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Here is a
photo of the nosecone that comes with the Air-X
"Black Rock" kit. It is 30 inches from the base to the
tip and all but the very tip is filament wound fiberglass. The tip is
a piece of machined fiberglass. This is a
very nice, although somewhat heavy (2.5 lb) nosecone. It is a
precision fit into the main body tubing. It also comes with a G10
bulkhead that serves as a rear closure for the aft end of it. In the
kit, that bulkhead was originally intended to be held in place by a long
threaded rod (1/4" dia.) that runs down the center of the nosecone from
the tip to the base. The inside tip of the nosecone comes drilled
and tapped (threaded) for the rod. However, I decided not to use the
threaded rod method because I want to install a
GPS radio downlink electronics package
and various antennas inside the
nosecone. I did not want the
metal rod to disturb the operation of the antennas. Therefore, I
decided to install four machine screw anchor mounts around the inside
perimeter of the nosecone shoulder. These will allow four
#10-24x1/2" machine screws to be used to secure the bulkhead to the bottom
of the nosecone. |
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This is a view of the
nosecone bulkhead along with all the mounting hardware I used on it.
The U-bolt is the recovery harness attachment point. The film
canister with a bolt out the bottom of it will serve as holder for a
tracking transmitter. The antenna for the Walston transmitter will extend the
full length of the interior of the nosecone. There are four sets of
hardware on the right side of the photo that will be used to create the
mounting anchors. |
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This shows what I used for
the mounting anchors. The left end is a #10-24x3" pan head machine
screw that has two pieces threaded onto the tip of it. The very tip
is a standard hex coupler threaded all the way through. Just to the
left of that is a small #10-24 mounting nut that is simply used for
tightening up against the hex coupler to hold it in place. Look
close and you can also see that the bottom side of the pan head bolt has
been ground off so that the whole assembly will lay nice and flat. |
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Eight strips of Kevlar
cloth were used to bond the anchors to the inside surface of the nosecone
shoulder. The Kevlar is 8 oz cloth 0.026" thick and available
from Thermostatic
Industries, Inc. |
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This shows the sizes of the
Kevlar strips compared to the anchor bolt they will hold in place. |
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All four anchors were
attached to the nosecone bulkhead. A small amount of
Hysol Epoxy was applied to the
outside edge of each anchor. The bulkhead was then installed into
the bottom of the nosecone. The epoxy was then allowed to cure and
it bonded the anchors to the inside surface of the nosecone. At that
point the bulkhead was removed and the anchors remained tacked to the
inside of the nosecone. |
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This shows the inside of
the nosecone with the four anchors tacked in place. You can also see that
the inside surface of the nosecone has been roughed-up (sanded) to provide
a better bonding surface for the Kevlar strips that will be applied next.
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Two Kevlar strips were
saturated with West System Epoxy and layered
over the top of the anchor bolt. A small strip of wax paper and some
(black) paper clips that were used as miniature clamps, hold the Kevlar
tightly formed around the anchor bolt. |
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Once the epoxy has cured,
the clamps and the wax paper were removed. The result is a very
strong bond to the inside surface of the nosecone shoulder. All four
anchors have been completed in this photo. The ends of the anchor
bolts (the hex couplers) are visible extending out the edges of the
Kevlar. The ends were recessed just enough to match the inside surface of
the bulkhead when it is mated with the bottom of the nosecone. |
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The bulkhead is attached to
the bottom of the nosecone with four #10-24x1/2" machine screws.
This completes the
construction of the nosecone. |
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