Yo PSAS,
Here're a few updates and things we need to do for the airframe. Stuff that needs action from people is in bold.
On Friday, the propellant tank team helped demold the nosecone Adam and I laid up earlier in the week. The seam between the half shells wasn't fully wetted with epoxy and the halves were misaligned, so it's not a flyable nosecone.
I would like to review the process and results with Adam. I think we can fix the problems with something like the following:
- Layup each half shell normally, leaving the flange dry.
- Vacuum bag each half shell.
- Unbag and demold each half shell.
- Wet the flanges with epoxy.
- Align and clamp the shells.
- Smooth over the flanges.
We have almost everything we need to make a fin can.
We need to make some more brackets. Adam and I know how to do this. Andrew expressed an interest in learning how to make brackets, so perhaps one of us can outsource some bracket making to him or someone. It's relatively straight forward if you've seen someone do it and been told what the gotchas are.
We need to sand one of the adhesive-surfaced modules. We have a contraption for that. To use it, we need to 3D print a variant of the spider. I already sent an email to the LID mailing list, but if someone wants to check if it's on the queue, that'd be great. If it's not, please add it. We need two of them. The relevant info for the print is as follows:
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| File: | STL |
| Extents: | 6.0 inches in diameter and 0.55 inches tall |
| Units: | inches |
| Printer: | Ultimaker 3 or Ultimaker 2 |
| Color: | don't care |
| Infill: | 20% |
| Wall thickness: | 3 layers |
| Detail: | 2/5 (like 0.2 or 0.3 mm; doesn't matter too much) |