Model Rocket Fin Jig

[ibuildstuff4u]

I'm building some Estes model rockets with my nephew and gluing the fins on in the right place is a pain in the butt, so I made this little jig up.  There are several different positions to mount the fin guides to so you can have a different numbers of fins.  I made up five different mandrels for different sized body tubes.  It makes gluing on the fins very easy and stress free!  We built two three stage rockets today with 18 fins in all, and had them glued on in less than 20 min.

Dale P.

[ibuildstuff4u]

Some more picts.

[usn ret]

Nothing like the proper fixtures to make a troublesome task not so troublesome.  Thinking outside the box helps too. Your fixture are a great addition to your modlers toolbox. Nice work..
Cliff

[Bernd]

Dale,

I played with rockets once. Matter of fact still have a 2 stage I haven't finished yet.

Those fins are a pain to get on right. Great project. Could you give us some figures on the jig you made. Might want to make one down the line sometime. A quick sketch would be fine.

Bernd

[GrahamC]

Dale,

Fabulous idea and well done. I will have to build something like that for my own use.

cheers, Graham in Ottawa Canada

[ibuildstuff4u]

There isn't much to say about the dimensions, just that I offset the fin guides .100 off from the center line.  Most of the fins coming with rocket kits are .095 thick and some are .125 so I went close to the middle of the two.  It doesn't matter if they are off a few thousands they will still be on strait and spaced out equally from each other.  Way better than anyone can do by hand!  If someone wanted to get really particular they could use shims to adjust for different fin thicknesses.

The jig is 4" X 4" aluminum and 1/2" thick.  The fin guides are 3/8" thick aluminum and are drilled and tapped for 8-32 screws to hold them in place from the bottom.  As for the slots, you really only need two settings.  Four slots @ 90* from each other and two more so you can have three @ 120* from each other.  I went a little crazy and put two more slots @ 45* from each other so I can do specialty rockets with odd fin combos.

Hope that helps.

Dale P.

[Bernd]

Great Dale.

The info is enough to build a jig. 

The jig looked a little confusing with all the slots. Understand now why you had so many and their function.

Bernd

[Krown Kustoms]

I like the machined approach. I dabble a bit into high power rocketry and made a jig from plexiglass.
Most of mine have carbon fiber fins fused into the tube so they have to be perfectly alligned.
I might borrow your idea if thats ok, it seems more accurate for the job.
-B-

I am curious on seeing some finished rockets if you have time to post them.
My last sucessful flight went just over a mile according to the GPS, the second flight I lost the chutte and came down hard and was a total loss. (GPS, ejection timer, camera, etc...)

[ibuildstuff4u]

I'm in the middle of building 7 to 8 rockets and should have them ready to go by the end of the week.  I will post some picts when they are done.  The fleet I'm working on are just little rockets, mostly single stage and a few triple stagers.  We are pretty hard on them and have to keep them low cost and almost disposable if needed. I bought a large sheet of 3/32" micro plywood and cut out my own fins and buy the body tubes in bulk so we can skip the cost of buying kits.  The plywood is a lot stronger than balsa too and not much heavier.

 I wish I could work with something on a larger scale such as the ones you have, but the cost of them is just to high.  In the end if I have some cash and time to spare I'm going to build a cluster rocket with three C-7's

Dale P.

[Brass_Machine]

Wow Dale. That is pretty darn cool. Your nephew is lucky to have someone like you in his life! 

Very cool

Eric

[Krown Kustoms]

I think in the long run the lower altitude ones are more interesting especially to kids because you can see the whole process (launch, ejection, recovery), the higher power ones are loud and impressive but are out of site in seconds. I built my first high power rocket with a 4 inch mail tube from the post office and 4 Estes E-9 engines, a mechanical ejection trigger and a hand sewn chutte and  made it to 2500 feet. Cheap easy and effective. About 35 bucks all together.
-B-

[ibuildstuff4u]

As promised a few pictures of the rockets.  We built 10 in all, but are waiting for some tubing to complete the three stage Comanche 3 rockets.  Some of them are our own design and some are kits.  We built them to fly so they aren't as pretty as some peoples rockets.  I don't waist time filling in the spirals on the tubes or use sanding sealer on the fins.  There is a good chance they will be junk by the end of the summer so there is no need to go crazy on the details as long as we are having fun.  There are lots of two and three stage ones as well as a three stage cluster rocket so it should be pretty exciting to fly them.  I have a total of 65 engines so we are good to go as soon as the weather gets nicer.

[Bernd]

They're pretty nice looking rockets as far as I'm concerned.

That 3 engine one looks pretty interesting. How high do think some of them things go? Ever loose any to the wind?

Bernd

[gldwight]

Dale
Those are mighty slick.
I live about 20mi E of Este's Plant here in CO.
Never stopped in, thought about it a lot but, never done it yet.

I'd suggest you contact their R&D, purchasing folks & see if they'd
be willing to buy your idea.  OR maybe have you produce a batch
for resale.  IF you guys have had trouble getting the fins on right.
Surely most everyone else has too.
That make's me believe there's a big market for a fin jig.

Good luck and have lots of fun,
George