Trident Build Thread

[Zetoyoc]

I have loved this design since I first saw an upscale version of it somewhere. I have two kits based on this design. The one I chose to start with is Semroc's Version.



I have a few other kits including the Fliskits Grissom. They all intimidate me a bit with all the pieces and the vent ports integral to successful recovery. The Semroc version was chosen first due largely to the fact that the ports are pre cut! and the tubes are bigger.

Pre cut ports!



The Parts there are a lot of them.



Close up of the excellent looking guide



and all the great balsa



Did I mention that there are a lot of parts.

-Z

[Zetoyoc]

The nose cones got taped to protect the shoulder and covered with fill n finish.

The fins too. The fins were a bit bendy with the grain going almost with the root. I don't want to paper them but may try soaking in CA after the FnF. It's an experiment.



The tubes look great right out of the package. BUt I figured I would kick myself if i didn't fill the tiny seams anyway. I was going to do it after the build but realized with the three tubes parallel it will be very hard to sand later. So more FnF.

While drying I assembled the motor mount. Lots of rings on this thing.



Finally after sanding and sanding an sanding, Did I mention there are a lot of parts? ,I found I have too many tubes. I was a bit confused for a time since i am at the part of the instructions having me place eye screws in cones and mounting to long tubes. It turns out I sanded two tubes i didn't need but were included in the kit. there should be 6 skinny ones and two fat ones long and short. I had 7 and 3 I didn't even notice but they are in my first pics in the previous post. I had to use that to be sure I didn't somehow "borrow" tubes from another kit.

one word of caution when sanding the tubes. Especially the skinny ones. I had to be careful not to damage the ports while sanding. I found the sand paper would catch if not careful.



Nap time.

-Z

[Micromeister]

Have loved this desing since the 70's!
Truely on of the Classics. and a truely fun flying model. Like it so much I down scaled it to for Micro Maxx. a perfect demo model regardless of scale

Hope you have as much fun building and flying your semroc version as I have the several i've had over the years.

[Boosterdude]

Great, I got that kit for Xmas. Looking forward to the build.

[JPVegh]

Oooooh!!! A Trident build! Sexxxy!!!

[gdjsky01]

[Zetoyoc]

not much time today (it's game day) BUt I thought I'd get organized and ready for construction.

First. Organization. With this many tubes and cones and whatnots. I had to make sure I fully understood where each piece went. (I found extra tubes that way )

Early in the Build you are asked to glue nose cones in tubes. There are 5 different shape cones belonging to two different diameters. And the tubes are directional. the Ports have to be facing the right way. I looked a few times at the instructions and still nearly put the pointiest cone on the top. That just seemed natural. but no.



Be sure to tie a good knot with the shock cord to the eye ring that gets glued way down inside the main body tube. you don't want that coming out. you'll never get it back in there.



you also glue the squatty nose cone on the secondary body tube/motor mount. Do not glue the third nose cone in. You do need at least one to let the parachute out

[Zetoyoc]

The vent tubes.

These need to be coupled together and attention needs to be kept on the port alignment.



I quickly found that drawing lines down the edge of a vent along the tube worked great, but I needed to be sure to have three lefts and three rights. so that when I reversed one to mate them together the ports lined up correctly.






I could have ran the line down the center of the port but figured it would have a greater chance of error for me.

Now the couplers. I first glued in the coupler to all the lefts/ or rights ( i don't remember which it was ) This would make sure i didn;t try to put together two lefts and never get the ports lined up before the glue grabbed.



Normally I would used elmers and spin/twist the tubes together quickly before it grabbed and i would be stuck so to speak. I did the same thing but practiced a few times without glue to make sure i could twist into the correct aligned position and not get stuck. also I used a flat surface to roll them on to be sure of a straight tube.



Ta Da.

[sodmeister]

Jesse ,I`m glad you`re doing this build ,as I`ve always wanted to get one and see how it goes together.Now I`ll know......man that`s a cool looking rocket.

Great build...I love it !!!!!


Paul T

[Marc_G]

I have GOT to get me one of these!

[Zetoyoc]

A lot of slow steps later, and some time off for class, (we took them to the air and space museum. easy day!) now on to the interesting parts. It is starting to take shape. I filled the seams where the tubes were joined and glued the small nose cones in the correct places. I still think I should have put the pointy ones up. I may have to build another one anyway a pic.



The kit comes with a really nice template bit for holding all the tubes in the correct places for gluing. (thank you thank you) After putting all this in place i can only imagine the struggle to do it without.





they were a bit tight. I had to sand the holes out a bit using a rolled up piece of sand paper. but don't go too far you want them tight. You do not want anything to slip around much. Take care to get all the ports lined up as close as possible while keeping the whole thing square, er triangular.



once all looked good I used a drop of medium CA on each end of each port to secure it while I took the alignment guides off. try not to glue the guides to the rocket. ( why I didn't use thin CA ).

before you rip the guides apart to get them off as the instructions say, be sure to use the incorperated marking guide to mark the fin and launch lug locations.

I chose to work a bit harder and carefully slide the guides off instead of taking them apart, just in case.



Now the part I am nervous about. Tomorrow we will see how well my fillets worked. I used wood glue. because it was the thickest stuff I had. you do not want it to run into the port and clog it. and you do not want to leave any holes. so until tomorrow..

-Z

[gdjsky01]

Templates???!!! Guides?!!! What a wimp!!!! Why back in the 70s we built tridents with nothin more than our calibrated mark I eyeball. You youngsters just don't understand what it means to build a rocket like a man!! Looser!!!!!!



. J/K

[gldknght]

What are you going to fly this on? I'm wondering about how well a standard ejection charge will preassurize all the volume in those tubes, and if it will pop the parachute out.

[Zetoyoc]

Templates???!!! Guides?!!! What a wimp!!!! Why back in the 70s we built tridents with nothin more than our calibrated mark I eyeball. You youngsters just don't understand what it means to build a rocket like a man!! Looser!!!!!!



. J/K

You are a stronger man than I. I had a hard enough time getting the right nose cones on. lol , besides I can't afford to loose much more hair to pulling it out in fits of frustration.

What are you going to fly this on? I'm wondering about how well a standard ejection charge will preassurize all the volume in those tubes, and if it will pop the parachute out.

It should fly well on 18mm moters. It is far to late tonight to actually do the math but I believe there is quite a bit less volume in this than say a standard bt-55 rocket. the scale may not have come through in the photos but the three port tubes are only bt-5 long pause...

Ok you intrigued me. I did the math. the Trident has 3 13mm x 460mm tubes 1 24mm x 240mm and 1 24mm x 60 mm tubes. = about 321 cubic cm

The Quest Force 5 for comparison has 1 33mm x 390mm tube = about 333 cubic cm

not nearly as much less as I thought but still less. Thanks for making me do the math (I actually went to the math tutor in the house. She loves this stuff )

ps if anybody is doing the measurements to check me I did account for the motor mount and took that off the length of both models tubes.
A few pictures for scale.

[BEC]

I love this kit - and it makes a fine flyer as well.

Ejection charges are not a problem for the Semroc version. It works just fine (though I've not flown mine on Quest motors yet).

I built one the "old way" from the Semroc xKit and the ejection charge (an older Estes B6-4) both deployed the 'chute and blew the side out of the lower section.

The new one, with the bigger laser cut ports, is much better....at least for me.

[gpoehlein]

I still have an original Trident I build back in 74 - It flies great! (I'm restoring it now - even bought some decals from Excelsior for it!) I just got a new one because I don't want to risk the old one when it is finished!

[gldknght]

Good work with the math. I could not tell the diameters of the various body tubes. Every time I see this kit, I think about getting one. Be an awesome project to put a motor in each of the three side tubes.

[Zetoyoc]

An update.

I have been busy the lat few days but have had enough time to mess a few things up. I think I may be working on too many projects at once Is that possible?

Anyway I was eager to put the fins on.

i decided to try a technique to make sure the fins were on just right.



It really didn't help. It just got in the way. I was able to eyeball it just fine.





Now the messing everything up part

I had been planning on giving the fins a nice round edge before gluing. I forgot. After the third fin was setting I realized this and was sad. I have never had to sand the fins once they were on the rocket. So after a time I put on some really good fillets. I didn't want them to come lose while sanding.

Fast forward a day. The fillets look awful. Strong, solid, but awful. I think I went to fast and put a quicker drying glue over a slower drying glue. I have done this before with great smooth results but if the first layer is not "done" before the second layer, well you get ugly fillets.

Now to sanding everything round and smooth. but wait..!! grrr. how could this be? one of my previously straight fin is leaning over a few degrees. Argh! I blame the cat. (to bad the door was closed and she is innocent, this time ) more Grr..

I thought about leaving it. but it would bug me too much. So to break it off and reglue. Did I mention the fillets were big and strong? I took a good chunk of tail cone off with it..

Do you notice the lack of pictures. I wasn't exactly in the mood for pictures. sigh. Oh well I have the fin back on straight this time or so help me.. and the fin edges are rounded. Now I will wait. I have a birthday party I have to attend. (She says it is my party I should at least make an appearance ) so pictures and another update will come after this weekend. Or if I recover enough on Sunday to work on rockets

-Z

[Zetoyoc]

Ah the fins.

I must be tired. I forgot the fins. The original fins were laser cut out of a very soft and spongy balsa sheet. I tried to use them. I used fill n finish and even soaked them in CA. I was not happy with the still too flexible fins and now a warp. So I got out some balsa I had on hand and traced the originals and cut new ones. The balsa I have reminds me very much of basswood. (actually for all I know it could be mislabeled bass) It is some of the densest balsa I have found. So much better.

Also you will notice they are pink. I Just got some bondo and figured what the heck Ill see what that does to the balsa instead of FnF. It didnt turn out too bad. We'll see how it paints later.

-Z

[sodmeister]

Are you into birding ?


Paul T

[Zetoyoc]

Are you into birding ?


Paul T

lol, Yes most of my vacations are in some way planned around when and where the birds are She finds them, I take their pictures.

We are even teaching a three term class on birds for home school kids, which is why the first books I grab to prop up a fin are bird guides


I know I know next time I'll search for something space or aircraft related.

-Z

[sodmeister]

lol, Yes most of my vacations are in some way planned around when and where the birds are She finds them, I take their pictures.

We are even teaching a three term class on birds for home school kids, which is why the first books I grab to prop up a fin are bird guides


I know I know next time I'll search for something space or aircraft related.

-Z

Hell no !!!

I`m big into birding myself ,always have been since I was a child !

You want to see books

I can just barely wait until spring and the flyway is in full swing.

Birds are COOL ,and I don`t care who knows it ,and that`s comming from a guy who works heavy construction ! Nobody gives me grief over it ,cause they know better

Cheers

Paul T

[gdjsky01]

Question:
Are Quest motors know for lesser ejection charges? Cause I damn sure know a lot of Estes charges these days are more like a shotgun. Just curious as I see someone mentioned pressurization.


I have the Bi-dent new in a package somewhere in storage. IIRC I ordered enough nose cones from BMS back in the early 2000s to build a scratch Trident. Then never got around to it. Wonder if I used them? I am more inclined now days to use such nose cones for pods.

Nice build!


Stop blaming the cat. She tells me she had a hairball that night and was sleeping it off when said fin drooped.

Birds? MANY of my astronomy buddies are into birds. They seem for some reason to go together. Me? I don't get it

[dlazarus6660]

Anyone try using plastic nose cones instead of balsa?
I hate finishing balsa NC's

[sodmeister]

Anyone try using plastic nose cones instead of balsa?
I hate finishing balsa NC's

You may add me to that list !


Paul T

[gdjsky01]

Anyone try using plastic nose cones instead of balsa?
I hate finishing balsa NC's

Just a matter of finding the right (or pleasing) form factor and go for it. You may (or may not) have to plan for more weight in the nose. Something easily done by asking someone with the original to give you a rough CG of their 'know good' Trident.

[dpower]

Oooh, more closet birders...

[boomtube]

Hopefully your “Trident” doesn’t come with “Lucas Electric” wiring.

Lucas; Prince of Darkness.

[sl1ck]

Any updates on this build? I got one for xmas, and am wondering about prefinishing the tubes, seems like it will be hard to finish between the tubes.

[K'Tesh]

Templates???!!! Guides?!!! What a wimp!!!! Why back in the 70s we built tridents with nothin more than our calibrated mark I eyeball. You youngsters just don't understand what it means to build a rocket like a man!! Looser!!!!!!



. J/K

You used your calibrated mark I eyeball? Hell man... I didn't even have plans or a kit for my builds...



(probably why I haven't been able to finish them)

My clone was based on the measurements I took from the Trident I picked up from my high school band teacher. I just didn't know what engine to use, and ended up zippering it on its first launch in the winter of '95 (hence the repaired section). My 2nd clone was started immediately afterwards, but I ran out of filler (and money) and didn't get much further than the body tubes getting glued together...


My Family of Tridents