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Basics of Vacuum Bagging Fins Continued from page 5 Continued on page 7 www.apogeerockets.com/Rocket-Kits/Skill-Level-4-Model-Rocket-Kits/EggStorminator Figure 6: A thin balsa wood sheet that was filled with lightweight filler to make the surface as smooth as possible. The difference between covering the fin with paint versus epoxy is that the epoxy is a lot stronger and less brittle than paint. So it adds strength to the fin, where paint really doesn’t. In this competition rocket, the fin would be unpainted in order to keep the weight down to a minimum. My personal goal was to have the fin weigh about 0.2 grams (with the epoxy skin on it). There are many good epoxies on the market, with Aeropoxy, US Composites and West Systems being very popular. Just look for a brand that is fairly low viscosity so it flows well and will self level when applied to the surface. Once mixed, the liquid epoxy can be simply painted onto the surface of the fin. Try to keep it to a minimum, or your skill will be thick and heavy. In Figure 7, you’ll see a fin that has epoxy partially painted on the surface. What if You’re Applying Skins like Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber? If you were applying a skin in addition to the epoxy, you probably would skip the step of sealing the balsa fin and simply wet the surface of the fin with epoxy, and then apply the skin on top, and rewet the skin with epoxy. I’ve never done a thick skin on a fin, but I suspect that if you did, you might have to do just one side of the fin at a time, and also add a “peel ply” over the top before you put it into the vacuum bag. The peel ply (also called a release fabric) is a synthetic cloth that you drape over the epoxied surface after you’ve wet it out. Figure 7: The fin is coated on both sides with epoxy. So essentially, the fin I was going to cover with epoxy was already filled and smoothed like you would with a typical rocket just before you paint it. Page 6 Issue 569 / Mar. 15th, 2022PDF Image | Basics of Vacuum Bagging Fins
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