Sunday, August 3, 2008

Booster progress

I spent most of my Sunday working on repairs.  This entry shows that I sanded the new length of phenolic tubing to fit nicely.  I also had to cut the coupler to 10" from 12" to fit the payload coupler.  I sanded all the parts to be adhered (to improve grip) and mixed up a batch of epoxy.  I took a foam paint brush and coated all key surfaces to ensure good wetting and adhesion.  Finally I twisted/fitted the parts together then taped them up to cure since there were some odd corners that might have otherwise separated during curing:
This shot shows the cured booster with the tape removed:I should also mention that I used a ruler to verify that the new parts were in-line with the old.  I don't want any wiggles or curves during flight.  I'll gap-fill tomorrow then it's on to fiberglassing.

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