Tom, thanks much.
I have lots of tools, so no excuses there. I suspect I could make another one now in about an hour or so given the resources in my shop, faster if I was making ten or so at a time, or if I was racing against a stringent deadline. Of course you did all the hard work upfront, though despite even that I managed to misunderstand how you designed it to work and wasted half-a-day building something non-functional only to throw it away and start again. Among other things, I make all aluminum pedal boards for electric guitarists, and I sometimes wonder why given the time it takes to make them and how low the margins are on a per unit basis. Pride I suppose, since their pretty and seem to work well. There is no doubt that folks little appreciate how many tens of hours and how much money goes into getting a product like your jig right, never mind what it takes to build one, or a hundred.
Check out build thread #1: at
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=32807. Your jig works brilliantly. Here's a challenge though: I'm starting another build on a 2.56 rocket that, because of its design, can't pass into the jig body. I figure I'll put a tube and coupler in the jig and hang the rocket on that, so artificially lengthening the rocket while the fins are applied.
Also, someone in one of the threads asked me if I had to mark pencil lines on the body tube to use the jig, which got me to thinking about how to possibly indicate relative degrees on the jig itself. Of course whistles and bells often cost money, and the struggle is to make something complete enough to be maximally useful while still remaining within that bandwidth we call "affordable." I didn't say so to the fellow at the time, but its just not that much bother marking lines on a tube, and I like the visual reference while I'm building to ensure everything is copacetic.
Really though, congrats on the jig. It's a top notch idea - brilliantly stable, super easy to use, totally variable, durable. I recommend anyone who plans to build more than one rocket shoot Ted a note and order up a jig. The first rocket build with it will make it all worthwhile. And while I'm sure the [autographed] plans are nice, I suspect it's actually cheaper when all is said and done just to have Ted build one for you so you can get back to building rockets. Though I seem to spend an inordinate amount of my own time building jigs and organizational stuff, I generally prefer to work in my shop rather than on it.
- E
