Rube Goldberg Lander

[JAL3]

Eventually, the cut material could be removed.

 

[JAL3]

Sandpaper was then used to smooth out and slightly expand the hole until it just fit the BT50.

 

[JAL3]

It was the opposite side of the ball that really had me worried but it turned out to be easy. When the tube was pushed through the ball to where it was flush with the opposite side, the outline of the tube could just be discerned. It was traced freehand with a pencil.

 

[JAL3]

The hole was then cut out and sanded to size in the same manner as the opposite side.

 

[JAL3]

The result was then examined when placed on the tube.

 

[JAL3]

I was happy enough that I did it all over again and tried it for size.

 

[JAL3]

I spaced out the balls in several ways and was faced with a quandary. I liked the effect of the balls but they looked very lonely when mounted in pairs. I still had time on my hands in the motel room so I made some more.

I liked it MUCH better!

 

[Pem Tech]

I spaced out the balls in several ways and was faced with a quandary. I liked the effect of the balls but they looked very lonely when mounted in pairs. I still had time on my hands in the motel room so I made some more.

I liked it MUCH better!

Intriguing.....
op:

 

[JAL3]

Fortunately for me, there was a Kinko's nearby. I won't get into the details of how to make Rocket Template Widget, a very basic ap, running on my laptop play nice with Kinko's network printer but it can be done if you hold your tongue just right.

What I needed was the 135 deg obtuse angle between the Pod Base and the boom tube. Dividing that in half for the Widget gave me 67.5 deg and that was the template I printed before heading back to the motel.

 

[JAL3]

The new template was tried out on fresh tubes and a coupler.

 

[JAL3]

After the cutting, I test fitted the tubes together and, this time, it was right!

 

[JAL3]

Having a bit more time, I used the same template to cut the opposite end of the boom tubes. I used the lines I had drawn to make sure the miter cuts lined up.

 

[boomtube]

I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this.

Anybody else remember David Gerald’s “Chtorr War” series?

 

[Daddyisabar]

It is simply PPB madness!

 

[JAL3]

I haven't even gotten to the really sick stuff yet.

 

[Daddyisabar]

All aboard! The Crazy Train is leaving the station!

 

[JAL3]

Not much done today because: it was a really busy day at the conference; I don't have much more in the way of materials to work with; Semroc, Rocketarium, Flis, etc are apparently delivering to my home instead of my motel room. Go figure.

 

[JAL3]

I did finish cutting the ping pong balls for the boom tubes. With 7 on each tube, that came out to 28. I am still left with 18 more. I figure I'll come up with a way to use them before this is over.

 

[JAL3]

I also finished making all of the miter cuts on the tubes I had with me.

 

[DAllen]

 

[JAL3]

View attachment 132611

Don't read more into than is there. Except for using glue to seal the holes the the reducers and put together the baffles, I have not used any glue at all yet!

 

[dlazarus6660]

I know what he's building!(say it to the tune of "I know what your doing")
I could see it with my 'Interoscitor' aka Luxatone. hehe

 

[JAL3]

I came back from my trip out of town and found... ANOTHER BOX. This one was from Fliskits. It had tubes, lots of tubes.

 

[JAL3]

Back home with my tools, I used the same series of drill bits as before to bore a hole down the center of a BT50 balsa plug. I went progressively using 1/16", 1/8" 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2".

 

[JAL3]

The procedure was then repeated to make a second, matched plug.

 

[sodmeister]

I am indeed perplexed to say the least ,and in awe of all the parts needed !

I wonder if the whole will be greater than the sum of it`s parts ?

Great build thread John

Paul t

 

[JAL3]

I am indeed perplexed to say the least ,and in awe of all the parts needed !

I wonder if the whole will be greater than the sum of it`s parts ?

Great build thread John

Paul t

I'd say that the part ordering is about 3/4 done.

I sure hope the sum is greater than the parts. Maybe I should stick some fins on the boxes, jam a motor tube at one end and call it a day!

This is going to be the most overblown MPR ever conceived. It started out at LPR but I quickly realized that I would need more oomph to move the mass.

I still need to get the custom parts for Gordon, all the fin stuff and 5 CTI casings. Beyond that, I need to replace the parts from Semroc that I bungled and double the number of balsa couplers.

 

[sodmeister]

I'd say that the part ordering is about 3/4 done.

I sure hope the sum is greater than the parts. Maybe I should stick some fins on the boxes, jam a motor tube at one end and call it a day!

This is going to be the most overblown MPR ever conceived. It started out at LPR but I quickly realized that I would need more oomph to move the mass.

I still need to get the custom parts for Gordon, all the fin stuff and 5 CTI casings. Beyond that, I need to replace the parts from Semroc that I bungled and double the number of balsa couplers.

Now I`m more intrigued than ever.This project is quite the enigma to say the least.

I love it !!

Paul T

 

[JAL3]

The drilled plugs were slipped into their respective tubes. In this case is was boom tube 3 and pod base 3. The alignment marks on the plugs were carefully aligned with the marks on the tubes and the end of the plugs were set flush with the ends of the tubes.

 

[JAL3]

A sanding block was then used to remove material from the plugs so that they assumed the same slope as the tubes.