Stubby Too! A 3FNC Scratch Build

Custom Pine Turned Nose Cone,

BT/C-60 based body,

(3) 1/4" Plywood Fins,

and a 24mm motor featuring rear eject.

1/4" Dowels are used as fin base reinforcement, as well as the spears.

Inspiration for this one came from ASP's "Stubby" kit.

2026-06-25 Nose Cone

Got the Nose Cone turned on the lathe... made it from Redwood. The Lag Screw Plug is made from Southern Yellow Pine. Ballast goes in the void.

2026-06-26 Fin Sub-Ass'y

Cut the fins from 1/4" Plywood on my Table Saw and Scroll Saw.

Cut the Dowels from a 1/4" Pine dowel on my Chop Saw, sharpened the tips using a Mechanical Pencil Sharpener

Glued the Dowels to the Fins

Sanded the Dowels to fit the rear curvature of the Fins

Used my Router to round over the edges of the Fins

Sanded the routed edges.

2026-06-27 Fin Sub-Assy...

Applied some CWF to the fins early this morning... then sanded it down later. Cut the BT/C-60 Tubes, The Ballast and the Fillet Dowels. Then set about to glue the fins to the C-60.

2026-06-28 Ballast Redeux

I fat fingered the Nose Cone Ballast in Open Rocket and input .454 ounces/cu-in instead of 4.54 ounces/cu-in. As a result the Nose Cone Ballast is way to heavy... I used a 2" long bar when I needed a 3/4" long bar. I glued the bar into the nose cone yesterday... so I went out to the barn to drill out the Ballast Bar. Luckily once I started drilling the Ballast Bar it broke free from the glue and I was able to remove the Ballast Bar. Cleaned the glue from the Nose Cone internals using Fostener bits, and then chucked it in the wood lathe and sanded the outside.

New Ballast installed... good to go!

BT-60 Scallops

Sliced and diced the BT-60... 3 dimensional scallops

Altimeter Bay Installation

2026-06-29 Nose Cone Lag Screw Plug and Nose Cone To Body Tube

Slathered some wood glue into the bore of the Nose Cone, inserted the Lag Screw Plug, and sat the Nose Cone on wax paper with a plastic lid under the paper for it to dry overnight. Sitting it "Nose Up" allows the glue to drain downward, ensuring it stays around the Lag Screw Plug.

Next morning removed the Nose Cone Assembly and allowed it to dry for 2 hours.

Then glued the Nose Cone to the Body Tube via a couple of holes I punched through the Body Tube. Spun the Nose Cone in the Body Tube a couple times and then set is aside to dry.

2026-06-30 Fools and their Spools...

Built the Rear Eject Spool yesterday using some BT-50HMF tubing and some Cardboard Centering Rings. Used Wood Glue to attach the CR's to the Tube. Then after the Wood Glue had a chance to dry for a couple hours I used some Loctite Super Glue on the CR's. The Cardboard is corrugated, the Super glue fills the corrugations and basically makes it into a poor mans Phenolic. Works really great on small spools like this one.

Next day I turned the O.D.'s of the rings on my wood lathe.