Make Ultra Lightweight Carbon-Fiber Tubes For Model Rockets

The Complete How-To Guide for Creating Composite Tubes for Competition Rocketry
What you'll learn
Discovery why would you want to make a carbon fiber tube for a model rocket
Anticipate the challenges you'll need to overcome when creating an air-tight tube
Identify the problems that will cause a tube to fail during construction
How do pressurize the mold so the carbon fiber bonds with the skin
Requirements
There are no requirements to take this course. It has been designed to help modelers to overcome the common fears that they may have that they won't have success building the finest carbon-fiber tubes in the world.
Description
This course will give you the information and confidence you need to make high-quality, customized carbon-fiber/epoxy tubes that are used in international competition rocketry. This was used by the USA team to win the silver medal in the 2021 World Space Modeling Championships held in Romania. The key to winning was having ultra-lightweight rockets made from carbon-fiber that had a low-drag surface which was a result of being a customized shape and being glass-smooth. This is the latest cutting edge in technology!These are primary objectives of the carbon-fiber tubes made in this course:Light weight tubes - lighter than anything made from fiberglass cloth/epoxyDurable - strong enough to handle rough handling, and the forces of a high velocity rocket launchSuper smooth surface finish - so that the tubes look good and have a low skin friction drag coefficientAir Tight - The outer shell holds air pressure, which is needed in order for the ejection charge to push out the recovery deviceConsistency - We want each tube we make to have the same propertiesEase of manufacture - We don't want to have to be a skilled artist to make these tubes. Everyone should have success!The keys to achieving these objectives comes down to these items:Knowledge - You have to know what is important during the process, and what isn't. That is why you will find this course invaluable, because it offers you the information that isn't available anywhere else. Having this wisdom will save you an enormous amount of time and frustration.Tools - Unfortunately, there is one tool — the "mold" — that is absolutely critical to making the carbon-fiber tubes. We'll describe this in detail so you can have it made to the correct specifications needed for success. Additionally, there are a number of assembly tools that will be needed in order to complete the construction of these tubes. You'll learn what they are, and how they are created. Materials - The basic materials required for making these tubes are two types of carbon-fiber and epoxy. But that by itself doesn't give you a high-quality tube that meets the primary objectives. There are other "secret ingredients" which are also necessary for success. In this course, you'll be shown what they are and why they are absolutely critical to making tubes successfully.Process - An example of a "process" is baking a cake from the individual ingredients. Even if you have all the correct ingredients, you have to follow a specific sequence of events and specific techniques of putting things together. What you'll see in this course are the unique techniques that aren't available anywhere else.The result from this course is you'll be able to make tubes that are as lightweight and smooth as anyone in the world. You'll also come away with skills that you can use in other hobbies as well, like building lightweight carbon-fiber model airplanes. They can also be scaled up to make larger hobby rockets as well.
Overview
Section 1: Quick Overview
Lecture 1 Overview
Section 2: The Two-Part Mold - Design and Polishing
Lecture 2 What is important when designing your two-part mold to make carbon-fiber tubes?
Lecture 3 Designing a Versatile Mold for Multi-parts - and How To Polish the Mold
Section 3: How to make the tube Air Tight?
Lecture 4 Overview of the process to make an air-tight tube
Section 4: Making the Plastic Liners
Lecture 5 Make the Plastic Liner Tube
Section 5: Make the Inflation Wand
Lecture 6 Make the inflation wand that will pressurize the mold
Section 6: Preparing the Mold
Lecture 7 Preparing the mold - Cleaning and Applying Mold Release
Section 7: Why use Polyurethane for the Skin?
Lecture 8 Why we use this magic material for the outer skin on the mold
Section 8: Let's Talk Epoxy
Lecture 9 What type of Epoxy should you use?
Section 9: Adding the Outer Skin - How to do it?
Lecture 10 How to Add the Polyurethane Paint to Create the Skin
Section 10: Using the Epoxy Spray Gun
Lecture 11 How to Adjust the Spray Gun for applying the thin film of epoxy
Section 11: Spraying the Skin Coat of Epoxy Into the Mold
Lecture 12 How to spray in the epoxy skin-coat into the mold over the urethane paint
Section 12: Preparing the CF Veil and CF Tow for Insertion Into the Mold
Lecture 13 How to separate the Carbon Tow into a wide strip
Section 13: Laying in the Carbon Fiber into the Mold
Lecture 14 The process of laying in the Carbon Fiber tow and veil into the mold
Section 14: Trimming the Carbon Fiber
Lecture 15 How to trim the carbon fiber to make the tube lighter
Section 15: Preparing for the Final Hurdle - Putting in the final epoxy
Lecture 16 Are you ready to button up the mold?
Section 16: Closing up the Mold After Applying Epoxy
Lecture 17 Closing up the mold and making it air-tight
Section 17: Putting the lid on, and pressurizing the mold
Lecture 18 Put the lid on the mold, clamp it tight, and then pressurize it.
Section 18: Demolding Process
Lecture 19 Taking the tube out of the mold
Section 19: Another Demold Attempt
Lecture 20 Removing the tube from the mold
Section 20: Sanding The Seam
Lecture 21 Sanding the seam to improve the looks and the aerodynamics of the rocket.
Section 21: Prepping for launch
Lecture 22 Preventing heat damage during flight
Rocketeers and hobbyists that want to learn the cutting edge techniques and strategies that will yield a tube that is so lightweight that it seems to float as it descends to the ground. You don't have to have experience building model rockets, but it certainly helps.


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