- Joined
- Nov 8, 2015
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Day one.
So here is yet another A.C.M.E. Spitfire. Not another one for me; but the board. Let’s face it, I watched Mushtang begin his build, chatted with him, and shortly thereafter bought one myself! This thing is just too cool NOT to try to build it! I’m not sure if my build will have any value add; compared to his thread,https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...itfire-Beer-Can-Version-Build-Thread-FINISHED, but it helps me document my own steps, so here we go. This may be a slow build as I have alot going on; but I hope to have it ready to fly by July 16th when I take my Cubscouts out to launch Rockets with NOVAAR.
The hardest thing I had to do was decide HOW I wanted this to look. Obviously Mushtang did the beer can design and that thing rocks. I also found a thread that has all sorts of cool designs: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...itfire-Photo-collage!&highlight=acme+spitfire They are all great and really made it hard to decide. Especially when I saw the Captain America one. Pretty cool. Finally I’ve decided on the copper colored design.
To that end, I wanted to put rivets on the rocket so I ran to Michaels and picked up some craft gems, taped them to a package, took outside and then primed them. About that time I heard my wife in the front yard talking with a neighbor and walked up to join in. After a while we started talking about our new watering system and wondered how much coverage our side garden got; so she called it up on the Iphone and started that zone. I walked over watching it and then glanced down the hill. I didn’t realize we had a zone head down the hill, which was spraying directly on the gems I’d just finished painting! Nutz. Oh well, get all the kinks out right away and hopefully the rest of the build will go smooth!
The next step has you using an old 24mm engine to insert into the long motor tube up to ¼”; then pull. I didn’t have a used one, so I just grabbed a D and went to town.
Next is the tedious task of cutting out the four body wraps. After that, you need to ensure the bottom is aligned with the bottom of the tube and then draw a straight black line the length of the tube on one side and then a straight red line the length of the tube on the opposite side. This will help align everything later on.
Once done, I carefully wrapped the first wrap on the body tube, flushed the bottom, and then marked the top all the way around. As you can imagine from pictures on the board, this line will not be straight across the tube. Then carefully and slowly begin to spin the tube while lightly cutting the surface with a fresh Xacto blade. Go light and slow. It took about 5 passes for the tube to pop apart. Then lightly sand smooth and also along the inside to remove any burs.
At that point, I also sanded the main body tube smooth and remove burs, then continued the process with wraps 2 – 4. NOTE: The bottom of wrap 2 will flush up with the odd cut at the bottom of the body tube, where wrap 1 ended and so forth.
Here’s what four looks like laid out with the others cut.
And again transferring the top line to the tube.
Finally all tubes are cut.
Finally a dry fit Black to Red/Red to black/ etc, and done for the night
So here is yet another A.C.M.E. Spitfire. Not another one for me; but the board. Let’s face it, I watched Mushtang begin his build, chatted with him, and shortly thereafter bought one myself! This thing is just too cool NOT to try to build it! I’m not sure if my build will have any value add; compared to his thread,https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...itfire-Beer-Can-Version-Build-Thread-FINISHED, but it helps me document my own steps, so here we go. This may be a slow build as I have alot going on; but I hope to have it ready to fly by July 16th when I take my Cubscouts out to launch Rockets with NOVAAR.
The hardest thing I had to do was decide HOW I wanted this to look. Obviously Mushtang did the beer can design and that thing rocks. I also found a thread that has all sorts of cool designs: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...itfire-Photo-collage!&highlight=acme+spitfire They are all great and really made it hard to decide. Especially when I saw the Captain America one. Pretty cool. Finally I’ve decided on the copper colored design.
To that end, I wanted to put rivets on the rocket so I ran to Michaels and picked up some craft gems, taped them to a package, took outside and then primed them. About that time I heard my wife in the front yard talking with a neighbor and walked up to join in. After a while we started talking about our new watering system and wondered how much coverage our side garden got; so she called it up on the Iphone and started that zone. I walked over watching it and then glanced down the hill. I didn’t realize we had a zone head down the hill, which was spraying directly on the gems I’d just finished painting! Nutz. Oh well, get all the kinks out right away and hopefully the rest of the build will go smooth!
The next step has you using an old 24mm engine to insert into the long motor tube up to ¼”; then pull. I didn’t have a used one, so I just grabbed a D and went to town.
Next is the tedious task of cutting out the four body wraps. After that, you need to ensure the bottom is aligned with the bottom of the tube and then draw a straight black line the length of the tube on one side and then a straight red line the length of the tube on the opposite side. This will help align everything later on.
Once done, I carefully wrapped the first wrap on the body tube, flushed the bottom, and then marked the top all the way around. As you can imagine from pictures on the board, this line will not be straight across the tube. Then carefully and slowly begin to spin the tube while lightly cutting the surface with a fresh Xacto blade. Go light and slow. It took about 5 passes for the tube to pop apart. Then lightly sand smooth and also along the inside to remove any burs.
At that point, I also sanded the main body tube smooth and remove burs, then continued the process with wraps 2 – 4. NOTE: The bottom of wrap 2 will flush up with the odd cut at the bottom of the body tube, where wrap 1 ended and so forth.
Here’s what four looks like laid out with the others cut.
And again transferring the top line to the tube.
Finally all tubes are cut.
Finally a dry fit Black to Red/Red to black/ etc, and done for the night
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