Building a Deuce AND a Tres side by side

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jetra2

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I had a crazy idea this morning. Not quite as crazy as Tour de Deuce, :D , but crazy enought to warrant a thread here.

As the subject says, my idea was to build a Fliskits Deuce's Wild and a Tres and build them side by side. I think that this should make for quite an interesting photo collection. One of the coolest parts will be when I build the two motor mounts and compare the two - showing them in a picture, of course! :D It ought to be a lot of fun! I will start tomorrow, when I get home.

:cool:

Jason
 
Man, this is FUN! I've never done a side-by-side build before this...

Anyways, I have finished cutting the scallops out of the tubes, cutting the lower fins for the Tres, building the MMT for the Deuce, and attaching the pyramid MMT shroud to the Tres' CR. Here are some pics! Enjoy!

Jason
 
Here are the two tubes with the scallops cut out. I know they are rough, but I prefer to strengthen them later on with fillets rather that try to make it perfect.

Jason
 
Here are the three nosecones hanging by a thread ( :D ) as the finishing epoxy cures. Left to right: Drake, Deuce, Tres.

Jason
 
And the last one for tonight. This is the Deuce's motor mount completely assembled. I am going to attach a kevlar leaded to the small space in between the two motor tubes and epoxy it down. It needs fillets, which I will do tonight. Tomorrow's plan is to finish up cutting the fins for the Tres, cut the fins for the Deuce, insert MMT's in both, apply a small epoxy pool in the small cavity between the bottom CR and the end of the BT, and start attaching fins.

Jason
 
Originally posted by jetra2
I had a crazy idea this morning. Not quite as crazy as Tour de Deuce, :D , but crazy enought to warrant a thread here.
Jason

Oh boy...you and your crazy ideas! You gotta love 'em though. I must admit that we always seem to stay out of trouble with those ideas. I have a few ideas of my own that I'd like to excercise upon my return and I will need your help. Nothing too earth shattering, but I have some things that I think the local Tampa TRFers would like to assist with.

Nice work on the Deuce and Tres. You know I am one jealous person sitting here watching you build! I know that sounds funny considering everyone else is jealous of my being in Hawaii. I'm sure you know what my first line of business is going to be when I get back - BUILD MY TRES! :D
 
Hi all,

I have finished cutting out the fins for both the Tres and the DW. All I've got to say is: THAT IS A LOT OF FINS!!!!

A total of sixteen in all, or four DW fins, six Tres lower fins, and six Tres upper fins...wow! Fun!

I was extremely impressed with the quality of the balsa in the DW. It was very hard, yet still easy to cut. IIRC, a definate improvement over my first DW! There were a few mistakes in the Tres, yet they are minor and easily fixed. On the patterns for the upper fins, it tells you to cut them out of 3/32nd balsa. The balsa provided in the kit was 1/16th. The facecard's parts list said 1/16th, also. Jim, that's a minor mistake that should be fixed ASAP to prevent confusion, IMHO. for the fins, I give them a 8 out of 10.

Anyways, before I bore you with all those little things, let me start showing ya'll some pics! You like pics, dontcha boys! FETCH! :D :D

Jason

This picture is an overall view of all the fins.
 
Originally posted by jetra2

On the patterns for the upper fins, it tells you to cut them out of 3/32nd balsa. The balsa provided in the kit was 1/16th. The facecard's parts list said 1/16th, also. Jim, that's a minor mistake that should be fixed ASAP to prevent confusion, IMHO.

Jason,

Yep, I just noticed this with the last build of kits. I'm going to evaluate the kit to see which to standardize on and make the appropriate correction. thanx for the feedback!

jim
 
Jim,

If I may make a recommendation, I would go with the 3/32nd balsa, simply because it is stronger, and easier for chubby fingers like mine to work with.

HTH,
Jason
 
Isn't it 3 upper, and 3 lower? WHenever I get back to the Deuce in my "building rotation" I will build the Tres too, that is what I have been doing.
 
Well, it's actually two different patterns you have to cut out, then you glue them together to create one fin, hence 6 upper, 6 lower.

Jason
 
More work has been completed! I have finished building the Tres' MMT's and...uh....drooling on my shirt! Just kidding! Anyways, I have some comparison pics, which are VERY cool!

Jason

This is an upper view of the two MMT's!!
 
Now here's a pic of the DW MMT inserted in it's tube!

Jason
 
And yet more angled MMT's! Here is the Tres' MMT inserted in the main tube!

Jason
 
hey, looking good!!! keep the pix coming. love those angled motor tubes. everyone who sees it says "whoa cool!" and tries to put three fingers in.

I finished my Tres a few nights ago. now I wish I had taken pix of it while a-building. still have another Deuce in the garage. mmmwhuhahahah!

topic drift to a previous thread: the Tres is painted white. I haven't figured out how to decorate it. I spent today taping and masking another rocket and that's enough of that for a while, so I doubt I am going to gussy up the Tres like the picture on the package.
 
Jason, great pix. I'm glad to see a nice photo essay of the construction.

I take it you got past the frustration with the engine shroud??? :D

keep us posted! I will try to get some painting information to you this week (been busy - as you will see in the Vendor forum...)

CLS: I actually contemplated building another Tres and going with a white look with black/red details... will be interested in seeing what you come up with.

jim
 
Great job so far!

Keep track of everything and post it in EMRR

sandman
 
Hi everyone!
I'm about to start building the DW i bought at NARAM and was wondering if anyone had any hints or tips to share before i start?
 
Originally posted by Adam Selene
Hi everyone!
I'm about to start building the DW i bought at NARAM and was wondering if anyone had any hints or tips to share before i start?

Adam, WELCOME TO THE ROCKETRY FORUM!

The Deuce's Wild! model rocket is one of the most popular kits here on TRF. You will find a wealth of information regarding build tips, hints, and cheats deep inside the Forum. If you would like to find pictures and detailed ideas, check out the search function of the Forum and search for Deuces Wild. You'll find tons of links. In reality, the kit is VERY straightforward and a pleasure to build. Building it stock to manufacturer instructions will produce a reliable flier.

As an example though, in terms of building the Deuce to survive many flights, check out these ideas we incorporated into the "Tour de Deuce" kits.

MOTOR MOUNT:

- CyA and Epoxy for all joints and fittings
- 2-part Apogee Fix-it clay for filling MMT

FINS:

- Replace 1/4" of trailing edge with basswood strip.
- .5oz Fiberglassed fins.
- Insert dowel "pins" into root edge of fin, cut matching pinholes in body tube
- 2-part Apogee Fix-it clay for fillets.

RECOVERY:

- Flat Kevlar strap glued to MMT for shockcord mount
- 18" nylon chute

NOSECONE:

- .5oz fiberglasses nosecone base to prevent splintering
- 1/4" dowel inserted into base for screweye mount
- coated nosecone with finishing epoxy

BODY TUBE:

- Insert a tube coupler just ahead of MMT to protect against repeated ejection charges.

Pages 5-7 of the LONG Tour de Deuce thread (can be found in the "Events" forum) has pictures of the build process.

Enjoy your Deuce.
 
Thanks!
some great ideas. although i think some are overkill for me.
i've read part of the tour de duece thread i'll check out pgs 5-7 when i've got some time!
 
Sorry about the lack of updates - been busy with school.

Anyways, here are some new pics! I attached the upper set of fins to the Tres, did some 12-minute epoxy fillets to all the fins, gave the nose cone a second coat of finishing epoxy, sealed the transition with finishing epoxy, which worked out quite well, i might add, and inserted a dowel into the bottom of the transition for screw eye attachement. I don't have pics of it all, but I do have a few.

This one is an out of focus pic of the transition sealed and sanded. You can tell that the exterior part of the transition is sealed by the difference in color.

Jason
 
Now here is a pic from the side of the upper fins attached, which, BTW, I did in like 15 minutes - I LOVE CyA! :D You can also see the epoxy fillets on there.

Jason
 
Here's an overall shot from the front of the upper half of the Tres looking cool!

Jason
 
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