Friday, May 6, 2011

Estes Saturn V Build Part 13 Shrouds

Cut a piece of masking tape a little shorter than the height of the shroud.

I set the tape on my jeans pant leg. Press and lift, press and lift.
This leaves small thread fibers on the tape and reduces it's stickiness.

If the tape were used at full adhesion, it could tear the shroud when you remove it after gluing it together.


This shows why I cut the tape shorter than the height of the shroud.
You want to see and match up the two sides of the shroud. You can also judge the fit of the two edges butting up against each other.

Don't press the tape down hard! This lessens the chance of tearing the shroud when you remove the tape.


It doesn't take much glue on the tab to glue a shroud together.
Too much glue and it can soak into the card stock deforming it!
Set some glue on the tab and wipe most of it off with your finger.

The tab is set centered between the two sides, with about 1/16" from the top and bottom.

Here I'm using a dowel to roll the tab into place.
Don't use a lot of pressure, you don't want the white glue to seep through the seam and glue the tape on the other side!

Time spent on build: 1:00 forming and gluing 3 shrouds
Total time on build so far: 11:30

5 comments:

  1. When I finished with my shrouds I did a test fit, and wasn't happy with the way the bottom didn't match exactly with the coupler. I wish I'd just waited but I took a pair of scissors to the 3rd stage shroud to make it slightly shorter for a better fit.

    After that was done I decided to test fit all the stages and I realized that the overhang I'd trimmed off would have fit really nicely against the main body tube.

    Fortunately there is a wrap that goes over this piece that might hide any gaps, but I'm also hoping to get your PDF file so I can make 3 more shrouds in hopes of getting a better one! Heh.

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  2. Hi Mushtang,
    Sorry, I'm on a cruise ship and unable to send PDFs from here. The internet connections are very, very slow.
    I'll be back home after January 3. If I can find it, I'll send it out. To remind me, email a PDF request at oddlrockets@bellsouth.net

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  3. Hi, Chris. I know this is an old post, but I had a question for you about this part.

    I'm currently building the newest Saturn V, which still features one of the two paper shrouds. I'm wondering if you've ever used Tim Van Milligan's method of gluing shrouds together using rubber cement on the glue tab, and if you've found that to be a superior method of gluing them together. I think I've seen it mentioned in a few Apogee videos, and it's also in Model Rocket Design and Construction. I was just wondering if and experienced builder like yourself would recommend it. I only have a little bit of experience with paper shrouds, and they haven't always come out great for me.

    Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Daniel,
      I'll be doing my NARCON talk about shrouds. I haven't used rubber cement for shrouds so I really can't recommend it one way or the other. I use a very thin coat of wood glue, sometimes a glue stick.
      I would recommend drawing a 1" reference on the Estes kit shroud, make copies and practice. Pick the best one. I've seen many poorly formed shrouds on models. With the Saturn V, a bad shroud can effect the fit of the vacu-form wrap. Take it slow, print a few before you use the kit shroud.

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    2. I'm really looking forward to your presentation.

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