.

tomorrow, i'll be starting with epoxing the fin-can assembly together.

r-

 

[Ron Soto]

today was all about the fin-can.

fins needed some sanding prior to final dry fit. this fin can will be built out of the BT and then inserted. After sanding and dry fitting one more time, i taped up the ends of the MM tube so epoxy will not get inside the tube. i also had attached the shock cord to the eyelet at the forward CR. One by one, i fitted the fins to the already marked MM tube for each fin. (this was due to each fin being sanded for fitment for each cutout.) When using the epoxy, i actually poured it into the area which was at 45 deg angle.. i noticed that due to the epoxy being a little thin due to the heat that it seeped to the other side of the fin. only a little more epoxy was need on the opposite side. whilst epoxying the fins in place i slattered epoxy at the transition between MM tube and CR's.

after curing, i slide the completed MMT assembly up and into the booster BT. Nice Fitment... BUT.. measure twice, cut once.. lol well i measured and dry fitted the tail cone assembly for an exact fit.. but that didn't happen. i found that there was a 1/16" gap between the BT and the tail cone.. So i taped off 1/16" and used my disk sander to sand the tube down a smig.. Now the fitment is where it's supposed to be.

side note: current weight for MM assembly without tail cone assembly is ~1.4 lbs (lol no one said this was a light vehicle!)

Which brings up something... i believe that the CP will change aft. how would i calculate that?

Tomorrow:

the MMT will be pulled out and the eyelet needs to be epoxied at the nut to screw connection point.
the tail cone MM attachment point will epoxied in.
after re-inserting the MM into the aft section of the booster, a filet of epoxy will be applied at the fwd and aft CR's.
the aft section of the booster will need finishing as it was cut the bottom to install the MM assembly.

r-

 

[Ron Soto]

Today was about the fin filets. I used JB Weld 5 min epoxy. I poured after waiting about 2 minutes, the thickened epoxy into the transition between the BT and fin. After pouring I tilted the airframe to smoothen the epoxy and set to dry.

After curing putty was placed into voids. After curing putty was sanded.

Filets of epoxy were placed at aft CR to MM tube, and CR to BT.