Sunday, June 1, 2008

Nose cone final assembly

After I finished filling the nose cone with foam (highly exothermic!) I loosely wrapped some masking tape inside the shoulder as a support, wiped a bunch 'o' epoxy above the tape, and inserted the bulkhead.  You can see how irregular the inside of the shoulder is so there wasn't much adhesion:
You might also note that the bulk head is a bit tilted.  The foam pushed up unevenly, formed a high spot and, despite my best efforts, would not level out.  I thought about the forces involved on the U-bolt and decided this tilt won't affect much.  I then poured in some thickened epoxy around the perimeter but the gaps were so large it ran right through.  Danger, Will Robinson! This loose fit caused alarm bells in my head because only this interface will prevent the bulkhead from pulling out of the nose cone.  I then elected to use the remainder of the 1" wide fiberglass cloth and wrapped that around the inside of the shoulder and on top of the bulkhead.  Finally I poured a heap of epoxy in on top of all this and ensured it cured at a tilt that would level the epoxy fill.  This part is now done and ready for external finishing.  Yay!

No comments: