Thank you again to everyone who gave their idea, it definitely helped clarify my thinking.
What I have decided is to cut the ring into two pieces, a bottom piece and a top piece. There are two reasons which ultimately overrode all other considerations:
I am going to half-slot the top fin and the top half-ring. That'll give that ring piece (which is somewhat more than half of the ring a good solid anchor point, without needing to do a two-piece fin.
There are still lots of details to be worked out, but having made this one decision will help things move along now. My next big decision will be which fins (if any) to slot into the body tubes, and whether to spring for laser cutting, which will help achieve the necessary precision for the whole assembly. The BT5 pod tubes, in particular, won't have any inner tubes, so slotting there would mainly be for alignment purposes, not strength. Slotting the main BT for the pod support pieces could be beneficial. I'm having a crazy thought about this, might post here later for feedback (need to convince myself it's not totally nuts first).
Anyway, onward. I guess I better get back to finishing up the rest of the design details....
What I have decided is to cut the ring into two pieces, a bottom piece and a top piece. There are two reasons which ultimately overrode all other considerations:
- Ability to glue the rings at the very end, after construction and painting are (mostly) finished.
- Ability to adjust the pieces to fit if the rest of the construction isn't perfectly aligned
I am going to half-slot the top fin and the top half-ring. That'll give that ring piece (which is somewhat more than half of the ring a good solid anchor point, without needing to do a two-piece fin.
There are still lots of details to be worked out, but having made this one decision will help things move along now. My next big decision will be which fins (if any) to slot into the body tubes, and whether to spring for laser cutting, which will help achieve the necessary precision for the whole assembly. The BT5 pod tubes, in particular, won't have any inner tubes, so slotting there would mainly be for alignment purposes, not strength. Slotting the main BT for the pod support pieces could be beneficial. I'm having a crazy thought about this, might post here later for feedback (need to convince myself it's not totally nuts first).
Anyway, onward. I guess I better get back to finishing up the rest of the design details....
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