Reinforcing Plastic Parachutes

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By Geoffrey Kerbel

There are many people who dread assembling rocket chutes and for the fumbled or large fingered specialists this can be a chore. Many kits come with chutes that have to have the shroud lines attached. Hopefully this picture tip will help. Using this method will result in a very strong bonding of the chute lines and the plastic chute.

The plastic chutes will work fine most of the time. However, if a delay time is short or too long, the chute lines are easily pulled out of the plastic. This method helps by reinforcing the attachment point and spreading the load on the shroud line.

The first picture shows the ring binder reinforcements in place on the chute. A hole is punched in the middle of this ring for the shroud line to pass through. Feed the line through and make a small loop out to the edge of the chute. Now tie two overhand knots to hold it in place. You can see how I hold the lines so that the chute is not ripped and the knots are pulled tight, still leaving the small loop. Making the knots are much easier to do if you use a small tweezer with curved ends to it to feed the line over and through itself. The knots have to be tight or the line will pull down and rip through the chute and rings.

Once the knots are in, turn the chute over and holding the lines as shown, add another binder ring to hold the loop and the short end piece to the chute. Burnish the ring down tight to the lines.

Now the force on the shroud line is spread over a larger area and hopefully will keep it in place when the chute is deployed at the wrong time.

GUEST's OPINION:
"" (X.X.)

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   Parachutes: Do not attach your shroud lines to the corners/edges of your chute, either with tape or tied through holes. Instead, replace the shroud lines with longer pieces (3 for a hex chute, 4 for an octagonal) that are twice as long as the desired shroud length PLUS the diameter of the chute across the connection places. Lay the chute out face up. Lay the lines across the chute so they cross opposite connection points, and cross each other in the center. Now tape them at the connection points and in the center. For 18" and larger, also tape them halfway between edge points and center. Now, your shroud lines cannot come loose from your chute. Kevlar thread makes a very good replacement for shroud lines because it's flame resistant. - D.M-F. (CT)
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