Friday, July 7, 2017

Estes Apollo Little Joe II Build, Part 33, Escape Tower Nose Weight






The escape tower get 3 1/2 pats of clay weight.
They total .87 oz.
TIP: Instead of rolling the clay into small worms, cut the 1/2 pat of clay into small pieces and roll them into little balls. These will go in first into the nose cone already glued into the tube.
Drop the clay balls in a few at a time and press in place with a dowel. The clay balls pack in tighter and you aren't chasing a clay snake around the end of a body tube.

The other three pats are rolled into cylinders and pressed in with a dowel. Drop and seat the clay cylinders one at a time.





The 3 1/2 pats of clay totally fill the nose cone and tube.

GOTCHA: I glued the nozzle "hat" assembly in place with epoxy.
The only problem was the nozzle hat was airtight in the tube! Air pressure inside wouldn't allow me to seat the base of the nozzle hat against the edge of the tube.
It took a few minutes of turning the nozzle assembly to work the remaining air out of the unit. I checked back a few minutes later only to find it was being pushed out again.
Check, press and re-seat - repeat until the epoxy dries.
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3 comments:

  1. Ed MittonJuly 7, 2017 at 9:21 AM

    Hi, Chris,
    Quick question on the air pressure problem encountered in this post. If you were to do it over again, would it be feasible to drill a tiny vent hole up through the nozzle assembly which can then be filled and paint-touched after assembly?
    This is a great build. I'm itchin' to get me a LJII !

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    1. Chris MichielssenJuly 7, 2017 at 2:56 PM

      Hi Ed,
      That did cross my mind but it was too late with the 15 minute epoxy starting to set up. It'd be best to drill a hole through the bottom after the nozzles are glued in place. There wouldn't be any fill or touch up needed.

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  2. Eric PeltzerSeptember 10, 2018 at 6:56 PM

    Chris - Thanks for the tip on the clay balls and the "gotcha" on the air pocket. The clay balls is a great idea - worked great for me. For anyone building this out, I also used a 1/2" dowel to pack the tube (you will need a smaller one for the nose cone) and it worked very well.

    Thanks to your warning, I drilled a hole in the hat assembly (smallest drill bit I had on-hand was 3/64") - it worked perfectly. The hat seated and glued with no problem, then, when the epoxy was dry, I used a toothpick to fill the drill hole with a bit more epoxy, hit it with a bit of black gloss paint and it came out very well. Definitely the recommend course of action.

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