The Tri-Fire Rocket Build!

[ljwilley]

I received an Estes Crossfire rocket for my birthday, but I already had one. I was pondering about what do do, and was about to just put the parts in my "extra parts" bin, when a brilliant, idea came to me! Many of you may be familiar with the Estes Trident rocket, an out of production rocket that had to separate body sections and pods to duct the ejection charge between them. Here is a picture:

I am going to do a kit-bash using the parts from my crossfire, and some other parts to make a crossfire rocket with the same kind of ejection ducts as the trident. So far I have done this:

Fins:


Motor mount:

Pods- I had to sad the cones on the pods because they did not 3d print very well:






Motor mount inserted w/ tailcone:


Ejection duct holes cut out and tiny 3d printed ejection ducts glued in:


Will post more soon!!!

 

[Huxter]

Ducted ejection is cool! The tail cone really looks good! What are the nose cones made of? There's about 8 on the Trident I think. Please keep us posted.

 

[ljwilley]

The nose cones are 3d printed from PLA but then sanded down to get a smoother surface.

 

[ljwilley]

Also got the fins on!

 

[ljwilley]

Now I have done more! Here it is:

3d printed nose attached to lower tube/fin assembly:


Ejection duct holes cut in upper tube:


Ejection ducts glued in to upper tube:


Ejection duct holes cut in pods:





I hope that someone enjoys this build thread!
I will keep posting!

 

[ljwilley]

Also, some more info, there are actually 9 cones on the trident in all. The top cone, the cone on the bottom of the upper tube, the cone on the top of the bottom tube, and the 6 cones on the pods. Semroc sells a remake of the Estes trident, which is pretty much a clone. I am a big trident fan, and may do an upscale of one sometime. I also have an out of production fliskits "uss grissom". This rocket uses ducted ejection through pods like the trident too.

 

[neil_w]

You may want to paint that nose cone before attaching the outer tubes.

 

[afadeev]

Also, some more info, there are actually 9 cones on the trident in all. The top cone, the cone on the bottom of the upper tube, the cone on the top of the bottom tube, and the 6 cones on the pods. Semroc sells a remake of the Estes trident, which is pretty much a clone. I am a big trident fan, and may do an upscale of one sometime. I also have an out of production fliskits "uss grissom". This rocket uses ducted ejection through pods like the trident too.

Are you ducting ejection charge through one tube, or both (looks like the latter)?
Those would be two looonnng tubes, and I would be a little concerned whether the tiny 18mm BP ejection charge will be enough to pressurize aft aiframe, then two (2) long tubes, then forward airfame, and then successfully eject the nose cone.

Good luck with your build!

a

 

[ljwilley]

To answer neil_w's post, I have painted rockets with pods before, and you just have to make sure you spray all of the nose. I will wait until after it is done. Also, to answer afadeev's post, it actually has 3 pods not two, (and so does the normal trident it just looks like 2 in the pic). The normal trident is actually the same size as this tri fire rocket, so I think it is OK. The normal trident uses all 3 tubes to duct ejection, and my other ejection ducted rocket does too. It is even longer and uses mini motors, and still doesn't have any problems! I'm not too worried.

 

[ljwilley]

Here is some more things I have done:

Added bottom nose cone to upper tube:


Added pod #1 to lower assembly:

Upper tube assembly attached:

 

[burkefj]

That's nice, I did something similar with the estes 2 in diameter interceptor kit, called it the tri-ceptor

 

[BABAR]

Very cool kit bash.

Suggestion:

On the forward central tube (which will hold the parachute) would it make sense to put a bulkhead just tailward of the vents (so you have less space to pressurize).

Also haven’t flown vented models, but maybe a parachute “shelf” just NOSEWARD of the forward tube vent. It would be bad if packing or acceleration forces push the chute partly aft of the vent.

 

[ljwilley]

BABAR, yes you are right. A little too late for the bulkhead, but I will do something about the parachute. Burkefj, I actually saw a picture of your "triceptor" on the tri cities rocketeers website. I got the inspiration for my Tri-Jector rocket (a mix between a trajector and a trident), from your rocket. (I haven't really started building it yet but I did get the trajector at least.) The inspiration for the Tri-fire rocket was from my Tri-jector. So you were probobly the originator of the idea. Since I will have two Trident kitbash rocket now there will probably be more. I will also post a thread for the trijector when I build it but I will need a 2" estes body tube for the upper tube on the rocket, and estes has phased them out. I plan to get one next week from our site vendor at a rocket launch- I KNOW he has one. Will post more soon.

-Levi

 

[ljwilley]

The rocket is finished!!!
Here it is:


Will paint it like the normal crossfire and use the same decals too.

 

[ljwilley]

It is painted!!! I think it turned out nice!
The masking job was not that great, but It still turned out ok.
Hope someone likes this!

 

[neil_w]

Very nicely done. Look forward to a flight report.

 

[Huxter]

I think it turned out beautifully! Great job! Looks like a great flyer too!

The Fliskits' Grissom has some very small parts - be careful - I broke a few! Very fun build tho.

 

[ljwilley]

Yes the grissom was INSANE! I had to be extremely careful. Anywho, LAUNCH REPORT!!!!!
Flew the Tri Fire on a B6-4 yesterday. Turned out to be a great, low and slow flight! Here is a video:


Hope someone thinks this is cool, because I do!

 

[Huxter]

Nice flight. Would love to see the mighty C engine in there! Thanks for posting.

 

[ljwilley]

Yes sometime for the C engine but not at my house the property is too small for big engines and I don't really want to loose this one to the rocket eating trees.

 

[shanejohnson2002]

I know I'm late to the party on this thread but, as a Crossfire fan....this is way cool

 

[ljwilley]

Thanks!