How to Make a Nose Cone

Featured Tip: All Previous Next

By Jeff Boldig

If you have collected several mailing tubes but are beginning to wonder why you keep them since you can’t buy nose cones to fit them, break them out and start building. You to can make your own custom nose cones. It’s easier then you think.

Here’s how I make nose cones.

I start with the pink (sometimes blue) insulating foam you can pick up at any home improvement store. Check out construction sites first. I’ve gotten enough scraps from building sites I doubt I’ll ever have to buy any. Now cut the foam into equal size pieces that can be stacked together to make the block your nose cone will be cut from. In this case I’ve used two 1½ inch pieces cut 3 inches wide.

If you have multiple blocks, lay out all the blocks and set one off to the side. Spray the face of the pieces with a spray adhesive. I use 3M Super 77 Multipurpose Adhesive. Stack them together, putting the one you set aside, on last. Now compress the stack. This is very important and can be done various ways. In this case, I used a vice. Barbell weights also work well. (Got to get some use out of them) Leave the stack compressed overnight.

The next step is to drill a hole in one end to glue in a dowel. I use a ½ inch dowel and drill the hole in the foam with a 3/8" drill. The foam tends to break easily and it’s difficult to get a clean hole, so that is why I use the smaller drill. Once the hole is drilled, fill it about 1/3 full of epoxy and insert the dowel. Make sure the epoxy pushes out around the dowel. If it doesn’t, use more epoxy to fill in around the dowel. Let the epoxy harden completely. Overnight is best. Most epoxies say 24 hours for full cure.

Now prep the foam block for turning. Cut the dowel so it extends about 2 inches out of the foam. Cut the foam block into the basic shape that you will want for your nose cone. Leave plenty of excess material. You can use a sharp knife, a hot wire foam cutter if you have one, or an electric knife also works very well. If you don’t have an electric knife for projects like this, this might be the perfect time to upgrade that "old" one in the kitchen and put it out to pasture in your shop.

Mount the foam block in a drill press. You want to tighten the chuck enough to grip the dowel firmly, but not crush it and sink the teeth of the chuck into the wood too much. You will need to complete the turning without removing the dowel from the drill press. You may be able to remove it and re-chuck it, but usually it won’t go back in the same and things will be out of round when you try it the second time.

If you don’t have a drill press, you may be able to use a hand drill. You will have to clamp the drill down some how. I’ve never tried this, but I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t work as long as you’re careful and don’t cover the cooling vents on your drill.

You can use several tools to turn your nose cone to shape. Sand paper clamped on a sanding block will work. Use 100 grit paper when starting and work up to about 220. I like to use files to shape the nose cone. Again, starting with the coarse files and working up to a fine file as I finish up. What ever tool you use, be very gentle. Don’t use a lot of side pressure on the foam, especially at the tip of the nose cone. Let the tool do the shaping. If your block is long enough, you can clamp a pointed dowel pointing up into the other end of the foam block to steady it as you turn it.

I also hold the shop vac hose close where I’m working to pick up all the dust before it spreads all over. If you do use the shop vac while turning, be very careful you don’t let the hose end come in contact with your spinning foam piece. I can verify from experience that this is a very bad thing and will usually result in making another foam block.

When turning the nose cone, you need to turn it very slightly smaller then what the finished size needs to be.

After you have shaped the nose cone, it needs to be coated with an epoxy to harden it. On smaller nose cones, I’ve just coated it with a 60 minute epoxy. On larger nose cones I use a nylon stocking stretched over the foam and coated with resin. If you can get the nylons without the seam in the toes, that works much better. If not, I use a tie wrap to pull it together at the top so the seam isn’t stretched across the nose cone.

If you have fiberglass resin and hardener, great, I don’t, so I use a 60 minute epoxy and thin it with rubbing alcohol and paint it on with an acid brush. This has worked very well. The issue I do have is getting it to dry completely in the cool basement. To improve that I created my own drying oven.

I used the same spray adhesive I made the foam block with to stick aluminum foil to the inside of a cardboard box. A ½ inch hole in a wood block holds the nosecone and a flood lamp provides the heat.

WARNING: Don’t put the flood lamp too close to the nose cone. If the foam gets too hot, it will swell and ruin all the work you’ve done. You want just enough heat to cure the epoxy. Keep an eye on the nose cone as it cures and turning it every so often also helps.

Once the epoxy is cured cut the dowel off flush with the inside face of the nosecone. Drill a pilot hole in the dowel and turn in a screw eye to attach your shock cord and parachute to. Sand, fill, and paint your nosecone. Now show off that one of a kind rocket with the cool nose cone at the next launch!

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