Here is the part of the build project where I have to actually pull out some of the kit instructions to ascertain the proper placement of fins, launch lugs, and whatever other details there happen to be.
Setting to work with a precision-sharpened pencil, fin spacing guides, ruler, and a length of metal shelving standard to draw the longitudinal lines, I soon have a set of tubes all ready for assembly.
Time to fire up the ol' glue pot...
This part of the big year-end rocket-fest consists of gluing the freshly-built motor mounts into their respective airframe tubes.
Epoxy was used to secure all of the mounts.
Here is a shot of the 'business-ends' of all the models.
Next stop: tube marking, launch lugs, and fins.
This part of the build focuses on building up the motor mounts for each of the selected model rockets.
Here is a group pic of all the completed mounts:
Mounts that use the (flimsy) paper rings have been reinforced with balsa support vanes to prevent them from flexing under thrust forces.
For the BT-60 sized birds (Big Bertha and Esam-58), I went with some longer BT-20 stuffer tubes.
One further modification to the Big Daddy mount involves building the motor tube to accommodate the longer E- motors.
For a couple of these mounts, I didn't have enough centering rings in my parts stash, so I cut some out of 1/16 basswood.
Additionally, a lack of enough stock engine hooks meant that I had to fashion a couple out of old windshield wiper springs.
Sometime in the recent past, I must have raided the kit pile to purloin some of these parts for other scratch-built models.
Oops, yet another motor mount modification:
It seems that, at some point in time, I lost the inner motor retainer ring that came with the ESAM-58 kit. So, this mount gets the normal motor hook, instead.
"Hey, BlastFromThePast, you said you were starting six new kits. How come the photo shows seven motor mounts?"
Very astute observation.
The short answer: I am modifying the Quest Icarus build considerably. The shorter 35mm tube, instead of being a payload section, is being built as a 24mm motor booster stage. The Icarus will share the Big Rage's payload section with that model. Awhile back, I lost the Big Rage "Nike Smoke" nose cone, and ended up stealing the nose from the Icarus kit to replace it.
Confused? Me, too...
In the near future, I intend to send off an order to Quest that will include a new Nike Smoke nose cone and a 35mm tube, so I can straighten out the mess and restore both birds to their original form.
For the Icarus booster, I had intended to cut centering rings out of basswood, but I have since discovered that an Estes BT -55 fits snugly inside of the Icarus' 35mm tube. I can now make the components by gluing Estes 50-55 rings into short lengths of BT-55. A very convenient and time-saving work-around.
Here is the tube-cutting process I use:
A shop-built "Kuhn Cutter" made from some Home Depot paint stir sticks makes for some precision cuts for the two centering ring BT-55 extensions. This particular tube came from a Cherokee-E kit in damaged condition, so it's perfect for cutting up into shorter useful parts.
This is the finished motor mount, now ready to plug into the Icarus booster.
Next step: Gluing 'em all into the airframes.
More to come...
This step of the great rocket building caper involves the formidable task of sanding the myriad fins.
First, all of the edges get squared up, and laser/die cut marks removed.
My standard method of operation for this involves clamping a sanding block vertically in the shop woodworking vise. A sheet of plate glass provides a great bearing surface to slide the balsa stock back and forth against the block. This results in a perfect ninety degree edge on all surfaces.
The beverage shown is an additional essential requirement for this operation.
Tip: This is also a very efficient method for gang sanding stacked hand-cut fins so that they are of identical shape and size. I followed this procedure for the set of Big Bertha fins.
Next, a medium grit sanding block is used to round the leading and trailing edges of all the fins.
Finally, the components get a once-over with 400 grit sandpaper to smooth things out.
Here are all of the completed fins for six model rockets ready for assembly:
Moving on....
Some of you may have already seen this on the JimZ website, but I just ran across it.
This is quite amusing.
http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/estes/estfeo.pdf
This is not a direct link to the pdf. If you cut and paste the above into the URL bar, it'll get you there.
Also be aware that JimZ is not a secure site.
More proof that the Flat Earth movement is becoming increasingly popular around the globe!
Perhaps I should add this to the model build queue. It's a model rocket and a CP cutout all in one.
Cheers!
More to come....
Last evening was spent in removing the fins for six different kits from the balsa stock sheets.
Of course, the Big Bertha fins, being part of a scratch build, were cut the old school way with a pattern tracing on blank stock.
The Quest Icarus and Estes Big Daddy kits are of 1990s vintage, so the fins are removed from die-crushed sheets.
The rest are laser cut fins.
Here is the stack of raw fins:
This kind of reminds me of the number of balsa pieces labored over in my recent Orbital Transport build!
Next step is, of course, shape sanding.
While I was at it, I traced out pattern sheets of all these fins on Manila folder stock for future reference. That's a good practice, in case one ever needs to replace a broken fin, do a rebuild, or build an upscale.
Cheers!
