With July 20th bearing down on us and a July 18th launch scheduled by the AARG, I dug my old 70s era Estes Saturn V out of a closet at my parents' house. The tower is missing (I know I have the pieces around here somewhere...) but more importantly, two of the fins are snapped off at the shroud.

Any ideas on how to remove the remainder of the broken fins so that I can install new ones? The broken pieces are pretty well enclosed by the shrouds and the rocket is painted and decaled.

With the limited amount of time left I think I may dispense with the tower. I was going to just pretend that any launches are after the escape tower jettison, but I just read that S-IC cutoff and jettison is about 30 seconds before the escape tower is jettisoned. Darn. But better to launch an escape tower-less Saturn V than no Saturn V at all. :-)

Any ideas on repairing those fins? Drill into the old ones and fit the new fins with horizontal dowel rods as attachment devices?

Jeff, the idea you gave in your last sentence should be your best bet. Not sure what you can do about the LES (unless you find it in time), but it's probably too late to do anything about it now. Good luck and let us know how things come out.....

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Dave, NAR # 21853 SR.

I have a dilemma t oo. I insulated interior of rocket w/foam. Now rocket much heavier and sturdier. I want to "upgrade" motor mount to a cluster and one 29 mm. What motors r recommended? It currently flies on an "E". MM is reinforced with 1/4" plywood, so it might b very difficult. Thanks! Glenn NAR 89197

Use a Dremel tool with a very small diameter router type bit to "auger" out as much of the fin base inside the shroud as you can. On your replacement fins, add a tab that can go into the shroud. It is likely to be rather short. You are probably not going to get enough fin remains out of the inside of the shroud to have a full tab that goes all the way to the tube. But, with some tab inside the shroud, and probably a reasonable dose of epoxy into the opening, you'll have enough support for your new fins.

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Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp

Thank you for the suggestions gentlemen. I guess I need to make up my mind which approach to take real-soon-now.

Examining the Saturn V again, I noticed an obstruction in the body tube. When I extracted it, it was one of the broken off fins. I vaguely remember dropping into the rocket at some point, years ago. I really wish I knew where I'd put the tower pieces. I'm pretty sure they're in an empty fish food tub with some mechanical parts for a timed automatic fish feeder...

Of course they are. Where else would they be?

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Mini Dactyl Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2

This might help with the escape tower. It's a 1/96 scale paper model of the Saturn V. To match the Estes 1/100 scale model, print the PDf files at 96% of the original.

http://jleslie48.com/satv20/


Gene DiGennaro
Baltimore, Md.

Woah ... you just gave me another idea on where to look for some missing parts ... Thanks!

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Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp

I did something to my back last weekend, so I didn't start actual repairs on the Saturn V as early as I meant to. But last night I got to work and the needed work is really pretty minor compared to the overall build.

Once I have her flyable there's still be some cosmetic issues. A couple of the RCS clusters are missing on the service module, and there are various scratches and dings in the paint, here and there. The thing has been moved to DC and back to Texas over the last three decades.

Anyway, the point I meant to start with is that I decided to use the dowel rod route for the fin attachment. Finding one of the broken fins pretty well decided me.

I used a 'T' pin to create starter holes in the broken stub and in the loose piece, being careful to put the holes at the corresponding points. Then I used a small drill bit, twisting it by hand and withdrawing it frequently. Then a slightly larger drill bit. I had to twist it with pliers at times. Finally, I was able to insert some 1/12" diameter dowel (thanks, Semroc) into the holes, and glue the broken fin back in place.

I reinforced the broken fin in this way because the broken edges do not mate particularly well. This gave some added strength. Unfortunately, at the final attachment, the fin split along the dowel hole. But I glued and squished and it's all stuck on there solidly now, but with a little more damage to the 'D' decal on that fin. And the silver color is covered in places by some wood filler I used to smooth out the joint. Ah, well.

For the missing fin, I fabricated a fin the size and shape of the portion which extends beyond the shroud. There was still about 1/8" of stub sticking out of the shroud so I shaved that down with a #2 (?, chisel shape) Xacto blade until it was pretty flush with the shroud. Then I drilled two holes as above for dowels. I drilled so that the dowels penetrate the BT-101 for extra support.

I sprayed the new fin with silver paint this morning. It should be dry by the time I get home and I can attach it to the two dowel mounts. The holes for the dowels are already drilled in the new fin.

The other two fins had some dings in them as well, which I filled with the Elmer's wood filler at the cost of putting white filler areas on the otherwise uniformly silver fins. Oh well, everything is a trade-off.

So, one fin left to glue in place. I'll skip the 'A' decal for now. The shock cord mounts are glued in, although I may adjust the cord lengths. All that's left to do is attach the fourth fin, attach the parachutes, glue the clear fin sections together, and glue the launch lug/dowel assemblies in place. Then she'll be ready to fly, probably just in time for the AARG launch to be canceled because of the drought conditions and resulting fire hazard. Sigh.