Kitting Up Sputniks - Part 3

After drilling the antenna holes, the tip of the Sharpie is rotated near the edge.

This outlines the holes so the builder can easily find them.

When building the Sputnik, the dowel legs must be gently rotated and wiggled into the drilled holes. By doing this slowly, the dowels will find their way into the holes at the correct pre-drilled angle.

Drilling for the 3" long launch lug is next.

This is the hardest part of the preparation and can ruin the work done up until now if the drilling isn't straight down the engine mount tube.

A BT-5 tube with a dowel glued in is used for support. The 3/16" dowel used for the lug hole drill must be guided down the length of this support tube. It had to be reinforced with the interior dowel.

TRIVIA: A 1/8" diameter launch lug actually has a 3/16" outside diameter.

The 1/2" support tube (with hardwood dowel interior) is slid into the 1/2" drilled hole.

The last Sharpie mark is the lug hole, running inside the ball along the side of the engine mount tube. It is 3" long and goes all the way through the ball.

As the sharpened 3/16" dowel is pressed through the ball, it is checked for straightness traveling along the inserted support tube in the ball.

Keep pressing and drilling until the sharpened end goes all the way through the top of the ball.
Keep your hand away from the top of the ball or your palm could be skewered!