The making of the Sugar Daddy


The making of the Sugar Daddy.
Here is how this rocket came to be.

The tip of the nose cone is wood, so some blocks of basswood were glued up and turned round with the four jaw chuck on the metal lathe. The shoulder is to fit the tube that the foam will go over. We switched to the three jaw and cut a series of steps to approximate the finished shape, this way we could use the power feed on the lathe.


Then the steps were removed with a series of angle cuts requiring hand cranking the compound slide. The finial shape was sanded on the lathe, it came out very nice!


Marty hot wiring the foam to shape.


The fins and centering rings are 1/2" birch ply. The fin edges were rounded using a round over bit in the router table and attached to the 5" motor tube with Kevlar and glass. The nose cone ready for glass, posing with the fin can.


The Sugar Daddy test fitted for the first time, posing with a stock Big Daddy and a group shot with the Tube Fin and Melvin.


This is the G-Wiz electronics package, a MC Flight Computer stacked on top of a LC Deluxe 800 for redundancy. The 9V batteries will be wired to the electronics armed by screw switches. There are additional provisions in the avionics bay for timers if needed.


Here you can see the avionics bay with the electronics package secured into position, it attaches to the fin root with screws and T-nuts. Also secured into position is the on board JVC GR-DVM50u digital video camera. There is a sheet metal Z bracket attached to the camera tripod mount which is then attached to the ½” ply shelf, that it sits on, with screws and T-nuts. Three runs of ¼” soft aluminum tubing between the AFT ring and the AB shelf are used as conduits for the outboard motors igniter wires.


The fin can, all dressed up for the party, with the BT in place and the AB hatch cover assembly installed. The AB hatch cover assy is made from a section of 3” tube with a hollowed out Styrofoam ball glassed on top. This was then attached onto the hatch cutout from the BT with epoxy fillets.


Here are all the parts lined up for inspection and then all stacked up. The nose cone has been glassed with 3 layers of 6 oz. and 3 layers of 4 oz. cloth using West System epoxy. The nose cone now just needs to be sanded and finished. Yeeee-haw!

Best if viewed in Microsoft Explorer 4.0 or above. Send any comments to Webmaster@trailertrashaerospace.com