Experience with Apogee's Homemade Rail Button Plans?

[Gary Mac]

Does anyone have experience flying Apogee's recommended plans for rail guide buttons made from 1/4-20 pan head machine screw and assorted hardware fasteners? Interesting idea, not sure how well it works in person.

https://www.apogeerockets.com/education/downloads/Newsletter334.pdf

 

[rharshberger]

Typical of 3 piece rail buttons (plastic parts).

 

[Gary Mac]

Typical of 3 piece rail buttons (plastic parts).

Have you flown this design before? I'd love to see a photo of the apogee design assembled if that's the case. I'm familiar with the more typical 3 piece plastic version.

 

[rharshberger]

I have not flown them exactly as the article details, I have made similar ones from parts that were commonly available in my local hardware stores Hillman fasteners aisles. They are (were) identical (or really close) in form and function to the ones in the PoF and to stock 3 piece rail buttons. The only issue was sourcing the parts reliably ,each time the fastener bin got refilled it seemed there were always a few pieces that were oversized and indistinguishable from the rest, so sorting though the standoffs (nylon tubes) to make sure they slid freely in the slot of a short section of 1010 rail or 1515 rail was a pain. By the time I drove across town, bought the stuff, and drove back home it was cheaper and less work to buy them from https://rail-buttons.com/ and Randy has great service. As far as working they worked fine, as for pictures there are no longer any of the DIY ones on my rockets. The screw should be the only metal part as every club I know of would get upset over metal washers and standoffs in contact with their rails due to galling.

 

[Gary Mac]

I have not flown them exactly as the article details, I have made similar ones from parts that were commonly available in my local hardware stores Hillman fasteners aisles. They are (were) identical (or really close) in form and function to the ones in the PoF and to stock 3 piece rail buttons. The only issue was sourcing the parts reliably ,each time the fastener bin got refilled it seemed there were always a few pieces that were oversized and indistinguishable from the rest, so sorting though the standoffs (nylon tubes) to make sure they slid freely in the slot of a short section of 1010 rail or 1515 rail was a pain. By the time I drove across town, bought the stuff, and drove back home it was cheaper and less work to buy them from https://rail-buttons.com/ and Randy has great service. As far as working they worked fine, as for pictures there are no longer any of the DIY ones on my rockets. The screw should be the only metal part as every club I know of would get upset over metal washers and standoffs in contact with their rails due to galling.

Thanks for the heads up about that rail button website. I had not heard of it before, but the products look top notch. I will go ahead and order some from Randy.