Back to the tower now. "To the Tower! To the Tower! Rapunzel!" But seriously: I now have all 9 of the diagonal bars on the scaffold. Next I'll reinforce the joints with thinned epoxy, trim the protrusions from the top ring, and fabricate and mount the nozzles. TBC

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__________________
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078

That was the plan, if I couldn't fill the bubbles I'd use a dowel.
The bands were sanded off and I was going to replace them with cardstock wraps.

The tower looks great! That's a good idea to shape the horizontal dowel ends to fit the verticals.

__________________
Hans "Chris" Michielssen
Old/New NAR # 19086 SR

www.oddlrockets.com
www.modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com
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Your results may vary
"Nose cones roll, be careful with that."
Every spaceman needs a ray gun.
Look out - I'm the Meister Shyster!

Jeff,

Really nice looking tower!

As you know, I've built a few, big and small, and although I always dread starting there's such a tremendous sense of accomplishment when I finish that it makes it worthwhile. As great as the Apogee tower looks on my Semroc Saturn 1B I much prefer the dowel tower on my Sandman LJII. For a tower the size of your current build tacking in place with thick CA and then epoxying all the joints when done is the way to go. Kerfing the ends of the dowels is a great idea, really improves the look and strength of the finished tower. But it's sometimes hard to get the kerf correct on both ends of a piece so I'm impressed you're making the effort.

The Neubauer LJ1 kit was also one of the first kits I bought when I got back into the hobby 7 or 8 years ago and I still haven't started the kit. My problem wasn't so much the tower as deciding which of the many LJ versions to do. Have you decided which one you're doing?

Again, the tower looks great. Your work is always such a pleasure to see.

Steve

Thanks Steve. I'm going to finish it as round LJ-5B. Although the mission had malfunctions, the round had my favorite color scheme (mainly because it carried a real spacecraft.)
I've compared the kit with the drawings in ROTW and it appears that the .25" dowel proveded to make the escape nozzles is too small for scale. A .375" dowel will be almost dead on for scale, so I'll buy one tomorrow.

Now for the photo. It's starting to resemble an LJI! The LES scaffold and motor assembly are just sitting on top of the capsule. I won't permanently mount them until both assemblies are painted.

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__________________
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078

As I suspected, Your skills were up to the task!

Looks great!

__________________
Jeffrey Deem
NAR16741
CIA section 527

Thanks. I still have to fabricate the nozzles in the correct scale. I checked my stock and I don't have ANY 3/8" dowels to make them from. When it stops snowing I'll send the wife out for one.

__________________
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078

Well, it stopped snowing and I asked the wife to go get me a 3/8" dowel. She gave me "that look", you know, the look that translates into "go get your own ****ing dowel, I just spent 2 hours shovelling snow. You big, crippled, Doofus!"

I'm getting better with those translations every day.

So as it turned out, I had a 3/8" birch dowel all along--an old one with paint all over it. No problem. While the wife is napping, I took her fine, German sharpener and sharpened a point. It's actually good that the dowel is very old--it's dry as a bone and sharpens beautifully! After smoothing the point a little, I use a 3/4" x 3/4" aluminum angle as a fence and cut the wood with the razor saw.

And Voila! 3 nozzles. TBC

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__________________
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078

I got to work on the LES a little this evening. First, I hand drilled 3 pilot holes with a .020" bit and a pin vise and then counterbored them with a 1/16" bit in a Dremel tool. I then test-fitted the nozzles into the sockets. I'll sand, seal, and paint the nozzles separately and then mount them in the sockets. I thought about hollowing out the nozzle throats for more realism, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet. A cartridge chamfering tool MAY have the correct angle, but this wood is so dry and old that it may not work without splitting them out. TBC

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__________________
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078

Nice build!

Have you thought about making the nozzles out of cardstock, then using CA to stiffen them up? I did that with my Estes Mercury Redstone.

Greg

I might try that. Did you do it that way because your Redstone was one of the old K kits with the dowel built LES?

__________________
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078