Greetings, Blog Followers
This past weekend I finally was given a substantial block of time to get into the shop and actually work on some rocketry projects.
First item on the agenda was to drive up to Lone Tree from Castle Rock to stop in at the Hobby Town store. There I finally picked a Little Joe II kit for which I had been saving pocket change in a coffee mug throughout the past year . While there, I picked up one each of the Estes PNC-20 and PNC-5 nose cone packs. These fulfill nose cone requirements for several of the model rocket builds currently on the bench. I'm actually taking the 'lazy man's' way out with these as the original intent had been to turn balsa cones for these models on the lathe. The plastic cones will save me a lot of time in the interest of actually getting some rockets built.
Also acquired at the hobby store was a packet of blank clear decal material.
Once I got home, out came the lap-top. After a couple of hours jimmying around with downloading decal patterns, designing custom decal patterns, attaching them all to a word document, adjusting sizes to fit the intended models, and making B&W test copies, I was ultimately able to produce a good decal sheet covering five of my current build projects.
I had hoped to get some Krylon clear seal on the decal sheet, but the excessive ambient airflow velocity of the vehicle finishing facility (wind in the back yard) was such that any spray painting was rendered out of the question. This has been a problem throughout most of February and March. All of the calm days have been too cold, and all of the warm days have been overly windy.
Frustrating, this.
I've had the Lunar Patrol model all prepped for painting all this time, but never the right conditions for spray painting. Serious consideration is going into perhaps building an indoor spray booth. The weather conditions have also prevented any hopes of getting out for a rocket launch during the past two-month span. Sigh....
Next up on the 'tuh-doo' list was to break out the container of CWF and fill seams on the multitude of body tubes for no less than six rocket projects. I see much sanding in the near future.
While puttering around in the shop, I managed to perform pretty much a complete build of an Astron Alpha. Early this morning, I got up and did final grain-fill sanding on the fins, and attached the launch lug. All that is left is applying a glue fillet to the lug, then the model goes into the painting queue to await its first coat of primer.
I also made substantial progress on grain filling and sanding the many balsa fins on the Satellite Interceptor. This one should also be primer-ready by the end of the week.
Yet another project was to fashion a 500g weight to calibrate a Magnum digital scale I acquired back in February. The weight consisted of a glass baby food jar filled with enough nickels and a few paper clips to exactly equal 500 g.
Now I can weigh my models in style!
As a final touch to the Model Rocketry Weekend, I was able to fashion a new dowel 'antenna' for the tail fin on the Lynx model. This piece had been lost on its last flight.
Phew! I'm ready to go back to my regular job this morning for a little R & R....
Cheers!
Monday, March 26, 2018
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Back On Track....
This morning I finally got back to building model rockets after having spent the past month diverting my attention toward a campaign of de-cluttering and re-organizing the basement. This project also encompassed the wood shop and, of course, the model rocketry operations center.
In my last post, I included a picture of the model rocket/utility workbench. Last week I modified it to make it a little easier to use by removing the water bed drawer unit and a section of the under-bench shelf. I can now sit comfortably on the shop stool facing forward with ample leg room underneath the bench.
Above the bench is a cabinet carcase which I had hanging around the wood shop. The original intent was to build a hanging wall cabinet for my wood working hand tool collection, but I found that it makes a dandy enclosure to store all of the in-progress model rocket builds up and off the work bench.
Underneath the bench is a single wide recessed shelf that holds my model rocket tool box, the range box, a first aid kit, and a few other random tools, odds and ends.
Even though it is highly functional, I am still not entirely pleased with this bench, mainly for aesthetic reasons. It's ugly. As noted before, it was originally built (nailed together!) out of scrap dimensional lumber to be used as a makeshift chop saw station.
I currently have a design finished on the drafting table for a new dedicated model hobby bench that I will soon be building in the wood shop. It will be considerably smaller than the current bench, but will be equipped with a better system of tool storage drawers and a hutch unit with overhead shelves and cabinets.
And it will be much prettier!
As for my model rocket tool kit, I have organized it all into this:
It's an old lidded box that at one time held some sort of A/V equipment. For many years it has been a storage repository for a lot of random junk that I have since discarded or re-purposed.
Last weekend, I cobbled together a shallow tool tray for this box out of a piece of 1/4" plywood and some Home Depot paint stir sticks. The box now houses most of my model building tools and stores conveniently on the under-bench shelf.
In other un-related news, the BlastFromThePast family was increased by one with the birth of a new grandson on March 9th. Another future model rocketeer soon to be in the making, I should suspect.....
Cheers!
In my last post, I included a picture of the model rocket/utility workbench. Last week I modified it to make it a little easier to use by removing the water bed drawer unit and a section of the under-bench shelf. I can now sit comfortably on the shop stool facing forward with ample leg room underneath the bench.
Above the bench is a cabinet carcase which I had hanging around the wood shop. The original intent was to build a hanging wall cabinet for my wood working hand tool collection, but I found that it makes a dandy enclosure to store all of the in-progress model rocket builds up and off the work bench.
Underneath the bench is a single wide recessed shelf that holds my model rocket tool box, the range box, a first aid kit, and a few other random tools, odds and ends.
Even though it is highly functional, I am still not entirely pleased with this bench, mainly for aesthetic reasons. It's ugly. As noted before, it was originally built (nailed together!) out of scrap dimensional lumber to be used as a makeshift chop saw station.
I currently have a design finished on the drafting table for a new dedicated model hobby bench that I will soon be building in the wood shop. It will be considerably smaller than the current bench, but will be equipped with a better system of tool storage drawers and a hutch unit with overhead shelves and cabinets.
And it will be much prettier!
As for my model rocket tool kit, I have organized it all into this:
It's an old lidded box that at one time held some sort of A/V equipment. For many years it has been a storage repository for a lot of random junk that I have since discarded or re-purposed.
Last weekend, I cobbled together a shallow tool tray for this box out of a piece of 1/4" plywood and some Home Depot paint stir sticks. The box now houses most of my model building tools and stores conveniently on the under-bench shelf.
In other un-related news, the BlastFromThePast family was increased by one with the birth of a new grandson on March 9th. Another future model rocketeer soon to be in the making, I should suspect.....
Cheers!