novahobbies
Well-Known Member
What do you do if you have spare parts from a Big Daddy that got raided to become something else, and a spare bit of 3" tube laying around?
Throw together a 4fnc afternoon project, naturally! The first hurdle had to do with the nose cone. I've already used the BD nose, and I didn't feel like ordering one. But I have a 3d printer, and a spare old roll of grey PLA, and lo&behold someone has uploaded a BD nose cone to Thingiverse. So, Fippity Jippity and hello nose! Needs sanding obviously:
The assembled parts. The body tube isn't pre-cut for fin slots, and I thought long and hard about cutting the tabs off the balsa fins.
But in the end I decided I'd rather keep the TTW fins. I might send this on something bigger than the Estes E12 after all. So, quick trip to payload bay online for a fin guide.....which DID NOT FIT, thanks to my dumb printer refusing to print PDFs even when full size is checked (I then went old school with just folding the paper strip I used for wrapping), and we got to cutting.
Everything fit lovely!
I briefly considered beefing this up to a 29mm motor mount, but discarded the idea because the whole point of this project was to use up the leftover parts that were laying around. So, 24mm motor mount, fiber CRs, all that cheap stuff that still gets the job done. Built the MM using titebond, but reinforced the rings by drizzling 5 minute epoxy the inside of the tube so (hopefully) they won't blow out if I put a stronger E in there above the Estes BP motors. I also discarded the rubber band shock cord only because I also had a spare bit of the "Estes pro" woven elastic band that was a bit longer and will last a little while longer than the kit band. I didn't go Kevlar because to be SUPER honest I did not think about using it until after the motor mount was built and installed already. Oops. Well, I did say I wanted to use spare parts, after all!
And here's where it stands as of this morning. I taped up the fins in prep for jb weld fillets when I get home tonight. I have more sanding to do on the nose, but most of the warts (I was trying vase mode for the first time) are all knocked down here.
So. Stretched Daddy? Big Granddaddy? Mac Daddy? I don't know what to name it yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. I learned that Bigger Daddy is technically taken by an OOP 4" fiberglass upscale model, so that's out.
The funny thing is, as I was looking at the profile, I realized it was mighty familiar. At 31.75" tall, it's got a few inches on but is otherwise darn near identical to the 3" BMS School Rocket! I didn't set out to make a BMS clone, but apparently I kinda-sorta DID. Well, if you're going to copy, make sure you copy from the best!
Fillets down tonight, and maybe start some CWF to fill the rest of the fins, and we'll see where we git with this. Smaller than a Leviathan, bigger than the BD, but with a 24mm motor mount it ought to be a nice low and slow park flier that should be fun to send up.
Throw together a 4fnc afternoon project, naturally! The first hurdle had to do with the nose cone. I've already used the BD nose, and I didn't feel like ordering one. But I have a 3d printer, and a spare old roll of grey PLA, and lo&behold someone has uploaded a BD nose cone to Thingiverse. So, Fippity Jippity and hello nose! Needs sanding obviously:
The assembled parts. The body tube isn't pre-cut for fin slots, and I thought long and hard about cutting the tabs off the balsa fins.
But in the end I decided I'd rather keep the TTW fins. I might send this on something bigger than the Estes E12 after all. So, quick trip to payload bay online for a fin guide.....which DID NOT FIT, thanks to my dumb printer refusing to print PDFs even when full size is checked (I then went old school with just folding the paper strip I used for wrapping), and we got to cutting.
Everything fit lovely!
I briefly considered beefing this up to a 29mm motor mount, but discarded the idea because the whole point of this project was to use up the leftover parts that were laying around. So, 24mm motor mount, fiber CRs, all that cheap stuff that still gets the job done. Built the MM using titebond, but reinforced the rings by drizzling 5 minute epoxy the inside of the tube so (hopefully) they won't blow out if I put a stronger E in there above the Estes BP motors. I also discarded the rubber band shock cord only because I also had a spare bit of the "Estes pro" woven elastic band that was a bit longer and will last a little while longer than the kit band. I didn't go Kevlar because to be SUPER honest I did not think about using it until after the motor mount was built and installed already. Oops. Well, I did say I wanted to use spare parts, after all!
And here's where it stands as of this morning. I taped up the fins in prep for jb weld fillets when I get home tonight. I have more sanding to do on the nose, but most of the warts (I was trying vase mode for the first time) are all knocked down here.
So. Stretched Daddy? Big Granddaddy? Mac Daddy? I don't know what to name it yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. I learned that Bigger Daddy is technically taken by an OOP 4" fiberglass upscale model, so that's out.
The funny thing is, as I was looking at the profile, I realized it was mighty familiar. At 31.75" tall, it's got a few inches on but is otherwise darn near identical to the 3" BMS School Rocket! I didn't set out to make a BMS clone, but apparently I kinda-sorta DID. Well, if you're going to copy, make sure you copy from the best!
Fillets down tonight, and maybe start some CWF to fill the rest of the fins, and we'll see where we git with this. Smaller than a Leviathan, bigger than the BD, but with a 24mm motor mount it ought to be a nice low and slow park flier that should be fun to send up.
