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3 Simple Ways to Share What You Make
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With Instructables you can share what you make with the world and tap into an ever-growing community of creative experts.
Introduction This tutorial describes how to splice two bottles together when you only have bottles of the same size. Splicing bottles allows you to c...
Clean all 4 bottles with soapy water and thoroughly rinse out.
Remove the cap rings and labels on all the bottles. Make sure you don't accidentally cut the bottle when removing the cap ring.
Remove the label glue residue from the bottle with mineral turpentine. Wipe the bottle dry with a clean paper towel.
Cut off the base of all 4 bottles and trim the edge evenly and square. You can use the edge of the straight section as a guide to cut the bottle even...
Heat about 3cm of water in a flat bottomed saucepan. Use a thermometer to measure the water temperature as it is easy to overheat the water.
When the temperature reaches around 72C, place the bottle briefly in the water and quickly remove. NOTE: Make sure you let go of the bottle so that i...
Test to see if it fits in the other bottle. If not, submerge it again for a little longer. But don't make it too loose. The bottle should snugly but e...
Dry the bottle before the next step. If there are water droplets on the bottle while curling the edge then the edge won't curl evenly.
Curl the shrunken edge of the bottle on warm frying pan. You can use a ring made of cardboard to help keep the bottle sitting square on the frying pan...
Lightly sand the outside shrunken section of the bottle. Lightly sand about 2cm of the inside of the second bottle.
Fit the two sections together so that the bottles are aligned. A quick way to test is to spin them between your fingers and see if there is a wobble....
Apply electrical tape around both bottles where the joint meets. This will keep the edge clean, for the next gluing phase. Do this step carefully so ...
Mark the two sections with a marker pen to help you align them during gluing.
Glue the two sections together with Sikaflex 11FC. NOTE: You can use the PL Premium glue instead. We use the Sikaflex glue as it is non-porous and is...
Apply a generous amount of the glue to both surfaces. With a little practice you will know how much is enough. This splice is important for the integ...
Spread the glue evenly using a skewer stick. Make sure that the glue completely covers all the sections to be glued.
Let the splice cure for a day. Polyurethane glues like Sikaflex and PL premium need atmospheric moisture to cure, so if you live in a dry climate you ...
When the glue is cured, remove any excess glue and remove the electrical tape. The Sikaflex doesn't adhere well to the tape so it is easy to pull off....
Cut out a 5cm wide sleeve from the bottom section of bottle #3. (Save the top section) Cut the sleeve open since being the same diameter it will not ...
Lightly sand the inside of the sleeve and patch.
Apply more electrical tape along the outside edges of the sleeve. This will make for a neater looking splice.
Place the sleeve on the bottles and center it on the seam between the bottles. Use a piece of tape to hold it in place. Wrap a couple more pieces of ...
Remove the sleeve and lightly sand the outside of the glued bottles where the sleeve will fit.
Spread a coat of PL premium on the bottles as well as the inside of the sleeve. We like to stretch out and tape the sleeve to the table to make it ea...
Wrap the sleeve on the bottles making sure it is centered over the join. There will be a small 3-5mm gap in the sleeve when applied due to the thickne...
When cured, remove the tape from the sleeve and lightly sand around the edges of the cut in the sleeve. The area to sand should be the size of the pat...
Apply PL Premium glue to both the bottle and the patch.
Use the skewer stick to spread the glue evenly on both the bottle and the patch.
Put the patch on the bottle and center it over the seam. Work out any bubbles that might be trapped under the patch.
Use tape to hold it in place while the glue cures. Let the whole splice cure for at least 5 days before pressurising. This allows the PL premium to re...
Remove the tape and any excess glue from the bottles and patch.
At this point the splice is complete and can be used in your rockets. However, beyond about 120psi (8.3bar), the necks of the 2L bottles will start ge...
Cut the necks off bottles #3 and #4 so that the hole left is just big enough to slip over the necks of the spliced bottles. Take care when doing this...
Cut three equidistant slits in these sleeves all the way up just past the transition from cylindrical to the curved part of the bottle. This will enab...
Slide both reinforcing sleeves over the ends of the bottles as far as they will go. The splits will open perhaps 1 or 2mm.
You can either glue them in place, but we prefer to just tightly wrap them with glass strapping tape. You will need to go around 2 or 3 times. Add two...
These spliced pairs of bottles can be connected to others using tornado tubes to make longer and higher capacity rockets. You can insert a fairing be...
Here are a couple of examples where these splices have been used A tutorial video of the whole splicing technique is available here: http://www.airc...
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