Recovery

I'm starting the recovery section of the crayon, and it seems I'm recovering too. I'm not coughing and hacking in the middle of the night at least, but I know it's still lurking about in my lungs. I've been getting some good advice from the folks at Rocketry Planet's forums. I'll be investing in snap rings and swivels to connect to the eyelets in the top centering ring and the nose cone. I recently received my engine retainer, Kevlar cord, nylon cord, Nomex heat shield blanket and a 48" nylon parachute.

Now it's time to bring them all together. While I'm using high strength parts, the idea of tying them all together with overhand knots seemed low brow and potentially unsafe for a rocket of this power, up to H or more. I was stumped for a while until my latent boy scout leader skills came to the fore. When I was active in scouting, one of my favorite skills I taught was pioneering. Woodland engineering were you would construct all manner of shelter and structures using rope and poles made from felled trees. You actually got to put those knots to good use. One skill that helped this project was making the cords into a eye end with an end whip. This is used to keep the ends of rope from fraying.

So I turned the cord back unto itself, and wound a whip with Quest Kevlar thread. Here's the results:

I work with Kevlar in my job in aerospace, so I knew I could do one more finishing maneuver; Once I had the whip secured, I put a drop of CA glue on the end of the cord to close it up and prevent fraying. It wicked immediately and solidified the end. I put another drop on the whip. It also wicked and hardened. I now have a strong Kevlar eyelet that can handle any stress put to it.

If you haven't done a whip before, here's a drawing to show how it's done. They also come in handy for securing control rods to wood dowels for R/C aircraft controls.

One final note: I perfected the operation by wicking the end of the cord first, looping it back, then tacking it with a drop of CA to hold everything while you wrap the thread for the whip. Well, that's all for the moment, back to rest in bed.