The Builders corner,All are invited

 I am asking all to please feel free to post anything rocketry here. Let it involve your knowledge of building rockets or support equipment.

This may include jigs that have been designed.

Launch equipment, or links to something that you may like.

I have posted some pictures that I like.

The first is our college bound grasshopper Shon with his scale MLAS,

 The next is a picture of Shon turning the Command Module on the lathe.

We have quite a few pictures of the many projects that we have completed and are currently working on. 

Please goto the builders corner page with your information.





Here is the Mock up of the
 MLAS and Coast skirt



Shon With his MLAS





Tim's scale model drying



Please post any pictures you may have

Thanks

Rick "SCRATCH"

weekend project notes

  The weekend was a busy one, with the Super Bowl and all. But the MLAS project was still on the minds of all involved. While we were all together for some football. We took the time to discuss some details of the project. We all decided to build three models of the rocket, one at 8", one at  12", and one at 24" we feel that this will give us some experience with all the "Systems" we need to know. Also it will give us time to perfect the alignment of the 4 motors.  I will update more later today

Rick "SCRATCH" Mckee

The Redesign Process

 Yes we have Redesigned the CM of the MLAS project. This will be short and sweet.
Reason: 1 we were having a hard time working on the CM floor due to the fact that the blue foam is foam.
             2. The upper and lower parts needed to be assembled apart.
             3 Space concerns in the shop.
            
Solution. 1. We constructed the heat shield upside down, using onle one layre of blue foam as a floor.
              2. We also constructed the upper layre of the CM using the same method of one piece of foam.
                  this allowed us to place a piece of plywood on the floor and walk on it.
              3. It also made it easier lining up the ribs we used to form the skeleton of the CM.

All of these methods are a work in progress, and we are learning as we move foward with this project.
The team members spend alot of time trying to come ou with ways to make this project a successful one, while at the same time having fun.

Rick  "SCRATCH" McKee
NAR 87253 L3

   

I have new plans.

  Yes I have new plans, Many thanks to Tim Wilson on that. The plans are very detailed on the dimensions and how they were assembled. Along with many pictures that show the actual MLAS project.
His project was a larger scale than the one we started on, but all the parts are the same.

  As I mentioned before the main issue is weight. I think we have solved the problem,
We have designed the main command module around a blue foam core wrapped with a fiberglass cloth.
Along with that we are using a resin coated honeycomb.  This has dropped the weight a huge amount.
  Tim mentioned that with his project he elected to use 3 X 29mm motor mounts stacked in the traditional way.  
  The ARC team has gone round and round on this matter and we are going to attempt the same configuration as the real MLAS.  Our design will be using most of the same electronics the we use in the larger rockets.
Altimeters from perfect flight, timers, video, and a host of other things that I will get into in later post.

  I will tell you that the intent is to bring the Command Module to the fair as a display.  We plan on having led's inside the CM along with some other bells and whistles for the kids to see. I think this will be a good draw to this years fair. Last year our display brought over 30k visitors to the booth, over a three week period.

Her is a list of some of the vendors we use on a regular  basis

Hobby lobby                                                    CTI IND
Whats up  hobbies                                            Areotech
Perfect flight                                                     Sticker Shock Stickers
Apogee Components                                       Sticky Stuff  sales
Home Depot
Walmart
McMacter Carr
Granger Supply
Harbor Freight
and many others I will list soon

Here is another build story



THE FLOOR/HEAT SHIELD



  We have gotten to the part where we start to see the frame now. I have been working on this for a while and seem to be getting the hang of it.  The hardest part of this project will be keeping the weight low without sacrificing strength. By that I mean under 450 lbs total weight ,(loaded)
  These pictures show the progress we have made. You can also see the wood frame in the lower picture. That was scrapped due to the weight thing. Also you see Shon foaming the corners of the floor/ heat shield.

  Wed,  we went to the local Fiberglass vendor Sticky-Stuff  and purchased two part foam. After we got back to the Vehicle assembly area, IE  my shop, where we did some experimentation with the foam.  



The CM



  This picture is one where you start to see the size of the command capsule. This one is actually two ft smaller than the Apollo CM.  As I stated before we plan to coat the foam with a sealer then fiberglass them. Our vendor has told us this will be more than enough strength if done correctly. One of the jokes around the shop is that after this project, we all will be experts with fiberglass.   Agreed?

On my next post I will go into some of the details we are working on. These will include the design of the different parts.
The motor cage
The coast skirt, and other designs the team has discussed.
Please feel free to chime in any time.

   

MLAS Construction notes

  Well the weekend was a busy one in the shop. Tom,Shon, and myself were busy working on all the blue foam that Shon purchased from Home-Depot. We managed to get the floor completed and the sides cut.
Shon worked on the 1/28th scale MLAS that we are using for a boilerplate.  This will be two fold, one will be the basic for the flight. The other will be to figure out how to get all the events to actually happen.
 
The main problem is weight, I had thought that we would do this project in wood framing, ( I used to be a framer so this seemed like a logical choice) but once wee began to construct we quickly found weight a real problem. So we went to blue foam, after a long night and alot of critical thinking we decided to try the foam ion everything. The plan is to fiberglass everything. This will solve the weight and even some money problems.

Monday we all went to Sticky Stuff here in Phoenix,AZ During the visit we learned the proper way to layup the Glass. We also saw some of the alternatives we may have. I will add more to this later. I look foward to the build and will keep all of you guys updated as much as possible.