Fin Alignment Fixture...

I saw this on the Estes Facebook page. Built by Clint Murphy using a design he saw elsewhere and replicated.

Pretty slick and should be easy to build. Photo's show the finished fixture.. along with some in process shots.

Link to his video...

This design has gotten quite a bit of discussion here in the past, although it's been a while.

Looks to me like an extremely efficient design for rockets who's fins mainly attach at the rear of the main airframe.

I guess if you have multiple fin sets... make the body extra long... start at the aft fin set first... then work your way up to the next, letting the finished fins hang off the end... then when you are done with all the fins cut the body tube to length?

I built something similar and it works great and was super easy to build ( given a 3' flat 1x4 it was literally two cuts and two drill holes). I stand the boards up, set the rocket on top, and tack on the fins from the bottom.

Looking at similar jig designs to build one myself too for a scratch built, 3 inch variant of the AGM-33 "Pike" with 8 separate fins to build. Any other jig recommendations?

BrendanH69 said:

Looking at similar jig designs to build one myself too for a scratch built, 3 inch variant of the AGM-33 "Pike" with 8 separate fins to build. Any other jig recommendations?

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Oh boy, here we go... It is inevitable so I guess I'll go ahead and start. I like Arkies in the green or blue-black:

I'm a spinner bait man myself..

I really like this design.

I made three similar ones in about a hour, one for each of my kids to use.

cwbullet said:

I really like this design.

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What did you use to drill the holes?

Mugs914 said:

Oh boy, here we go... It is inevitable so I guess I'll go ahead and start. I like Arkies in the green or blue-black:

View attachment 397869

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Looks like a Navy version. Waterproof with a tail hook.

lakeroadster said:

I guess if you have multiple fin sets... make the body extra long... start at the aft fin set first... then work your way up to the next, letting the finished fins hang off the end... then when you are done with all the fins cut the body tube to length?

Click to expand...

Or, just mount one or the other set of fins and after they cure/dry use a piece of angle (steel or aluminum), and some clamps and use the first fin to hold the second one inline with it.

cwbullet said:

What did you use to drill the holes?

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Me? Brad point bits for thru holes and forstner bits for the sockets the pins the rubber bands go around fit in.

How did you get the angles to 60 degrees - drill press?

cwbullet said:

How did you get the angles to 60 degrees - drill press?

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I will have to take pics of mine Chuck, I did angle the pins, to do it I used a drill press with two boards clamped to the table, one as a guide for the edge, and one to lift the board to drill at an angle ( an angle not necessarily 60°). After doing the drilling and installing the pin I decided it would be just as easy to drill the pins in straight and use a round file to notch the pin for a rubber band (mine are both angled and notched).