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Nose Cone

A project log for Backyard Space Program

Modular water rocket, with pressure gauge, gyro, thrust control and everything else a modern space program needs.

haydn-joneshaydn jones 03/27/2017 at 16:313 Comments

I have made a parametric nose cone generator in openscad to be used in conjunction with Slic3r spiral vase mode for thin walls and light weight. This is a Bi-conic design and is meant to be permanent, it provides the (currently) lowest drag while being FDM printable. A flat base may need to be carefully removed depending on your print settings, and if you have measured properly it should just slide over and all you will need to do is duct tape or glue in place.

For more info on bi-conic nose cones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_cone_design#Bi-conic

overhang =30;//to secure to bottle
bottleradius=60;
lowerconeheight=40;
sideanglelower=30;
sideanglehigher=45;


cylinder (overhang,r=bottleradius);
translate ([0,0,overhang]){
    cylinder (lowerconeheight,bottleradius,upperconeradius);
}
upperconeradius=bottleradius-(tan(sideanglelower)*lowerconeheight);
upperconeheight=tan(sideanglehigher)*upperconeradius;
translate ([0,0,overhang+lowerconeheight]){
    cylinder(upperconeheight,upperconeradius,0);
}

Discussions

haydn jones wrote 03/27/2017 at 16:40 point

I really have no experience since water rockets in school, but i did a bit of research and this seemed to be the best fit for vase mode (which is so cool to watch BTW). It took me a while to figure out the trig (again 20 years since school). Anyway, do you think it will work in flight?

  Are you sure? yes | no

ActualDragon wrote 03/27/2017 at 16:56 point

for all that work it had better

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ActualDragon wrote 03/27/2017 at 16:35 point

wow, that's auful complicated for a nose cone. my dad and i used to look at all these types of cones for our rockets in the magazines and stuff but always ended up just sanding down a block of balsa wood. we must'va made at least a hundred of those things. XD

  Are you sure? yes | no