Product review: Estes Designer's Special (AKA Box o' Parts)

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CrazyOB

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Hello all,
It has been several decades since I have built and flown rockets.:surprised: The 'old boy' caught the fever again.

Anyhow, I was intrigued by the Designer's Special (I like my name better Box o' Parts) so decided to purchase and explore.

Estes marketing for this product is horrible. If you do a lot of building and flying of engine size E and lower you need to purchase this item, even if you are only doing repairs.

The kit includes 8 - 18" body tubes, 2ea BT-20, 50, 55, 60.
Laser cut centering rings, engine mounts, thrust rings, 7 parachutes, connecting tubes, some lugs, 10 nose cones, some transitions, bunch of other stuff. See attached picture and look at the list under item number 001980 at Estes.

There is a clear body tube included although in the photo it looks sort of bluish. It is next to the transitions in the attached photo.

The instruction booklet, all 15 pages, is pretty standard very little new there but a couple of items.

One piece of information that I wish they had included was the weight of each of the fins on the fin template, so you can use for CG guesstimates. (I may have to work on that after I finish my Alien Invader kit). I would have liked a couple of balsa nose cones, but without some design software AKA Rocksim or similar, the plastic is light enough that you can't screw it up toooo bad.

PS> I got a sweet deal on this at AC Supply.

001980_main_1.jpg
 
OK,OK..now that ya got all the details out of the way... :wink: "What ya gonna build?" :)

And yes, the designer kit is full of goodies for building.
I would recommend it me-self to anyone that is into scratch building.

OH YAAAAAAAAAAAAA ......................WELCOME!!!!!!
 
Right now I am building an 'Alien Invader', I will do a build thread when I get closer to completion. With the Box o' Parts, not sure yet, but have been messing around with the Rocksim trial. Oh, I think something sexy with alot of BT5's hanging off of it.

Definitely the clear payload bay with a goldfish and water! LOL Wonder how it would handle the G's.

Thanks for asking.

Crazy Old B@st@rd
 
I had one of those about 25 years ago. I've always called it the "Magic Box of Parts". Two of the rockets I built from it at that time:

IMG_2884.JPGIMG_2880.jpg

Both were flown a number of times when I was in high school. Now, I really just keep them for the sake of keeping them. I was thinking about building a second copy of the big one, this time with a 29mm mount.
 
I'm TA'ing a rocketry course at a local boarding school, and we are using these to build the rockets. I like it. :)
 
I've had two through the years. It's especially a good way to start scratch building. Here's 2 of the surviving products :)DSCN0662.jpgGIJoe_2.jpg
 
The original Designer's Special left alot to be desired according to others. This is my first Special so I was more than pleasantly surprised.

I guess now the question is do I pay for a copy of Rocksim or is there something freeware I should try first?

Heck it has been 40 years since I built anything so maybe time for "Go big or Go home"? :lol: I can see a J motor in my future for sure.

Dick Stafford, those are some crazy paint jobs!!
 
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As I recall, the one I had included a couple small balsa transitions, others were made with centering rings and cardstock fairing. The nose cone assortment was probably somewhat different, but it was otherwise the same as what you've shown there. My biggest gripe is that BT60 is the biggest tube it includes...
 
The original Designer's Special left alot to be desired according to others. This is my first Special so I was more than pleasantly surprised.

I guess now the question is do I pay for a copy of Rocksim or is there something freeware I should try first?

Heck it has been 40 years since I built anything so maybe time for "Go big or Go home"? :lol: I can see a J motor in my future for sure.

Dick Stafford, those are some crazy paint jobs!!

Look up open rocket on google, its a free rocket simulation and design software a bunch of us use ;)
 
I had one of those about 25 years ago. I've always called it the "Magic Box of Parts". Two of the rockets I built from it at that time:

View attachment 266140View attachment 266139

Both were flown a number of times when I was in high school. Now, I really just keep them for the sake of keeping them. I was thinking about building a second copy of the big one, this time with a 29mm mount.

I really like the one on the right!
 
The original Designer's Special left alot to be desired according to others. This is my first Special so I was more than pleasantly surprised.

I guess now the question is do I pay for a copy of Rocksim or is there something freeware I should try first?

Heck it has been 40 years since I built anything so maybe time for "Go big or Go home"? :lol: I can see a J motor in my future for sure.

Dick Stafford, those are some crazy paint jobs!!

Thanks. This was from a mid-80's version of the special. IIRC mine only had only one or two small balsa transitions but included rings and shrouds to make your own :)
 
Thanks. This was from a mid-80's version of the special. IIRC mine only had only one or two small balsa transitions but included rings and shrouds to make your own :)
Crap, only 3 or 4 days to mask the camo paint job? Never mind the crazy stripes on the green meanie. I agree with you, EXPjawa did a nice job with the streaky blue paint on the right hand one. Some people, like you two guys, have the knack. I'm lucky to get pinstripe straight.
 
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I really like the one on the right!

I agree with you, EXPjawa did a nice job with the streaky blue paint on the right hand one. Some people, like you two guys, have the knack. I'm lucky to get pinstripe straight.

Thanks. I called that one The City of New Orleans, named after the Illinois Central train that Arlo Guthrie sang of. Its a small payload rocket, the booster portion is minimum diameter for 18mm, the payload is BT50. The fins are two-stage fins from one of the included patterns, but I cut them out of one piece. In order to reinforce them, since the grain doesn't run right for the tip portions, I glued 1/8" balsa stringers to, to form a sort of spar. The "streaky blue paint" is mostly blue Monocote that I covered over the stringers with (gave it a built-in airfoil), but in 2 decades of sitting has loosened some and wrinkled. I expect an application of a heat gun would draw it up taunt again...
 
The original Designer's Special left alot to be desired according to others. This is my first Special so I was more than pleasantly surprised.

Actually, this is more or less the third Designer's Special that Estes has produced. Originally, it was a lot like the current version - 2@ tubes and a lot of nose cones (most of them balsa) plus some transitions, centering rings, fin stock and assorted hardware. Later, Estes turned the Designer's Special into an inventory clearance item - you never knew what you would get in it. I bought a couple over the years and one actually contained two Sidewinder nose cones! Also, instead of full body tubes, there were usually a few E2X colored tubes of varying lengths. Although not quite worthless, you really didn't get a lot of value for your money. As you noted, the current version is more like the original with standard parts that are pretty much all useful!
 
I'd have been really disappointed with two Sidewinder nosecones... I've got two already... Not my favorite kit, but certainly one of my favorite missiles (I worked 'em). Not including my scale aircraft models weapons loads, I only want to build three of them... the two I have already, and a 1/1 scale model (flyable or not, doesn't matter to me).
 
Greg, I bet you were ecstatic when you opened the box! "two Sidewinder nose cones". What did you use them for?

Actually, I haven't - I think they are still floating around in my parts box. Might have to use one for an SF model.
 
OK,OK..now that ya got all the details out of the way... :wink: "What ya gonna build?" :)

And yes, the designer kit is full of goodies for building.
I would recommend it me-self to anyone that is into scratch building.

OH YAAAAAAAAAAAAA ......................WELCOME!!!!!!
Well I have been thinking and I am going to build the original Advanced Target Drone from this box. Maybe I'll get adventurous and build a 2x version.

I do have a question though regarding the poster board chutes. How does one strengthen them or is the paint finish enough to make them sturdy? Thanks
 
When I built my ATD clone, I simply used cardstock. Soak CA glue into the edges to get rid of fuzzies, but the cardstock used originally was around .05" thick, so its pretty stiff. You'll need to use care in forming it. When I built my 225% upscale (BT-70 tubing), I used 1/16" light plywood. In both cases, the material was more than sufficient for the job.
 
Soak CA glue into the edges to get rid of fuzzies, but the cardstock used originally was around .05" thick, so its pretty stiff.
I was thinking of using a manila file folder? Would that do the trick?

PS> Nice job with 2.5x; how did it fly with 3 engines?
 
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No, the cardstock in a manila folder - and I just measured one for reference - is glorified paper, at only .009". Like I said, the card used by Estes was close to .050" (about 5X thicker). The stuff I used was a 2'x3' sheet purchased at Michaels (and far bigger than needed) is about .045", which was a close as I could find off the shelf. If you use stock like that, it will be plenty stiff enough. If you use thin stuff, it will not. For the record, typical cereal box cardboard is on the order of .010-.012", barely thicker than the manila folder. I was going to use that originally. Now, OTOH, that might well for use as a boat tail or other transition, where the conical form gives it some stiffness. But I don't think it is suitable for the ATD's side shrouds, especially if you care about accuracy at all.

Regarding my upscale, I haven't yet flown it on clustered. It does fly well on an single E20 or E30. I was going to try a clustered flight at LDRS (I successfully lit 3 other cluster rockets over the weekend, so I got more comfortable with it), but ran out of time.
 
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