Duecey 2.5 - A Barclone Inspired 2 Stage for 24mm BP Motors

The original Duecey is a 13mm cluster design by the prolific Craig P McGraw. You can find it here

This design as you'll see is 'inspired' by it. it is not a cluster, and it is not for 13mm, but you can see the influence and I want to give cred where cred is due.

Its a two stage rocket based on BT-50 for 24mm BP motors with a BT-55 payload section for recording altimeters (or otherwise).


View attachment Deucey-2stage-5-fin.rkt

This is sort of our kit view.

All the parts are gathered.

The balsa nose cone and transition are already slathered in fill and finish. The booster tube was cut from a Skywriter. I got two of them for a song. But simply cut open the bags and turned them into parts bin fillers.

The Balsa is 3/32.

Interesting design. Is there going to be lots of build pictures to show us as you progress?

bradycros said:

Interesting design. Is there going to be lots of build pictures to show us as you progress?

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Damn well better be :wink:

We will have it no other way !


Paul T

Very classy design! Can't wait to see this one come together.op:op:

I got the two Estes Sky Writer kits for 8 bucks a piece shipped. I would never build one, but they are definitely worth the parts. Indeed I recommend buying bargain kits whenever you can just for the parts. Often (if a bargain) the parts are worth more than the kit. I just cut the kits open and dumped the parts in the various parts storage areas.


Here I am cutting the booster tube.

Here I use a dowel and sandpaper to clean up the ends of the tube after dibbling thin CA on the ends.

If you look at the patterns on the balsa you can see I could not position the upper fin on the wood and get the leading edge grain correct.

If you want to get to what is IMO a halfway decent finish, certain pipers have to be aid, and in these pictures I am paying that piper for the booster fins.

Because the FnF is thinned with water, I keep weights on them in the hope they don't dry warped.

Then I take them out to the table (whose MDF board top is all split and warped from being out in the rain) and:

A sanding we will go...
A sanding we will go...
Hi-ho, the derry-o...
A sanding we will go ​

Thank you... thank you... one more show tonight... tip your waitress... try the fish...

If your a student of this ole' boys builds you know he seems to love lots of fins... five fins seems to be a recurring theme... why you ask...






Below we mark the booster and begin the process of attaching fins using Elmers Carpenters glue with double glue joints... Man I love the person who gave us the tip to buy Elmers School glue, take the tip off it, and put it on the yellow glue bottle! Thanks! :handshake:

I use the casing to make sure as the glue dries, things stay fairly round. As I mentioned, or did I? The swelling of the 24mm case near the nozzle makes it a bit of a challenge to get the booster on to the boost motor.

Und zo... vie haf a booster ya? Dummkopf!! :bangpan: Not until vie haf fillets!

Those vil com later...

In the building world, this is what we call 'checkpointing'. The point in the build where we have done enough to imagine what the final product might look like... but not so committed as to not be able to modify our plan or place it in the dust bin of rocketry history...

And this is the point where we can admire our handi work so far. Usually this phase of a the build requires an adult beverage to truly be appreciated.

I recommend this as one choice However a decent Pinot or Zinfandel is appropriate as is a nice single malt...

Hmm... does images of adult beverages violate TRF policy... I better go look...

Here are the sustainer fins. Because they would not fit on a piece of balsa I wanted to use (I have a lot from R/C planes - so I like to use up my scrap first), I simply cut them from the balsa without the forward strake. This way I made sure the grain was in the correct direction.

Then I cut out the forward strakes and glued them using a piece of L channel aluminum. I weighted them to keep them from moving and to keep them flat.

Once dry the joints were filled with Fill n Finish as well as the long forward strakes. Then weighted to dry

And here's the finished sustainer pieces.

Mark up the tube for the fins and strakes.

Then before getting started on the fins, I measured and installed a thrust ring for an E9 size motor. (Ignore the outside ring.)

Then I used a wrap as a placement guide to get all the fins aligned vertically and we were off to the double glue joint races. (BTW: All the sustainer fins had a coat and sanding of Fill n Finish and the leading edges rounded. I skipped that here as it looks remarkably like doing the booster fins. )

I installed the booster, marked the sustain and booster, and then aligned all the sustainer fins with the booster. This is all done by eyeball... I hate building fixtures as I suck at it. Besides my rockets fly damn straight and true. You should see the Osiris' fly. Eight fins and they barely roll.

My arm was not long enough to get this truly out in front of the lens. But the fins are true if the booster and sustainer match the mark I made.

So here we are again... at a checkpoint. Not bad at all.

You can see one of the 3 ports in the payload section for a recording or peak altimeter. Those were made with a thin drill bit in an organic pin vise (otherwise know as rolled between my fingers). Then wicked with CA, then opened to their full size, and then sanded smooth inside and out.

Notice I am using the DREADED Elmers Wood Glue. I will repent and get some Titebond (which BTW I used for years but the last batch I got was very runny - so switched.) :confused2:

Setting the forward strakes were just a matter of again using a paper wrap so the rear edges were lined up and getting them centered between fins (as well as vertical).

I will say they were so thin in front I had to play a lot of games to get them to not be a little wavy. Hopefully I did good.

Once double glue jointed on, I trimmed any length outliers in the front. Now that they are dry I can gently round the leading edges. I felt it too easy to break them near the tips if I tried rounding the leading edges off of the rocket.

All the fins and strakes now will get filleted.

Here we are with some ring thingies not glued yet... just a little test fit to see what different combos might look like.

Nice! I like how you used external rings for texture. Very cool!

bradycros said:

Nice! I like how you used external rings for texture. Very cool!

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Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. Good thing you and me are reading this!
Just weighed it. Right now with fillets but no recovery system, we are at 2oz.

gdjsky01 said:

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. Good thing you and me are reading this!

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...

You have more than one follower! Love the look of this bird. Gonna be a challenge to get a good finish on those external rings, I bet. John.

gdjsky01 said:

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. Good thing you and me are reading this! snip...

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Hey, I'm a party crasher, there's nothing for it...

Interesting design, nice build and yes, I'm waiting for the paint. This will be interesting. All that and one of your excellent flight reports.

Very, very cool design, Jeff! It's gonna be an awesome flyer!

gdjsky01 said:

Rings to be painted off the model I think. I'll scape away a little paint on the model when I get ready to place them. Does not take much glue to hold them in place.

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Oh, yeah, great idea. That is one of those that would come to me about the time the glue was drying on the rings!:bangpan:

There will be more progress soon.

Wow, is that the view out your living room window? Sweet. I miss the ocean. Grew up on the gulf coast of Alaska. Now I am land-locked in Oklahoma. Yuck.

gdjsky01 said:

There will be more progress soon.

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Soon as you finish your glass of 'tea'?

Alrighty then. No build with me is ever dead, just on hiatus at times. And really not even on hiatis really... More like waiting to post till there is some sort of progress.


On go LOTS of fillets.

With the fillets dry we sand, then we prime.