Fin bevel jig

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Pyropetepete

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So many different mix reviews on this but I like JC's version with the 10*

Is sanding or a router the best option?

How do I get the right depth of cut, nothing I've seen cover this
 
I have a hand jig that Takes elbow grease. I like JC's jig but have never built one. I may try the week.


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I hate all these ads.
 
Which do you prefer:sander or router?


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I hate all these ads.
 
You've started this thread like everyone would immediately know all about the review your talking about. How about adding some need to know information, like a link, who the heck is JC or what a 10* is.

I sort if think he did this exactly right. Anyone who will be able to answer his question probably knows the answer to all of yours.


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I've not tried Jeff's router idea yet, but I will try it next time I bevel fins.

One thing about the sander method, I hate having my knuckles that close to a spinning disk. :)

Thanks. It is not much better having close to a spinning router bit.
 
John maybe you can help me here. I've read over and over it and it's not really making much sense to me.

My fins are 1/4'' 6mm baltic birch ply. I want the 10* bevel you've shown.

My table on the sander does not move, it's set @ 90*. I do have option of a router as well (unsure what tip to use).

The cut out is what confuses me and then how do you make sure your not going to far to the disc?

Just trying to find the best way to do this as don't want to mess up my fins and have to order new ones from the USA to the UK

PS your youtube vid for the NC av/bay i've done. Just making the sled
 
My table on the sander does not move, it's set @ 90*.
That's why the angle is built into the jig itself. It supports the fin at a 10° angle to the face of the disk (80° to the surface of the table).

The cut out is what confuses me and then how do you make sure your not going to far to the disc?
The best way is to sneak up on it. The disks don't spin truly flat so take a shallow pass until you get to cutting just under half the thickness on each side. Once the depth is right, the bevel can be made in a single pass.

Just trying to find the best way to do this as don't want to mess up my fins and have to order new ones from the USA to the UK
I suggest you practice with scraps of plywood until you're comfortable. You want a smooth pass that doesn't bind on the gap in the bottom of the jig, and you also have to keep the fin running along the jig face to get a consistent bevel.

6mm birch plywood can be obtained at hobby shops. In the U.S., it's sold under the names SIG and Midwest, but I'm not sure which brands are available in the U.K.
 
Why don't you show a picture of your hand one so the rest of us could benefit?

Andrew
 
A problem I have with the bevel jigs I've seen is that they are great for mid to high power rockets with big fat fins, but for LPR folks like me with small fins rarely more than 1/8" thick, it's hard to scale down the design. I'm looking for a way to get reasonably reproducible results on small "Estes kit sized" fins. Sure I can hand sand them pretty well, but I'm looking for more precision.

Bradycros posted a year or two ago about his beveler, which works great for him, but even with lots of private assistance I wasn't able to reproduce his results.

I've now got a mind to try something with mounting my Dremel tool and using the sanding discs they've got. If I get it working well, I'll post about it.

Marc
 
A problem I have with the bevel jigs I've seen is that they are great for mid to high power rockets with big fat fins, but for LPR folks like me with small fins rarely more than 1/8" thick, it's hard to scale down the design. I'm looking for a way to get reasonably reproducible results on small "Estes kit sized" fins. Sure I can hand sand them pretty well, but I'm looking for more precision.

Bradycros posted a year or two ago about his beveler, which works great for him, but even with lots of private assistance I wasn't able to reproduce his results.

I've now got a mind to try something with mounting my Dremel tool and using the sanding discs they've got. If I get it working well, I'll post about it.

Marc

Have you looked into the Jim Jarvis method?

I will be using it soon on a fin that is 1/16" and needs a 0.11 degree bevel with a bevel size of 0.25".
 
I looked at the sanding disk beveler, and was thinking about how a diamond tile saw works good on G10/fiberglass, and how a table saw cuts everything else.
So I have been using a tile blade on my table saw, it has a better fence and guide system than the cheap tile saw. And the blade is up/down/tilt adjustable. It works well.
So now I'm thinking of putting a stick on sanding disk on the tile blade on the table saw- should work for beveling and keep the fingers away from the disk. and would still cut fiberglass.
Should be the best of all worlds.:cool:
The tile blades come in 4 through 10 inch sizes, so a ~6 incher should work good with the 6 inch sanding disk.
 
For my small LPR needs, I came up with an idea today that I think will do the trick nicely. I just have to finish building it. Didn't have much time this weekend, and I'm out of town next weekend, so it will be a while before it is completed.

It consists of a sliding stage on a pair of European glide drawer glides. These are very stable, for precise movement. Next, I'm mounting the Dremel tool's flexible shaft adaptor with a sanding drum on it, such that the drum will be at an angle to the edge of the sliding stage. The idea will be to set the angle of the sanding drum, set the distance of the drum to the stage (a matter of a mm or two), and position the fin edge parallel to the edge of the stage at the correct distance. Then just slide the stage past the sanding drum. Voila!

So, the base with the glides is built, and I just have to figure out optimal mounting of the Dremel extenstion shaft such that it gives me stability but retains needed adjustment potential.

Marc
 
We could start all over and give it another try if you'd like to.

Thanks for this! If my current idea doesn't pan out, we'll give it another go. I'd rather work it out with a drum sander or some such rather than a manual sanding approach, as I'm more likely to get consistent results this way. The more I do manually, the crappier the work, usually...
 
My beveler uses elbow grease with a controlled fixed/sliding sanding block and many repetitious movements. I have only used it on fins using 3 inch body tubes or less.

The lower fins on this TLP Flail kit were beveled by hand with my Bevel-Matic.

It gets the job done with good results. It takes a bit of time to cobble one together. The one I've built has already lasted 6 years and still works fine. It does take time to get the results you want out of it.

Why don't you share a picture of your Bevel-Matic for the rest of us?

Andrew
 
Yeah I thought that was the case, I like the simplicity. Very clever. What I don't understand, the sled that slides along how does the sanding block sit on the base when there is no fin, is it flush and flat or is there an angle built in somewhere?
 
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