A block of wax about 2.3" square and 6" long is cut from a piece of machinable wax. The stuff is hard as plastic and cuts fast without dulling tools.

The square has its corners cut off to form a "roughly cylindrical" hexagon. Don't be misled by the term "wax." This stuff is very hard and durable...

The finished "rough" blank that will become the corrugated lower body of the Little Joe II. A bolt through the center will serve to mount it.

The wax blank is mounted on a rotary table table in a Sherline mill. 120 lengthwise cuts (same as number of corrugations) make the "cylinder."

Overall mill setup. This is a CNC rig (less expensive than you may think). This rig has been considerably "updated" since the photo.

Grooves for the body rings have been cut and the longitudinal "corrugations" are being cut. The cutter is ground to the shape of the corrugations.

Finished corrugated body wax master. Finished (but not dusted off...yes, the wax makes "dust")

A preliminary trial run of the aft thrust bulkhead being cut in a scrap of MDF (med density fiberboard). A tiny .02" dia. milling bit is used.

A group of "proof" molded resin body sections used to estimate resin quantity and uncover any flaws in master.

Closeup of the crisp resin molding. Looks like an injection molded styrene part.

Once the CAM file is perfected the final wax master part is cut. In this case, two side-by-sides are cut.

Properly using casting resins and molding rubbers requires the use of an accurate scale to mix by weight.

The wax master mold and the two tins containing the very thin RTV rubber which mixes at about 2 to 1 by weight.

For small molds it doesn't take much rubber so VERY accurate measuring using a very accurate scale is required.

Though the mixing is done with a non-aerating electic mixer, the rubber is still poured in a thin stream to "pop" bubbles before reaching the mold.

As a final precaution, a bamboo skewer is used to make sure no air bubbles are trapped in corners. A vacuum pot can eliminate this issue.

Thin Plastruct "T" is used to form the basic mini-longerons.

Once glued into their slots, the "Ts" are milled to the proper thickness, length, and height. We're talking sub .01 and .02 overall dimensions.

A collection of some of the masters and molds used for making some of the various prototype parts.

After a few test molds and masters, the proper configuration for the bottom mold half is determined

A few of the finished resin moldings taken from the preliminary molds. One of these will be used to make the hard rubber injection mold.

A closeup of a "reject" (but still pretty good) prototype bulkhead.

A preliminary master mold and the resulting rubber mold for the longerons and antennas. Overall length of mold is only about 3".

Prototype molded longerons and antennas. From this point, a hard rubber injection mold is made.

L to R. Prototype body molding, centrifugal casting mold, and wax master.

"Family" shot of the components of the centrifugal mold and the prototype and wax masters. The yellow component is the rubber mold insert.