Crayon X1 - X2 Projects, Two modular rockets based on earlier Crayon X3 design further refined by lessons learned - and again from X1 to X2 to explain why most of build pics are of X2... ...C`est la Vie... |
While your page2 was loading I painted the fins... Two coats of Kiltz spray primer, let dry at least a day or two, sand like a monkey with fleas and paint... I chose Krylon Banner Red and Sun Yellow... |
...for a nice matching paint scheme for all three in the series. Here's the fin can all put together and trued up. Nice and easy when all is lined up right... If not, use washers to shim fins... |
After the airframe got drilled and slotted to match the fins and threaded brass inserts on the sides of centering rings, I used two #8 - 1/2" drawer handle screws per side to put everything together with some patience and gentle persuasion (rrriigghhttt....) On the belly side I used #8-3/4" machine screws stacked with a washer and a rail button from railbuttons.com (yet another free plug...) that thread right thru the airframe, onto those very same threaded brass inserts on the sides of the centering rings. Since everything is symmetrical, I can also use all these as attachment points for more cool stuff like extra fins, camera pods, air brakes,or drop off SRB's.... |
I slapped the nose cone on just for the kicks to get an idea how she's gonna look like... ...She could very well fly like this with 8 oz. of nose weight, but since this would be Crayon X1B instead of Crayon X2 according to my vague rules of choosing technobabble names and nominations, its off to the shop we go to make some couplers... |
I chopped up another Crayon tube twice at 8" to make a pair of couplers, one for the airframe, the other for payload bay, and cut a slice off of them both... |
After checking for fit I taped them back together on both ends and along the seam, and laid 3 layers off fiberglass drywall tape found in garage... |
Followed by two thin layers of 30min epoxy. One thick one would do the same, but two thin ones are easier to do... |
Lined up the airframe coupler, marked the spots and started running the drill again... |
Epoxied on the #8 nuts with washers underneath and yet one more ring on the top. This ring is a made of thin paneling (masonite?), its only purpose is to keep the chute from falling into the coupler and getting all tangled up with protruding screws... Notice that the side with reinforced seam is where the third rail button will go. |