Estes Saturn V Build Part 32 Fin Gluing

On the forums, there have been concerns about the strength of the fins and fairings. I wanted to make this joint stronger than just plastic cement on the thin vacuformed plastic.

I decided to glue just the fin root edge first with liquid plastic cement. The fairing is slipped over it to help positioning and keep it straight.


I held the fin and fairing in position while the root edge glue dried.

Now the fairing could be slipped off and the root edge reinforced. Using the fairing helped insure the fin is in the right place.
So far, this plastic cemented root edge is not strong.


I applied some 15 minute epoxy with a toothpick. It didn't take much to make a small fillet.

Wipe off the excess, but it doesn't have to be that clean. It'll be covered by the fairing. With the epoxy fillet, the fin joint is much stronger now.

Time spent on build: :45 Glue Fins
Total time on build so far: 31:45