Fin Alignment Guide query..

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Silverleaf

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Howdy,

Saw a Fin Alignment Guide on Ebay currently at 22.50 - which I think is a bit high - so I'm wondering, did any of you create your own alignment guide from scratch ?

What about scratch building an estes Fin Guide clone ?

I remember having one of these years ago and it worked very well.

Cheers,
 
I haven't created one yet, I just eyeball it for now. Those guides go pretty high on the auctions. I think it would be something Estes should look at producing again, as there is definately a demand for them.
 
Beware of the plastic guides. Although the round tube markers are pretty neat, the alignment guide/ruler sometimes is warped, making longer fin marks curved.

I have sent a couple back, always been replaced though.
 
snip

Saw a Fin Alignment Guide on Ebay currently at 22.50 - which I think is a bit high...



If you can pick one up for that price - you'd be getting it for 1/2 to 1/3 of what Ive seen 'em go for lately. (I'm not telling what I paid for mine :eek: )

Stephen
 
Silverleaf:
I've made several marking guides similar to the estes disk type using 1/4" thick x 3" acrylic disk, with lines scribed for 3 & 4 fin locations and whatever motor casing I needed for that motor mount tube size being used. 6mm, 7.1mm(micro-maxx) 10.5mm, 13mm, 18mm 24mm and 29mm.
Usually marking the tube/fin locations with a magic marker then extending the lines by laying the tube on a glass plate with a secone 1/2" glass plate a the pen guide, perfectly straight lines up to 24" long. if you have the motor mount in place all the other larger size tube/fin locations can be transfered by mounting the MMT/airframe and marking the location the same way.
Sorry No pics of these set-ups I didn't think anyone would ever be interested in seeing them.
 
I was just going to say you can make a marking guide pretty easy these days and save the expense of those overpriced retail ones. I use a piece of wood and a guide I print on paper, then apply to the wood...pretty simple.

Best of luck,

Carl
 
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