stevem
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the hinges are a silcone rubber tubing that is cut into 1" pieces.
The kit comes with 4 small plastic beads that are connected together with string - actually looks like a piece of a cheap plastci necklace. The beads are chrome plated and have casting lines and when you cut them apart it is hard to get the little nub of string cut off flush with the bead surface. Honestly, this is the one part of the kit I found to be rather 'cheesy'.
You insert the beads into the silicone tubing and they act as a bearing surface that keeps the two ends of the dowel from rubbing on each other. I tried to make the beads smoother (they also have molding lines that make the beads kind of rough) but the chrome plating starts flaking off. I decided to toss the plastic beads and I used Daisy BBs instead. They worked great.
As I remember this is the exact same method used on the original Mars Lander. Seems plenty strong to me. I am going to see if I can come up with a way to be able to access the hinges later on in case of a failure. Not sure if it can be done or not yet.
The kit comes with 4 small plastic beads that are connected together with string - actually looks like a piece of a cheap plastci necklace. The beads are chrome plated and have casting lines and when you cut them apart it is hard to get the little nub of string cut off flush with the bead surface. Honestly, this is the one part of the kit I found to be rather 'cheesy'.
You insert the beads into the silicone tubing and they act as a bearing surface that keeps the two ends of the dowel from rubbing on each other. I tried to make the beads smoother (they also have molding lines that make the beads kind of rough) but the chrome plating starts flaking off. I decided to toss the plastic beads and I used Daisy BBs instead. They worked great.
As I remember this is the exact same method used on the original Mars Lander. Seems plenty strong to me. I am going to see if I can come up with a way to be able to access the hinges later on in case of a failure. Not sure if it can be done or not yet.