Anyone Use An Estes Fin Gig?

[Lone Rocketeer]

I'm thinking about getting one.
Any opinions on these?

 

[BRS Hobbies]

The Estes fin jig works great for marking the tubes at different lengths. For example, If you need to put some fins 6" from one end of the body tube. The fin holding part works okay but is not 100% accurate. The fin can be placed in the slot a little bit different each time.

Best regards,
Brian

 

[Chrisn]

I haveone but i havnt really used it but yeah it will do its job

 

[AKPilot]

Yup, I got one and enjoy using it for small rockets. For the price I think it's an good investment. I enjoy being able to draw straight lines down a rocket, as it's cradled. The one annoying feature is that the ruler doesn't go end-to-end; it actually starts about 1/2" inside of the plastic - so you can put a pencil/pen up through the bottom.

For $4 or so, I'd pick it up.

 

[Lone Rocketeer]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.
I found one on A2ZHobbies.Com for $6.99
That was the cheapest I saw them listed for, so I went ahead and ordered one.

Now if somebody could come up with inexpensive bulk packs (20 or more) of nosecones for BT-5 tubing..... $7.75 for 5 of them.

 

[Rob Fisher]

I never used one of those, I'm a little partial to this one I bought in 1984. It's sure gotten a lot of use!

 

[cls]

I have one of those fin marking kits. we use the circle thingies all the time for marking tubes. they are easier and more accurate than the paper fin templates included with the kits. also they make good drying racks when the fins are gluing on.

the angle thingie is worse than useless: the pencil holder is too small, so it doesn't hold a regular pencil. it doesn't hold a hobby knife either so there isn't a good way to make it work as a tubing cutter. on ours, the angle material (plastic) has warped a bit, so now if you use it to extend the fin lines you will get warped lines up the body tube. the ruler isn't exactly accurate and it doesn't go to the end so it's really useless. the slider thing doesn't clamp real well so it's useless to use as a backstop for marking and it's in the way for most marking you'll do on tubes. anyways the pencil slots don't line up exactly and they don't help get consistent lines, they just hide the tubing and the nice marks you put on the end using the circle thingies. the fin gluing aligner notch doesn't really help much, too easy to screw up the fin alignment in too many ways.


am I cranky? maybe - could be an excellent tool with just a little development. meanwhile, go to the hardware store and get a 2' length of 1/2" or 3/4" angle aluminum for $3.

 

[Lone Rocketeer]

Originally posted by Rob Fisher
I never used one of those, I'm a little partial to this one I bought in 1984. It's sure gotten a lot of use!

Now that is cool!
I wonder if there's an easy way to build one of those.

 

[AKPilot]

Originally posted by Rob Fisher
I'm a little partial to this one I bought in 1984. It's sure gotten a lot of use!

I'll echo what Rob has to say about the fin guide, they are pretty neat neat little tools.

You can use the marking tool (which you just bought from A2Z) to mark the positions of where you want the fins. Then use the edge to mark the length on the BT.

To answer your question, yes, you can build one fairly easy out of wood. The Estes fin guide is plastic - nothing overly fancy. I would say you could build one for around $10, plus labor. If you're looking to buy an Estes fin guide, they're quite expensive on E-bay as they're OOP.

 

[Lone Rocketeer]

Originally posted by akpilot
If you're looking to buy an Estes fin guide, they're quite expensive on E-bay as they're OOP.

Yeah. I found that out.

 

[paulk]

I've found the plastic estes fin thingy quite useful. I use the fin marking guides all the time, and as drying stands. I use the ruler thingy for marking body tubes, from BT-5 through BT-60 no problem. Regular 6-sided pencils, sanded down just a bit, fit fine in the hole for circumscribing a line around a BT. Sure, it has faults, but worth my $. Sure wish I had one of the old metal fin jigs.

-Paul

 

[m85476585]

Where does Estes get their pencils? They say that if a pencil does not fit, you should try a different brand, but I have not seen a pencil that DOES fit!

 

[AKPilot]

I have to admit, that I have always ended up having to sand mine. Of course, when I've gone through this process it's only used for the Estes marking tool. Kinda annoying to see that they didn't take this into consideration, but easily fixed.

 

[NUBlackshirts]

Have one and have used it to build almost my entire LPR fleet.

 

[Lone Rocketeer]

Cool.
Thanks for all the replies, everyone.
I went ahead and odered one because I plan on building a pile of minis to launch all over the place.