Chit / Chat

I'm new to fiberglassing. When using FG cloth to reinforce fins, is it adequate to just cover the fins and the body tube between them, or will this leave a ridge at the forward edge of the work? I watched a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtYYsX3VEmc) on tip-to-tip fiberglassing, but I think this guy was glassing out the entire rocket, not just the fins. I would imagine his technique would work for doing fins only, but thought I'd ask more experience rocketeers for advice

Thanks,

David

It does leave a bit of a ridge but you can sand this down or fill it with bondo/filler material. Also depends on what your goal is for fiberglassing the fins. For traditional tip to tip FG layups you add several shorter layers that do not extend all the way out to the tip of the fin. This helps with fin flutter. For fiberglassing a fin prior to attaching it to the rocket John Coker and others have videos on YouTube about how to do this including vacuum bagging if you want to be that involved. You can also check the Rocketry Forum for helpful tips but you'll get a lot of varied opinions there as well. The vast majority are great and trying to help but with anything internet related there can be trolls.