3D Printed Fin Guides - Black Aero

I have decided to finally release the 3D Printed Fin Guides that have been in development for sometime. Below is a promotional video giving you an idea on the many uses of the Fin Guides.

[video=youtube;35_8D8sySno]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35_8D8sySno[/video]

Currently, Black Aero is producing Fin Guides that suit 38mm and 54mm air frames, thin walled or regular tubing. As fin thickness can vary the Fin Guides are stepped to provide you with the best fit for your rocket. Below are the step sizes according to the tubing diameter:

38mm : 1/16" and 3/32"
54mm : 3/32" and 1/8"

There is nothing more I can say than I use these fin guides whenever I build a rocket and you will love using them while you build! You can purchase a pair of 38mm Fin Guides for $15.00 and a pair of 54mm Fin Guides for $25.00. The Fine Guides come in pairs.

Please visit www.blackaero.com for more information and to order.

Any plans on doing larger sizes? I am a fan of 4" rockets myself...

Tonimus said:

Any plans on doing larger sizes? I am a fan of 4" rockets myself...

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This. And 2.6 and 3.0 as well.

Tonimus said:

Any plans on doing larger sizes? I am a fan of 4" rockets myself...

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Banzai88 said:

This. And 2.6 and 3.0 as well.

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Thanks for your interest and your questions.

I initially decided to keep the fin guides to a common size such as 38mm and 54mm. When you begin to scale up the design you run into a lot of issues. For example if I were to print a 4" fin guide it would be about 9.5' to 10" in diameter. This means I can print one Fin Guide on one printer at a time. In order to print I pair I would use both of my machines and it would take all day.

So I released the smaller sizes with an intent to potentially scale up the sizes, depending on the reception of the Fin Guides. I hope you can understand my reserved nature, but I do not want to invest time and money into printing Fin Guides that may not sell.

As for now, larger Fin Guides may be released in the future. I would love to hear any opinions about potentially larger Fin Guides or the design of the Fin Guides. I can say that a few people have used prototypes of these Fin Guides and have loved using them. They are very easy to use.

Please provide any ideas or opinions anyone may have.

Kyle sent me a set of these some time back for me to try out on my Hurricane 38. They work great and sped up my build quite a bit. I hate aligning fins. Very well made and nice snug fit. They are surely better than me trying to cut some from foam board. They are designed to work on several fin shapes.

A small notch near the inside/base keeps them away from any glue or epoxy that gets squeezed out, especially nice on surface mount fins. The base is somewhat wedge shaped to keep the fin guides square with the body tube. They won't lean and get out of whack on ya.

For TTW fins on larger diameter tubes, you can extend your fin slots and build your fin/MMT assembly using the guides and then slide the assembly in. I done just that on my current build, though I didn't get pictures. Super easy and well aligned.

If you build minis (38mm) or sports (54mm), you should invest in a set. Or like I mentioned above, with a bit of imagination they will work on larger diameter birds.

Mikey D

MikeyDSlagle said:

Kyle sent me a set of these some time back for me to try out on my Hurricane 38. They work great and sped up my build quite a bit. I hate aligning fins. Very well made and nice snug fit. They are surely better than me trying to cut some from foam board. They are designed to work on several fin shapes.

A small notch near the inside/base keeps them away from any glue or epoxy that gets squeezed out, especially nice on surface mount fins. The base is somewhat wedge shaped to keep the fin guides square with the body tube. They won't lean and get out of whack on ya.

For TTW fins on larger diameter tubes, you can extend your fin slots and build your fin/MMT assembly using the guides and then slide the assembly in. I done just that on my current build, though I didn't get pictures. Super easy and well aligned.

If you build minis (38mm) or sports (54mm), you should invest in a set. Or like I mentioned above, with a bit of imagination they will work on larger diameter birds.

Mikey D

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Thank you for your kind words and brief review Mikey! I am really glad you liked the set I sent you.

I think its time to try something new, I have had a great week and want to pass that onto someone else. I would like to give away three set's of Fin Guides to the people of TRF. In order to qualify you must leave a brief review below with at least one picture and use the Fin Guides within two weeks.

It's as simple as that, if you are going to build a 38mm or 54mm rocket within the next two weeks and are willing to leave a review with at last one picture below, you get a set for free!

The first three people to PM with their interest, will receive this promotion. Once I get three people I will update this post.

I have one more spot available!

Send me a PM if you would like a free set of Fin Guides.

BLKKROW said:

I have one more spot available!

Send me a PM if you would like a free set of Fin Guides.

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Wish this would've been offered earlier. I just finished building a Demon Sport and am currently building a Wild Thang Mini...

CzTeacherMan said:

Wish this would've been offered earlier. I just finished building a Demon Sport and am currently building a Wild Thang Mini...

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Are the fins attached to the mini already? If not you could be the 3rd.

We have all three volunteers.

BLKKROW said:

Are the fins attached to the mini already? If not you could be the 3rd.

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Sorry so late to respond, but yeah, the fins were already on.

Here is the first review:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?135902-Black-Aero-fin-guides

Thanks for the review!

Any chance of making these for 3" or 4" airframes?

cerving said:

Any chance of making these for 3" or 4" airframes?

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There is a chance these will be up-scaled to fit larger airframes. I am still testing the waters with the smaller sizes, as I have not had as much interest as I anticipated.

One issue with 3D printed that I have discussed throughout the last few weeks is the printing time. This is ultimately what determines the price of the items I sell. To give everyone an idea printing a pair of 38mm fin guides takes about 5 hours and for a pair of 54mm fin guides about 7 hours.

So printing larger sizes such as 3", 4" and 5" fin guides means the printing time increases as well as the price. Right now, I am looking into ways to lower the printing time without affecting the quality. If this can be done then the price could be lowered.

I would love an open discussion if anyone has any thoughts about the product itself or the price.

I was the third person that received a set of these to review. I chose the 38mm thinwall guides to use with a Madcow mini Tomach that I am making minimum diameter. After getting the guides I did a mock up with the fins and tubing to check the fit, and the fit is spot on for the tubing. They hold the fins securely, will no wiggle that I could detect.

When I went to epoxy the fins on, I did just the first one so I could make sure it was aligned correctly. The following day I did the remaining two fins, using the first fin to align them. I used tape to hold the guides together to make sure there was no shift, and it worked well. One feature that could possibly be added is small tabs around the outside perimeter for rubber bands to be used in place of tape.





The guides have a clear space around the root of each fin, to allow room for epoxy that is squeezed out. This is a nice feature, and something I have forgotten to do with cardboard guides before.



Overall, I would say that these guides are well worth the price that they sell for. If he develops a 29mm set, I will for sure be picking a set up. I may also pick up a set for 54mm in the future, when I build my next 54mm rocket.

Kyle

rc dude said:

One feature that could possibly be added is small tabs around the outside perimeter for rubber bands to be used in place of tape.

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Kyle, that is a FANTASTIC idea. I would get more sets for sure.

rc dude said:

....

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Thank you for your review and your suggestions.

Tonimus said:

Kyle, that is a FANTASTIC idea. I would get more sets for sure.

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I may make a V2 with some of the suggestions, thank you!