GI Bleed then back to rockets!

 Well, about a week after my heart attack, I was re-hospitalized for a critically low potassium after getting violently ill following consumption of a suspect breakfast burrito. After that discharge I kept getting weaker and dizzier, started falling down all the time and returned to my Oncologist's where a hemoglobin test came back about 1/3 of what it should have been. So I was profoundly anemic. An endoscopy revealed a large arteriovenous malformation, which apparently had been leaking blood for a long time, messing with my appetite, causing night sweats and other symptoms. They fixed it and now I feel normal again! We just moved in the middle of all this mess too. But soon I'll have my workshop together and will resume the rocketry stuff!

UPDATE: had to go to ER yesterday to get a friggin' abscess drained. NOW maybe I can start unpacking, finish my Big Bertha, etc.

Heart Attack

Hello everyone! This is another gloomy, non-rocket post. First off some possibly good news - my CT scans ALL were completely normal with no evidence of recurrent cancer anywhere. So why so gloomy? I had my second actual heart attack like 5 or 6 days ago - the Cardiologist thought probably overnight Tuesday. I thought I had taken too high a dose of my Korlym, which treats Cushing's Disease by suppressing the adrenal glands.Adrenal insufficiency makes one extremely fatigued, nauseated and so on but the Cardiologist saw that the anterior wall of my heart, in the distribution of the left anterior descending coronary artery, moving sluggishly. He popped open a 99% re-stenosed stent. That's a little close for comfort.

I get really freaked out very time shit like this happens, it accents my mortality in a most emphatic way and I don't sleep, don't want to eat - which is bad because I've already lost like30 pounds now unintentionally. Since it doesn't seem cancer is causing the weight loss, I'm turning to my Endocrinologist in hopes of finding a reason for the weight loss and nigh sweats. But having been through 5 or 6 cardiac caths - it gets harder and harder to recover each time I think I may be facing death.

Cancer

Hi everyone! I'm back and I'll bet you may be wondering about the title of this post. Am I referring to the constellation Cancer (Latin for crab)? Am I designing a crab-shaped rocket? No, it's a considerable bit less cool than that. I have CLL/SLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocyte lymphoma). I was originally diagnosed a little over a year ago. My cancer is supposedly indolent (slow growing) and usually some other disease process kills CLL patients before the cancer ever does. I underwent 6 cycles of chemotherapy, ending last February.The chemo sucked, but it seemed to work - a CT scan on December 30 showed complete resolution of all the enlarged lymph nodes previously seen.

So I go back to the oncologist for a follow-up yesterday and when I weighed in I had lost 15 pounds over the past two months, without trying at all - down from #169 to #154. I was very surprised, as was the oncologist. While I've not noticed any swollen lymph nodes anywhere or anything like that, I have been having a lot of intense night sweats over the past couple of weeks. I hadn't really thought about those being related to cancer but when he asked if I'd been having any, I thought, "Oh crap - I have been having those again." 

So anyhow he's ordered CT scans of my chest/abdomen/pelvis again and I get those done Tuesday 07 July 2020. Meanwhile all we (Bridgid & I) can do is...wait. But unfortunately I also tend to speculate a lot and this turn of events is alarming, IMHO, because I never lost any weight before I had chemotherapy. But now I've lost fifteen pounds. So clearly there is some very active metabolism going on somewhere down in there, but the question is what's doing the metabolizing? The original malignancy didn't cause ANY weight loss. So my theory is that the chemo killed off everything except for an extremely malevolent clone of cells which has now bloomed, or else perhaps I have a second primary - colon is what I suspect. Anyhow I'm closing this post and publishing it, I just needed to write about the cancer and I'll get back to rockets ASAP! Be well.

Estes Big Bertha Build 3

Well, hello again fellow rocketeers! So from the comments, I see that either:

1) My final bonus mystery photo I closed with last time has absolutely everyone stymied!

or

2) I'm the only person who ever sees this blog.

I favor (2). So if you notice in that pic, the motor mount is securely glued and filleted into place in the body tube. Unfortunately, I neglected to glue in the motor block, which you can see sitting beside the body tube. I neglected to double check the instructions before gluing the motor mount in. So, kids, do you see why you should seek wiser counsel if you wanna learn to build rockets? Anyhow I'm going to count on the good old engine retainer hook to hold the motor in at the forward end during liftoff & hope (pray, really) that it holds the motor in at launch.

So I got all the fins spot-filled with CWF, over areas where the balsa still appeared to be bare:

Afterwards I sanded everything smooth again with 400 grit sandpaper. Then I glued the fins on one at a time with the Estes Fin Alignment Guide. When I first put the rocket onto the guide I noticed that the little paddles on the guide didn't really line up too well with the fin lines I had drawn by ticking the body tube's bottom using the little round guide, then extending from those tick marks using the Ultimate Body Tube Marking Guide. So I bit the bullet, photocopied the instructions and cut out the body tube marking guide. After wrapping this around the tube it was clear that I had gotten off on my marks, so I re-drew the lines. Everything looked all better afterwards:

As previously mentioned I'm using Titebond Quick & Thick (hereafter TBQT) in this build. It's a joy to use for sticking fins on, IMHO. I apply a line of glue to the fin's root edge, wipe it off & let that dry for one minute, then reapply a line of glue and stick the fin on. I used a clamp on the first fin only, but I don't think I needed to use any clamps, really - they tend to pull the fin off the guide line. And with this glue, after reapplication of the glue to the root edge the fin sticks in place right away and all I needed to do was double check that the fin aligned with the aft end of the tube and the guide line and step away.

Above, I had just glued the fourth fin on and things are looking good!  After the last fin dried I removed the rocket from the guide:

Then I glued the launch lug on & filleted that. I chose not to use CWF or anything to fill the spiral in the lug for this kit.

Finally it was time to fillet the fins. I was looking forward to doing this with the TBQT. I decided the fillets I made for the Baby Bertha were too flimsy. I still have to fly her to see if I'm right lol, and I just saw tomorrow's launch is canceled. Bummer. Anyway I used the masking tape technique again for these fillets but I put the tape way wider apart to theoretically produce beefier fillets. There was probably a good 1/2" channel into which I streamed the glue. This proved to be an unwise choice, as they say.

When I was done with the first set the fillets looked like 1/2" to 3/4" exuberant, white, heaped-up keloid scars. I couldn't remember if the technique I read had me scraping off the excess glue or not (pro tip: IT DID). So I chose to just leave these fillets alone & let them dry. Here's how they looked after over 24 hours of drying:

As you see the one on the left is still somewhat white. I think it's fascinating to see that the glue is starting to collapse in on itself, making a nice straight line. After I had applied the one on the left I toned down on squeezing out the glue for the right-hand one so that one is almost totally clear and collapsed. Here's another set on which I used better glue discipline, and made attempts to smooth them out with a paper-towel wrapped finger:

By the last fillet I laid down (on the top in below pic), I think I had it down, though I don't think I tried to smooth that one at all and had I it might look even better:

A concern at this point is the relative weights of the fillets, I should think. I mean, that first set was massive and clearly outweighs the last. So I'm wondering intuitively if when it flies it will arc toward the heavier side. At any rate I don't believe this is going to be an issue that affects the ability of this rocket to fly safely.

So now on to priming and painting. My scheme is to emulate the kit panel, i.e., paint the nose cone and two of the fins black, then everything else yellow. To get there, I plan on first applying a coat of grey primer, then then sanding with 400 grit sandpaper. After consulting with an expert I'm choosing to NOT do any type of wet-sanding. He says that's generally used more for MP & HP rockets with fiberglass & other materials & not so much paper & balsa, so his word's good enough for me!

So after sanding I will spray a coat of white primer and sand again. Then I'll repeat the grey, then the white. Finally it will then be ready for finish coats. I think I want to mask off the majority of the bird and paint the black bits first. So next post should be up in a day or two. Stay well!

Estes Big Bertha Build 2

So we got back from Hocking Hills just fine. On the way we swung by Home Depot to pick up an LED work light and some white & gray primer (Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X). When we got home I opened my eRockets order - the 13mm motors and the Semroc Farside-X kit. But I stayed busy on the eRockets site - now a display cradle, three 18mm display stands, Rustoleum yellow & orange paints, NewWay Skyrise & Flatboy kits as well as an Odd'l Pigasus kit are now on the way. I'm incorrigible. 

So I mixed up some VERY thick CWF and coated all the fins:

Then I got busy with other stuff and let the fins dry for a few hours. I really did put the stuff on thick and it was a lot of work to sand it all off, producing enormous amounts of sanding dust. Then I added more water to the CWF and coated and sanded a second time. I sanded with 220 grit each time. Then I thinned the CWF a final time and gave the fins a final coat. They're drying right now. I plan on doing the final sanding with 400 grit sandpaper.

OK I'm back, having worked some more on Big Bertha in the meantime. Here are my finally finished fins:

They feel absolutely smooth and I hope that proves true when I paint them! But you know, despite the fact that they feel smooth, I think I'm going to continue spot-filling and sanding (more gently, perhaps) these until the actual color is uniform. On close inspection I see areas that still look like bare balsa, though they don't feel like bare balsa.

I got, IMHO, fantastic airfoil leading edges using the North Coast Rocketry sanding jig. Here's what one looks like:

They come in small, medium & large. This is the large, for use w/ 1/8" balsa. You fold a piece of sandpaper (grit not specified, I used 220) and for the leading edge you put the crease in the sandpaper in the right-hand side, insert the fin & sand to shape. I'm uncertain if a photograph will show how nice they came out, but I'll try...

All four look pretty much the same. The left-hand side of the jig is supposed to be for trailing edges.

At this point I referred back to the instructions to resume construction of the kit in the specified order. Kids, if you're reading this blog to learn how to build a model rocket - find another blog! And does your mother know you look at this kind of stuff on the Internet? 

Unsurprisingly, the build pretty much exactly parallels the Baby Bertha. I chose to exclusively use Titebond Quick & Thick glue for this build:

I hope it holds up ok! I like this glue because it's very easy to work with and runs only reluctantly. Anyhow the instructions have you assemble the motor mount as usual:

Next I made little tick marks at the base of the BT for the fin lines:

Then extended the lines, again using my Estes Ultimate Body Tube Marking Guide:

Above, I'm getting ready to draw the launch lug line.

Next I got all excited because I thought it was about time to glue the fins on! But I forgot that I needed to glue the motor mount in first, which I did (interesting photo later). Then on to gluing the fins! But no, darn it - I forgot about filling the body tube spiral. Actually the groove doesn't look too deep:

One article suggested packing the groove directly with straight CWF using a toothpick. Lacking a toothpick, however, I reverted to a modified version  of filling the groove with thinned CWF and a hobby blade - I used the blade part of a little putty spreader. Here's the result, drying:

Another blog mentions a second, subtle groove that runs between the prominent one that should also be filled and sanded. But I rely on the feel of the tool against the groove to direct my application & there's nothing to feel with this second groove. So I'm choosing to skip this and we'll see how the final product looks after priming and painting.

Final bonus photo - from this pic, who can spot the fatal flaw in my build?

OK I'm off like a prom dress! See you next time!

Estes Big Bertha Build 1

This will be the first post of the Big Bertha Build, and I'm actually miles and miles away from the kit itself lol. My wife rented a cabin for us in Hocking Hills, for a nice weekend getaway. But I confess I'm a little rocket-obsessed, so if I can't actually start the build I can talk about starting it.

Here's the kit panel:

And the kit contents:

This is again a very straightforward build, hopefully. My strategy is first of all to take my time with everything. I'm often in such a rush to get a kit finished to get on to the next one and there'e really no hurry, after all. So I'm going to carefully triple-fill and sand the fins with three different thicknesses of successively-more diluted CWF, and then prime & wet-sand with 400 grit (as recommended) multiple times, alternating between white and gray primer, ending with white, until everything is totally smooth. It'll probably be a total of four coats of primer. Then I'll paint Big Bertha a bright glossy yellow with gloss black and white fins. So this build I'll practice my masking technique as well.

I'll again mask off the fins and body tube when gluing the fillets, but this time I'm widening the gaps to make the fillets a bit more substantial.

And I read that the cans of spray paint require a good full two minutes of vigorous shaking before spraying in order to get a smooth even coat, and some even put their can of paint in hot water for 15 minutes or so before spraying. To be honest I don't think I'll go that far but I will shake for the two minutes. Maybe that will prevent the little granular-type spraying errors I noticed on the Baby Bertha nose cone (a goof previously unmentioned). In fact, in surfing around tonight I found that another way to get a mirror-like finish on a rocket is to use an airbrush. Apparently it's possible to achieve such a finish using an airbrush, with no additional clear coats even needed. It's something I'll look in to, because the forum articles I read implied that all the repetitive priming and sanding usually required can be avoided by airbrushing so that's something I could really get behind. 

All righty, I'm going to close again. I'm back home tomorrow to begin the actual build. I plan on stopping by Home Depot on the way home from Hocking Hills to grab the work light I ordered. See you next time!

Estes Baby Bertha Build 3

Hi all! I'm actually away from home this weekend. My dear sweet wife Bridgid arranged a trip to Hocking Hills, to stay in a cabin this weekend for Father's Day. So I am sans any physical rocket stuff  this weekend.

Virtually, however, is another story. I've already been on to eRockets and ordered some paints and a few display stands. And I just got an order from there today - some 13mm motors for the Spaceman, and yet another Semroc Retro-Repo (I think) - the Farside-X. In the old Estes Catalog I think there were two versions, the Farside and the Farside-X. Both were three stage, with the Farside-X having a larger payload compartment. That was the one I built as a boy (bought for $3) and I still distinctly remember my cousin Bobby and I loading a hapless toad into the payload compartment for her maiden flight. I believe we chose two C6-0's for the booster stages and a C6-7 for the sustainer. Needless to say, the bird was lost to sight and I only hope the toad got out okay somehow.

I also ordered a proper tub of Elmer's Carpenters Wood Filler and some of what used to be know as Future Floor Wax. This is supposed to give a very nice glossy shine to a rocket's paint job, like a fancy clear coating. I still have to learn how to use that on a rocket. And after over-spraying part of my Baby Bertha with some subsequent runs, I've decided that part of my issue is not having good enough light when I'm painting. I've been painting in a poorly lit garage so I ordered a 10,000 lumen LED twin head work light on a stand from Home Depot and plan on picking it up on Father's Day itself - this Sunday. That should solve the lighting problems.

And, we're moving! It's only a couple of blocks over but it's a larger condo with a cavernous (though largely unfinished) basement, where my rocket workshop will be. I'm having a handyman build a workbench down there. I plan on it being at least 10 feet long, so I can work on my 7 foot Aerotech Mirage when the time comes lol.

So since the title's post mentions Baby Bertha I suppose it's time to bring her back up. If you remember, the last photo showed how nice the glue fillets on the fins look after masking before laying the glue down. Then here she is waiting for the launch lug:

And after mounting the lug:

I used the Titebond Quick & Thick to glue the lug on, then gambled and hand-filleted the lug, again using Titebond. It makes nice fillets and very few bubbles.

Finally, I primed the rocket with Krylon Flat White, sanded the whole bird with fine sandpaper and finished with a coat of Rustoleum Gloss Black. After drying overnight I placed the stick-on decal. I chose not to paint any fins white or attempt to pinstripe the black fins. As mentioned above I over-sprayed on the distal end of the bird and ended up with some runs on the nose cone and far end of the body. But that's pretty well hidden in this final shot I took:

Overall I'm pretty happy with the results. She looks good if you don't look too closely around the nose cone & where it meets the body.

So my intention, as you know, was to build a Batch-'O-Berthas in succession, to try & improve my finishing techniques before moving on to more complex projects. But Baby Bertha went together so simply and quickly I started wondering if I was wasting my time by basically repeating all the same assembly steps three (or four, with Boosted Bertha) times over. Maybe I'd be better off moving on to a kit with a higher skill level - say, an Estes Mercury Redstone?

But then I read an article, again from Apogee, about how to produce award-winning finishes. And boy, do I have a lot of room for improvement! First of all, while I was on the right track filling all the balsa before mounting any of it and using the thicker CWF this time, I was still trying to get away with coating and sanding the balsa only once. The Apogee article recommends a minimum of three cycles of coating/sanding before ever priming, each with successively thinner CWF with the final dilution being "like watery milk." This three-step process is immensely important, to get a solid and smooth surface for subsequent priming and painting. They also demonstrate use of CWF for filling tube spirals. Anyhow after sanding, it's important to wipe down the rocket with a damp paper towel to get rid of all sanding dust.

Next up is priming the rocket. He swears by Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X paint/primer combo. He advocates priming at least twice, using both white and grey primers. Their order of application depends on what the final color is to be. If you're going for a light finish (e.g., yellow), you start with gray and finish with white before going on to the yellow. The opposite applies if your final color is dark. After spraying the first coat, he wet-sands with 400 grit sandpaper, then wipes everything down again before adding the second coat and re-sanding.The advantage of alternating colors is that you can see if you're sanding too hard, exposing the under color. And it's important to inspect the rocket closely after it dries following the sanding, looking for defects that might even require further CWF and so on. I've never primed and sanded so extensively, so I'm sure that this will make a huge difference.

Then the article gives a very good rundown on masking, using a technique I'd already independently discovered - using the expensive Tamiya yellow masking tape for the critical edge parts, then covering the remaining areas with paper, plastic and/or blue masking tape. I have 10mm and 6mm tapes as well as 2, 3, and 5mm "flexible" tape, which reportedly does a credible job of masking around curves.

So I've decided to at least progress on through the Big Bertha and try harder to get a more perfect fin and body finish. With that I'll close for the evening. I did already shoot some preliminary Big Bertha shots so I'll likely post more tomorrow