BSD Thor

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daveyfire

Piled Higher and Deeper
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thank u, next
Well, I'm almost done with my Thor. I haven't even updated my website yet, you guys are the first to know ;) Attached are some pics. I've modified it in a couple ways. It's all glassed with a wrap of 6 oz. cloth to protect it from landing damage. The fins are also glassed on with two layers of 6 oz. cloth tip-to-tip, one on the motor mount and one on the outside of the body tube. I glued and glassed the payload sections together and am using a coupler-based electronics bay. Dual deployment using a Rocketman R3C for drogue and R9C for main at 800 feet. Electronics will be a MissileWorks RRC<sup>2</sup> and a blacksky ALTACC. First flight should be in August or September (I probably can't make the July launch) on a K550W if I can get one, or a Pro54 K445.


This pic is the fin can, the fins have been tacked on with 5-minute epoxy and the rings are attached and filleted with Aeropoxy.
 
Hey David, that is looking great! I cant wait to see it fly! How do you think you are going to paint it?

BTW: what do you say, your Thor and my Sumo on K somethings?:D
 
Davey, what is the thickness of the fins on that rocket? I noticed they are rather thick.. The reason I ask is I am concerned with the thickness of the fins on my EZI-65 mod project.. I believe mine at 1/8" thick which I hope will be sufficient since they are glassed..


Thanks, sawacs
 
BSD supplied 1/4" 5-ply birch for fins. Don't be worried about the thickness of fins on your EZI -- I've seen a beefed up EZI take a K550W with no problems. Considering you glassed yours, I think you'll be even better off. I just have a nasty habit of overbuilding -- you never know when you'll get an offer for a Kosdon L3000 ;)


Sooooo... what is the popular choice for colors on this bad boy? I'm leaning towards a yellow booster to keep a semi-stock look, but anything goes for the payload... the big "THOR" decals that go on the payload are yellow vinyl, so something dark would work well... blue?
 
Humm, yellow booster.. I have always liked insignia blue but thats just me.. If you want my opinion, I would say seperate the blue and yellow with a nice piece of chome stripping:) Chrome and blue look perty good imho..

Sawacs..
 
Blue is never a bad choice. I'm also fairly partial to a nice metallic purple (just finished my Small Endeavour - metallic purple with gold fins/nose cone). Although, with the yellow, I think blue would be a better choice.

Loopy
 
David,

Did it fly? What's the flight report?

In the dry-fit picture, I cannot tell, but it looks like the glassine finish was not removed. Please tell me you peeled the glassine off the airframe tubes. The epoxy does not stick well to the glassine paper. It will last a few launches, but soon the laminate begins to peel off.
 
Hey Mark--

Hasn't flown yet, I'm still working on the electronics bay and such. It just needs some filler around the fins, some fillets, and paint. I hope to have it in the air by the end of the year.

I didn't peel the glassine, but sanded the heck out of it with 60-grit sandpaper. It's worked for me in the past with cardboard vehicles that I've flown 10+ times past Mach... thanks for the tip, I'll have to peel the next set to see the difference!
 
Turkey Shoot is a no go for me this year. I changed jobs in June and as low man onthe totem pole, I get stuck with the pager duty when everyone else is on vacation. Since Turkey Shoot is the weekend after Thanksgiving, I'm stuck home babysitting the computer applications. :-(

While we will not be there phisically, we are sending 2 - 3" Thor kits and 2 - 4" Horizon kits for their raffle prizes. At least we will be represented in our donations.

Yes, do peel off the glassine on your next glassing job. This allows the epoxy to soak into the Kraft cardboard and offers a superior bond. Your method works, but give ours a try sometime.

Checkout the message I just posted in the High Power forum about the BIG Thor. :)
 
OK... after almost a year... I'm done with it. It's kinda sad when you have to search for your threads so you can update them :p

Here she is in her painted glory, sans about half of the decals. I'm waiting for the paint to dry a little longer before I tackle the rest of them.

If Jason and Eugene talk reeeeal nice, I may fly it at ROCStock... I have a K550W that would be fun...
 
What was the final weight of your Thor? I noticed you went with the R9C vs the R7C.

Also may I ask which avionics bay you went with?

Thanks
 
How about if I talk to you rrrrreeeeeeeeaaaaallllllll nice like and you fly it at RocStock? My friend has a 3" Thor, but it would be nice to see a bigger one! Plus we don't see a lot of Thors at ROC launches, which is sad because I think it is a great kit!

I will be there with my BullPup and my GF will have her Pteradactyl Jr.

-Chris
 
Hey Davey-

Good luck on your K launch....I launched my 3" Thor on a Pro54 2 grain J and it was a REEEEEALY outstanding flight at Plaster Blaster this year. (Hi Chris!) I would definately recommend the dual deploy for this one. I won't fly mine on a motor that big again without it. On my flight, I had a problem with the plastic rivets cutting into the airframe and failing, due to the ballast that I had added into the payload section. I can't fault the kit or design, just my own desire to make the rocket heavier to limit the walk to retreive it... The rivets on the lower junction failled and it took me at least an hour of seaching to luckily stumble upon the payload section laying out i the desert scrub!
 
Hey Todd!!! Will you be able to make it to RocStock?

I can vouch that it was a gorgeous flight! It was un-fortunate that it didn't survive as well as it could have...


-Chris
 
Unfortunately, no...real life calls. Being in retail, now through X-mas is going to be mighty busy for me. Though the good news is that I now have Saturdays off, so I might be able to make a ROC launch fro time to time!
 
Here is a quick pic of the damage that my thor took. It should be a relatively painless fix...just sand down the paint, glass the damaged tube sections and repaint!
 
Not yet. I didn't have time to drill the alt board at ROCStock... too busy with my L850W flight in the Arcas :D I'll fly her either at Turkey Shoot or next month on some sort of K motor... I promise!
 
I just got my Thor and started assembling. I dont see a fin alignment guide with it as it says in the instructions. Where would I find it?

Thanks Kindly
 
Originally posted by madha77er
I just got my Thor and started assembling. I dont see a fin alignment guide with it as it says in the instructions. Where would I find it?

Thanks Kindly

It should be a single sheet of paper that has a couple concentric circles with some lines cutting them up like pieces of pie. If you don't have one, contact Mark Saunders at BSD. Odds are he can either email one to you in Adobe Acrobat PDF format or fax one to you.

Thors rule :cool:

HTH,
 
Thanks. I ended up making a midnight run to Wal-Mart and bought a compass, protractor and made my own. Turned into a 3am fin gluing session ;)

I'll work on the fillets tonight.

I like the kit but a lot, easy enough. But for someone working on construction I would say the instructions could be a lot better. Especially when it comes to expoxy. I ended up looking at a gazzillion Thor sites and tried taking from their instructions.

e.g. I would of have waited and not attach the aft centering ring to the motor mount right away so I had some room to glue the fins and a good opportunity to add expanding foam to the aft fins. ahhh well I guess that why there are so many upscales ;)

Another must tool I would have added is a dremel. Its been quite helpfull for sanding small areas, I even used it to cut a washer as the one included was way to big. (yeah I could of ran out and bought one, cutting the edges worked great.

You know what would be really cool is for someone to gather instructions from everyone that has made a Thor, L3 project or up/down scales and take all their tools and tips to make a Thor construction page ;) hmmm maybe something I can do once I get the kit built.
 
Originally posted by madha77er
I like the kit but a lot, easy enough. But for someone working on construction I would say the instructions could be a lot better. Especially when it comes to expoxy. I ended up looking at a gazzillion Thor sites and tried taking from their instructions.

I don't disagree with your assessment of the instructions... BSD has some of the best HPR build instructions available but the Thor has been around for a while & has gone through at least one semi-major parts revision. Two changes come to mind: first one is that the forward tubes are now 24" & 10" instead of 2 17" tubes, and the second is that the aft CR is mounted flush with the end of the booster tube (see Thor reviews on EMRR for more information).

Unfortunately the instructions haven't changed to reflect the different tube lengths & there are some other minor differences that leave the builder to "creatively interpret" (as I like to call it) the instructions to build the Thor properly.

BTW, any ideas on the color scheme you plan to do? I strayed from the black/yellow scheme to do mine purple/yellow. I think red/yellow would totally kick you-know-what :cool: If I ever build another, it'll be red/yellow. Here's mine...
 
Well I am hoping for using some House of Kolor Areosol paint.

Tangelo Pearle (Orange) for the booster with a TrueBlue Pearl for the upper tubes. They will also get an undercoat of White and possibly a Kandy top coat.

I am going to also use their Adhereto Spray and Clear Coat. Then I am going to use the new Meguieres Tech Polymer to Polish :)

Although the Gold Thor Decals are great, they do place some limits on choice of color for the upper tubes.

Some other contruction details. It will be completely glassed. I am using an Aerosleve and 6oz S-Glass + 3oz HS glass for the fins (from Mr. Fiberglass). Superfill Poly Fiber to smooth out.

The Aerosleve was pretty easy to work with. You do have to be carefull with the ends so they dont fray. Use 3M blue masking tape to help with that.

I am using Aeropoxy. I find it very runny even with Micro bubbles. I think next project I am going to try West System.

What are people using for 5min epoxy? I also made some use of Gorilla glue. on the motor tube and centering rings. Quite helpful. Not sure what the overall impact will be..

O yeah did I mention this going to be my L1 and L2 rocket ? ;) Other than a few Estes kits this is my first :)
 
hmmm my House of Kolor Paint may not get in till Monday so I may end up flying on primer. We'll see.
 
Just wanted to jump in here and vouch for the 4" Thor. Definately a awesome kit. I've flown mine on 54mm 3grains and mostly on Hypertek K240's. It makes a LOUD whistle near apogee when slowing to the proper speed. Sounds really kewl ! I fiberglassed the entire kit and added a PML Electronics bay for dual deploy and a 54mm aeropack retainer system. I like this kit so well, I'm thinking about ordering another one just for a backup in case anything ever happens to this one. BSD is definately top notch in my book.
 
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