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Nose Cone

 

To produce the nose cone used on the rocket a mold was made from a full scale plug.  The plug was made from 1" pink foam and balsa circles. The Balsa circles were cut using a laser cutter and the pink foam was cut roughly to shape using those circles.  Once the pink foam was cut to size the pieces were stacked together on an aluminum mandrel.  The foam was then scraped and sanded into final shape before a layer of fiberglass was applied.  The fiberglass was then filled and sanded smooth before it was pointed to see any imperfections.  A female mold was then produced using the plug and resin for the mold material.  From that mold our nose cone was produced by laying our carbon/Kevlar composite into our mold and then pulling a vacuum on the two halves.  Once the pieces had cured, the two pieces were glued together and reinforced using fiberglass and carbon fiber cloth along the length of the seams.  the entire nosecone was then covered in resin and sanded smooth in order to create a suitable surface for clear coat.  The clear coat was then wet sanded to give the nose cone a smooth finish.  As a final touch, the aluminum nose cone tip, which was machined on a CNC lathe was affixed to the carbon/Kevlar body and affixed using a 1/4-20 all thread rod.

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Using Icing to smooth out the plug

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.