In praise of the Estes Meteor Masher

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DaveCombs

DaveCombs

Carnivore, Interrupted
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Hey, kids - long time, no see...

So I was trolling eBay for replacement bomblets for my Estes Cluster Bomb (a kit which is, incidentally, about as easy to find on eBay as hen's teeth, whatever that means). I lost mine at one of our club launches quite a while back. I found out that they're the same ones used on the Meteor Masher kit.

Found a Masher kit for cheap and snagged it. Much to my chagrin, and contrary to the description, the kit had been opened and the body tubes and nose cone had been painted - BADLY - with a rattle-can green. But the reason I got the kit was the bomblets, and thankfully they were still in their original white. So, after applying the appropriate discipline to the seller, I set the kit aside in the build pile so when spring rolls around I can paint the bomblets and get my cluster bomb back in the air. (I'm also considering sending a pair to someone on here with a 3D printer, so they can be "preserved for posterity".)

It's midwinter here in Ohio, so that means it's full-on build season. I've been pulling out kits and getting them to the point where all they need is paint. While getting another one out, I ran back across the Masher and so I pulled it out and started looking at it. Looking at the instructions, I think I've come to appreciate the piston system that's used to separate the airframe and allow the bomblets to fall. It looks like a pretty slick and durable design. I'll probably head over to EMRR to check out some performance reviews.

I'm relatively sure I have enough body tubes lying around (a long piece of BT-20 stuffer, a short piece of BT-50, and two pieces of BT-55 for the airframe) to replace the botched ones, and the nose cone is salvageable with some 400-grit wet/dry.

Darn it, I think I'm gonna have to build this thing.

Anyone have one, and are there any gotchas to look for? I'm probably not going to stick with the paint scheme, and by extension I probably won't use the peel & stick decals.
 
Never heard of it til' now, but will look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Sounds like it is interesting enough.
Got any Pics'???
 
For the nose cone I'd definitely recommend letting it sit in some Simple Green cleaner overnight, then run it under some water and agitate with your fingers to remove the paint. Over the last few years I've found Simple Green and Pine Sol to be excellent paint removers, and far less caustic than alternatives like Easy-off.
 
I'm going to start cutting the replacement tubes tonight. This isn't exactly the rocket I thought I'd be doing a build thread with, but we'll give it a go.
 
I have 3 of the Meteor Mashers. I haven't opened any of them. 1 is in the build pile for sure.
A big plus if someone with a 3D printer can duplicate, or make something similar.
I'd even like to see inexpensive parachute guys offered by some of the 3D printer people.
Chutes I have or can make, just the men with a loop at the top. Make em solid to have some mass.
Or hollow back where lead fishing weights can be added and epoxied in.
 
woody
you mean something like this? he took approx. 1 minute to make. weighs about 7g w/o chute. shown here with a D-motor casing for size comparison.
Rex

skydiver 001.jpg
 
3D printer here, would be willing to give it a shot at something similar (but different enough to not offend Estes copyrights).

Just need a good photo and good measurements to get started.

-Hans
 
HHaase said:
3D printer here, would be willing to give it a shot at something similar (but different enough to not offend Estes copyrights).

Just need a good photo and good measurements to get started.

-Hans
Click to expand...
I'll PM you. I've also PMed a couple others, when I started the hunt for these bomblets. Thanks!
 
We're gonna skip ahead - no need to bore anyone with showing every single part. So here are the fins, which were die-cut (rather poorly). The important edges were more crushed than cut, but I'm not going to sweat that.

Also, there are the replacement body tubes (12" BT-20 stuffer/inner gas tube, 9" and 5 5/8" BT-55 airframe, 2.5" BT-50 piston tube). It pays to measure; I grabbed what I thought was a BT-55, but the nose cone was flopping around in it so I broke out the calipers and, sure enough, BT-56. Why I have one of those, I don't know as it's not the most useful size.

IMG_1276.JPG
 

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Now starts the piston. Wrapped around the tube is the pattern that has you cut two opposing vents.

IMG_1278.jpg
 

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Again, skipping ahead... The inside of the piston has a split thrust ring to allow it to ride along the BT-20. It's used for alignment (you'll see this shortly). A pair of larger rings on the outside give the attachment point for the upper airframe. The piece on the right is a bulkhead that gets attached to the piston once it's in place on the inner gas tube.

To help your visualization, the split ring end of the piston is actually the BOTTOM of the piston.

IMG_1279.JPG
 

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The BT-20 gas tube, all marked up. For smaller body tubes, you can see I use a piece of U-shaped aluminum bar stock for making alignment lines. And it's not because my wife yelled at me to stop using the door frames and cabinet edges.

"But look, Honey - it's right here in the instructions!"

IMG_1280.JPG
 

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Slide the piston assembly up the gas tube, add some centering rings and the hook, and here we are.

If you look on the right end, the piston is close to being in its final place. There is a tiny length of dowel glued to the gas tube, which the split in the ring will ride on to stay aligned.

IMG_1281.JPG
 

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Here is a close-up of the finished piston. The bulkhead from earlier is in place in the end of the piston. The piston only travels about half and inch.

In practice, the piston is pushed all the way to the rear, placing the bulkhead against the BT-20 gas tube. When the ejection charge fires, it will push the upper airframe forward far enough to release the bomblets. Then as the piston finishes its forward travel, the ejection gas blows through the two holes into the upper airframe to push off the nose cone and deploy the laundry.

The tube is supposed to be painted before assembly continues because the gas tube will be exposed. I'll have to do that the hard way, as I'd like to get this thing built but it's WAY too cold to paint in any facility I have available to me.

IMG_1288.JPG
 
Kinda wondering if I need to put some graphite on this assembly to make sure it slides easily; especially since I'll never get a chance to do anything with it once it's inside the airframe.

I also need to spend some time thinking about using the tri-fold shock cord mount, or replace it with some Kevlar (the question is where am I going to tie it off). I should be able to come up with something.

Tomorrow: Putting the bomblet holders onto the airframes. I'll also probably get the fins on the lower airframe. Kinda depends on how lunch goes, as that's when I get most of my building done on weekdays...
 
Rex R said:
woody
you mean something like this? he took approx. 1 minute to make. weighs about 7g w/o chute. shown here with a D-motor casing for size comparison.
Rex
Click to expand...

Sorry Rex, Notifications isn't working right now or I would have gotton back right away.
Yea, that will work, and probably I'll make a few until I can get some larger ones.
You remember the Drab Green ones you could get for quarter or less at the time store? Military Parachut guy you threw up in the air?
That's what I'm really looking for, for larger diameter rockets. BT-80 and up.
 
Cutting the bomblet holders... I cut down through the top (the outside) rather than the inside as the instructions called for. If you're going to build this, do this step SLOWLY and CAREFULLY because the plastic is kinda thick, and we all know what happens when thick plastic and XActo knives get together.

I finished them off by taking the holders and sliding them around in circles until any plastic that remained from the initial circle cut was thin enough to lightly trim away with the knife (you can see some of the trimmings in the pic). Don't sweat it much because there is plenty of contact surface for the plastic to attach to the body tubes.

IMG_1289.JPG
 
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Mounted in their places on the body tubes. The end of the tube is flush with the flat spots in the holder bumps.

Mind your placement on the lower (smaller) body tube; the launch lug line needs to be centered between two of the holder bumps. Or, to think of it another way, the points on the bumps need to line up with the lines you make for the fins. They'll help you align the fins if you're not using any kind of fin alignment tool.

IMG_1290.JPG
 
Fins attached to the lower airframe tube, and that tube is now mounted onto the motor centering rings. I'm using the upper tube as counterweight to hold the whole assembly in place while it dries. You will likely have to go back and add a glue fillet to the forward centering ring; it's pretty far down in there.

Note the launch lug alignment, between two bumps and lined up with the launch lug line on the lower airframe tube.

IMG_1292.JPG
 
And here she is, bomblets loaded. I wound up going with the tri-fold because I left my supply of Kevlar at work. I sanded the green paint off the nose cone.

So, I'll hold off until warmer weather to shoot some paint. I need to come up with a different paint scheme, and I don't think I'll be using the supplied stickers.

IMG_1295.jpg
 
Woody's Workshop said:
Sorry Rex, Notifications isn't working right now or I would have gotton back right away.
Yea, that will work, and probably I'll make a few until I can get some larger ones.
You remember the Drab Green ones you could get for quarter or less at the time store? Military Parachut guy you threw up in the air?
That's what I'm really looking for, for larger diameter rockets. BT-80 and up.
Click to expand...

I have a thread where I modified a FlisKits Rhino to hold two action figures. I haven't gotten it into the air yet, but I'll try this spring.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...on-Figure-Rocket-build-thread&highlight=hattr
 
Woody's Workshop said:
Most of the pics are missing. Only the few are showing. Just wanted to make you aware of that, but it looks like awesome fun build.
Click to expand...

Odd; I can see all of them. Pics of mine were in posts 2-5, 9 and 10. This was a thread from 2008 so it's not because I have them cached. In fact, I started looking for them on the Archive site, but it looks like that's been rolled back into this one.
 
DaveCombs said:
Hey, kids - long time, no see...

So I was trolling eBay for replacement bomblets for my Estes Cluster Bomb (a kit which is, incidentally, about as easy to find on eBay as hen's teeth, whatever that means). I lost mine at one of our club launches quite a while back. I found out that they're the same ones used on the Meteor Masher kit.

Found a Masher kit for cheap and snagged it. Much to my chagrin, and contrary to the description, the kit had been opened and the body tubes and nose cone had been painted - BADLY - with a rattle-can green. But the reason I got the kit was the bomblets, and thankfully they were still in their original white. So, after applying the appropriate discipline to the seller, I set the kit aside in the build pile so when spring rolls around I can paint the bomblets and get my cluster bomb back in the air. (I'm also considering sending a pair to someone on here with a 3D printer, so they can be "preserved for posterity".)

It's midwinter here in Ohio, so that means it's full-on build season. I've been pulling out kits and getting them to the point where all they need is paint. While getting another one out, I ran back across the Masher and so I pulled it out and started looking at it. Looking at the instructions, I think I've come to appreciate the piston system that's used to separate the airframe and allow the bomblets to fall. It looks like a pretty slick and durable design. I'll probably head over to EMRR to check out some performance reviews.

I'm relatively sure I have enough body tubes lying around (a long piece of BT-20 stuffer, a short piece of BT-50, and two pieces of BT-55 for the airframe) to replace the botched ones, and the nose cone is salvageable with some 400-grit wet/dry.

Darn it, I think I'm gonna have to build this thing.

Anyone have one, and are there any gotchas to look for? I'm probably not going to stick with the paint scheme, and by extension I probably won't use the peel & stick decals.
Click to expand...

Still looking to buy a Cluster Bomb ? Head on over to YORF. I put a post in their "Wanted - Dead or Alive" forum and got one resonable in less than three days.
 

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