LOC Precision Body Tubes... Did They Ever...?

Did LOC ever produce their BT-2.56 body tubes in a 34 inch length? Currently they're available in a 30 inch length, but I've been supplied with something the seems to imply that they were 4" longer at one time.

Thanks!
Jim

I've looked into this in the past in connection with my parts database, but I've concluded that the LOC 2.56 tubes have only every been sold in 30" lengths. Not sure why they are different; perhaps a sourcing issue. IIRC there are a couple of places where people have listed it as 34" but I'm pretty sure those are erroneous. If you go back to the 1987 catalog, the various tube sizes from 1.52 to 7.51 have lengths 34-34-30-34-48 (46? fuzzy image) -54, so it's been 30" since the beginning.

Not sure if it's relevant but Binder Design has their 2.6" tubes listed as 34" length.

I guess only LOC knows for sure, I have a 1 piece 60 in. 7.5 LOC tube here.

I know that back in the day LOC did make the 7.51 tube in 54 and then 60" lengths. Currently sold as 2x30" with a coupler b/c it's much cheaper to ship things shorter than 36". But I think the Binder listing for the 2.6 is most likely an error, unless they are selling a LOC-compatible tube that came from somewhere else. It has been 30" on the LOC site for a while, and the new owners have progressively fixing things that have been wrong.

Why not just ask 'em?

I've emailed Binder about their listing. BTW the Binder website does not represent that it is LOC tubing.

I never meant to say Binder sells LOC tubing. Fairly certain it is their own stuff, though it is likely LOC compatible. Only meant that perhaps what Jim had may not be LOC at all, they are not the only supplier of paper tubes.

I did receive direct email confirmation (already!) that Binder is selling 34" long 2.6 tubes...from the way it was stated though, it does indeed sound like they are sourcing it independently. I think the question Jim is trying to answer is whether LOC *themselves* ever actually sold 2.6 x 34" tubes. I've also sent a ping to LOC which (equally amazingly) Jason already answered and said that they've always known it as 30", but they have order data going back into the 1990s and will check.

I may now have to add Binder to the parts database since they are apparently selling a unique part not otherwise available.

I looked thru some of my old catalogs from the mid 90's to 2001 from some now gone hobby shops, Magnum, Zeppelin,Countdown, Al's, none of them even listed the lengths of the LOC tubing. Magnum however sold what seems to be 1/3 and 1/2 lengths of the 2.56 tubing. which would make them 30" long at that time in the 1997 and 2001 catalogs that I have from them. It looks like they also sold 1/2 lengths of 1.52 and 3.90 tubes at 17" long. I would conclude that the 2.56" tubing has always been 30" long.

neil_w said:

Why not just ask 'em?

Click to expand...

Because at 7:27 AM on a Sunday, I had less than 10 minutes to compose a message after 4 hours of sleep, get dressed, and drag my butt out the door so I could teach class today. I figured that checking the cloud knowledge bank here would be faster.

You see, I'm working on a sim of the UROC design that was recently discussed, and the info that was supplied to me seems to indicate that they used LOC nosecones, and tubing... That said, the info clearly calls out a single 34" long body tube. The info is pretty specific about OD/ID. I know about BD's 34" tube (though not the spec OD/ID), and am looking to confirm my theory, or get more info.

Another thing that would help is getting a clear photo of LOC's 2.56" (63mm) Plastic Nose Cone). Some of the photos I've seen show a fairly short and blunt nosecone, but my understanding of the LOC nosecone is that it's pretty sleek.

Thanks all!

I took a photo by a ruler. 9" exposed. 30" long tubes for as long as we're aware. The 5.5" are 42" for as long as we're aware and the 60"x 7.5" were reduced for shipping purposes as stated above! We do not sell our tubes to Binder so I cannot speak to his specs. https://locprecision.com/wp-content/uploads/pnc-256-e1552844633152.jpg I hope this helps! If the photo doesn't work, I changed the 2.6" cone picture on our webpage to the same image!

Balsa machining sells heavy walled 2.56" tubes that are 34" long. Product code T80H-34.

Learned more about the UROC.

Apparently the body tubes were given to the club from Matt Steele (North Coast Rocketry) because they were out of spec, but usable otherwise. The nosescones and boat tails were lathed by club members out of redwood or pine. It looks like the Binder Design body tubes, or the BMS tubes would be good for a cloning attempt.