Making a large paper transition template?

[Rocketbuilder]

Hi everyone,
I'm working on a super-low budget poster board rocket and I need to make a paper template for the nose cone. (I will be tracing it onto the poster board.) However, the nose cone is 12 inches long, and the Payload bay tradition calculator will not accept a length measurement greater than 10 inches. I tried splitting the template into two parts, but when I cut them out to tape them together, I found that the top curve of the first part and the bottom curve of the second part did not match up, even though they were both supposedly 1.594 inches!
I tried to find other transition calculates online, but to no avail. Is there any other way to make a template like this without doing complicated math that's out of my depth?
Thanks.

[McKailas Dad]

Oooh, finally a question I can answer!

Or, at least send you to a link that can. Here

There are a few other links that may be helpful, too. Here

And here

Oh, there is another good one, here


Maybe browse around in the Cardstock section...

[Gary Byrum]

Hi everyone,
I'm working on a super-low budget poster board rocket and I need to make a paper template for the nose cone. (I will be tracing it onto the poster board.) However, the nose cone is 12 inches long, and the Payload bay tradition calculator will not accept a length measurement greater than 10 inches. I tried splitting the template into two parts, but when I cut them out to tape them together, I found that the top curve of the first part and the bottom curve of the second part did not match up, even though they were both supposedly 1.594 inches!
I tried to find other transition calculates online, but to no avail. Is there any other way to make a template like this without doing complicated math that's out of my depth?
Thanks.

I use the VCP free proggy at this link http://v-serv.com/vcp/ The guy that wrote this is actually a member here. You will have to set your printer options up for tile printing and try to narrow the tiles to as few pages as possible. I did a large tranny once and it wanted to use 4 sheets of paper. I figured out a way to center it on just 2 but it took a little tweaking in the print options as I remember. The match up was dead on the money too.

[Rocketbuilder]

I use the VCP free proggy at this link http://v-serv.com/vcp/ The guy that wrote this is actually a member here. You will have to set your printer options up for tile printing and try to narrow the tiles to as few pages as possible. I did a large tranny once and it wanted to use 4 sheets of paper. I figured out a way to center it on just 2 but it took a little tweaking in the print options as I remember. The match up was dead on the money too.

It says it is for Windows... Do you know if it is Mac compatible? Worst comes to worst, I can always make the nose cone 2 inches shorter and use the Payload Bay tool. The rocket would only lose 8 feet of altitude (probably less than the margin of error in the simulator), and I can live with the aesthetic difference.

[Gary Byrum]

It says it is for Windows... Do you know if it is Mac compatible?

I sure dont. You can look him up in the members list and send him a message. His nic is VCP.

[PhlAsh]

get a ruler, a scale and a compass (or a piece of string the length of your nosecone plus enough to tie around a pencil and some spare). Draw a base centerline as long as the nosecone or longer. Draw a line perpendicular to it. Measure your body tube diameter. Mark that distance on the perpendicular line (centered on the centerline). Measure (up from the intersection) the length you want the nosecone to be. Take your compass (or tie the string around a pencil) and put the lead on either endpoint of the line representing the bodytube. Put the tip of the compass (or hold the string tight) on the point representing the far end of the nosecone. Draw an arc at lease 3.5 times the length of the bodytube line. Cut one side straight from centerpoint to arc, cut the arc, cut straight back to about 1/4" beside your starting (center) point. Roll it into a cone and compare the open end against your bodytube. Mark it, trim off the excess (leaving enough to glue (or you can cut a strip and glue both edges to it).

[Patriot]

Hi everyone,
I'm working on a super-low budget poster board rocket and I need to make a paper template for the nose cone. (I will be tracing it onto the poster board.) However, the nose cone is 12 inches long, and the Payload bay tradition calculator will not accept a length measurement greater than 10 inches. I tried splitting the template into two parts, but when I cut them out to tape them together, I found that the top curve of the first part and the bottom curve of the second part did not match up, even though they were both supposedly 1.594 inches!
I tried to find other transition calculates online, but to no avail. Is there any other way to make a template like this without doing complicated math that's out of my depth?
Thanks.

What else do you need to do besides developing a 12" cone on a flat surface for a BT60 tube? Or am I missing something here?

[Rocketbuilder]

What else do you need to do besides developing a 12" cone on a flat surface for a BT60 tube? Or am I missing something here?

Actually, 1.594" is just the diameter of the cone at the point where I had positioned a strengthening centering ring in OR. So, it seemed like a convenient place to split the template into two parts (and yes, I did account for the thickness of the nose cone in that diameter) and so it could be printed on 8.5x11 paper. The body tube is 3" in diameter. 11x17 paper would certainly be big enough to print a template that size on, but unfortunately it won't fit on my printer, and I don't want to have to pay Kinko's to do it. So, I decided to just make the nose cone 2" shorter, use the Payload bay tool, and live with an apogee 8 feet lower and an almost undetectable aesthetic difference. Yep, I'm lazy!