Fliskits Dead Ringer

[JAL3]

The Dead Ringer is a Sorta-Downscale of the Fliskits Borealis, one of the coolest of the Flis Fleet in my opinion. This will be my first attempt at a MMX build. I have plenty of kits but the idea of working with the extremely small sizes has intimidated me.

 

[JAL3]

I started off with a mistake because I glanced at the instructions instead of reading them. I marked off 1/4" on the 3/16"x2" launch lug and cut it off. Then I got around to reading and realized that it was not supposed to be cut, just marked. Luckily, I had some lugs of the same size lying around. I got one of those and marked it properly. The lug was to serve as both an engine block and a tube coupler. It was inserted up to the mark in the short piece of BT2.5 tubing and glued in place with white glue.

 

[JAL3]

The three ring fins came already cut. The next step was to glue them tangent to each other. I did so with white glue.

 

[JAL3]

When the coupler/BT had a chance to set up a bit, it was inserted into the longer BT2.5 and glued into place.

 

[Rocketlady]

John,

When you attach the nose cone using the little anchor nail, GLUE it in with CA, epoxy or whatever.

I lost my cone this past weekend 'cause it came off at ejection. Being so small, it's *somewhere* in the yard due to become confetti the next time the grass is cut...

 

[JAL3]

John,

When you attach the nose cone using the little anchor nail, GLUE it in with CA, epoxy or whatever.

I lost my cone this past weekend 'cause it came off at ejection. Being so small, it's *somewhere* in the yard due to become confetti the next time the grass is cut...

Thanks for the advice and I'll make sure to secure it SECURELY.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to fix some of my other blunders on this one.

 

[jflis]

Thanks for the advice and I'll make sure to secure it SECURELY.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to fix some of my other blunders on this one.

John, John, John....

Ya want some replacement tube there??? (yeah, I see what you did...)

Can you say "oops!"?



Let me know!
jim

 

[RangerStl]

Ummmm... No shock cord?

 

[JAL3]

John, John, John....

Ya want some replacement tube there??? (yeah, I see what you did...)

Can you say "oops!"?



Let me know!
jim

I've actually got an assortment of tube here but things have gone too far for that now. I did not realize my blunders until a point well past what I've posted.

I can say oops and a lot of other things as well.

I have a plan to make things workable. Some has been done and some is still waiting. Its Vacation Bible School week at my church.:jaw: On the good side, the ladies are letting me do a rocket project with the kids tomorrow and Friday.

 

[JAL3]

Ummmm... No shock cord?

That's just part of it.:eyepop:

 

[JAL3]

Allow me to digress a bit here to emphasize something important with all rocket kits: READ THE INSTRUCTION. Making sure you understand what is meant as opposed to what you assume is meant is a good idea too.

We now return to our build.

I slipped the ring fins around the body tube and glued them in place at the juncture between the two tubes.. The fit was a bit tight but nothing exceptionally so. I was soon to learn the reason for this.

 

[JAL3]

The next step involved the mounting of the Kevlar shock cord. It was supposed to have been threaded through the longer BT, knotted and then glued between the coupler/ring fins/body tube. I should not have yet glued the two body tubes together. The fit was tight because only the coupler should have gone through the hole between the ring fins. the two body tubes were to butt up against the rings.

The glue was already dry.

I decided to try and bull my way through the build since I wanted to have a MMX rocket besides the plastic Quest one in time for a Vacation Bible School class in a few days.

I examined the fins. They were nice and had only to be removed from the stock and have the central mass punched out.

 

[JAL3]

The body tube was marked with the end guide and then the fins were glued into place inside the rings. They fig fine against the opposite sides of the rings and at this point I leanred another reason for the use of the coupler as opposed to a single BT. Using the coupler as intended meant that the fins would have laid flat for their entire length instead of just against the inner surface of the rings. I was going to have to fill the gaps with heavy white glue fillets.

 

[jflis]

Interesting way around the problem Glad it all came together for you!

Yeah, reading the instructions is a good thing LOL Keep us posted!

 

[JAL3]

I was going to finish this one up tonight but all week with 40 kids has done me in. I don't have the energy to go over to the shop.

I'm not sure I will have the energy to fly the rockets we built and that is a serious indicator.

I used to think they were cute when laying down taking a nap. Now I know they are just storing up energy to use on me.

 

[jflis]

Get up.

Dust yerself off.

And fly all over again!

 

[JAL3]

The Dead Ringer has a nicely turned balsa nose cone. Most nose cones would be secured to the recovery system with an eye screw but that is not the case here. You probably have to pay extra to get screws machined that small. Instead, there is a small nail that is driven into the end. Accepting some advice from TRF, I further secured the nail with some glue.

 

[JAL3]

I still had to figure out a way to secure the recovery system. The only way I could think of that did not involve scrapping everything was to borrow a page from some competition rockets and run the Kevlar along the outside. After all, I wasn't sure the Kevlar would fit in that little bitty BT anyway. I tied a knot in one end of the Kevlar and laid it along the root of one of the fins. The Kevlar was then filleted into place with white glue.

 

[JAL3]

The nose cone was "sealed" with a drizzling of thin CA and then test fitted into the body tube. It was just a little bit tight but a couple (2) passes with an Emory board made it fit. Three passes would probably have obliterated the entire cone. The Kevlar was then tied to the nail and sealed with a drop of white glue.

 

[JAL3]

The kit comes with 2 little bitty launch lugs meant to be mounted on the body tube. My blunder with the tubing meant that mounting them flush with the BT would have caused clearance problems with the rod getting by the rings. I decided that since the rocket weighs so little, I could get by with a single lug and mounted it along the root edge of a fin inside of one of the tail rings.

 

[JAL3]

All that was left was to tape the streamer into place on the Kevlar and wrestle it all into the body tube. That took longer than the assembly of the rocket. With that it was ready for finishing.

 

[jflis]

Looks good. You made some interesting changes to make it all work once you realized the mistake with the tubes. good stuff

Now let's get some paint on her!

jim

 

[JAL3]

Looks good. You made some interesting changes to make it all work once you realized the mistake with the tubes. good stuff

Now let's get some paint on her!

jim

Aye Aye sir.

 

[JAL3]

Finishing for the Dead Ringer began with me wondering what I was going to do. I finally decided I could not go too wrong by giving everything an undercoating of white. With that in mind, I sprayed it with a coat of Krylon white.

 

[chanstevens]

The Dead Ringer has a nicely turned balsa nose cone. Most nose cones would be secured to the recovery system with an eye screw but that is not the case here. You probably have to pay extra to get screws machined that small. Instead, there is a small nail that is driven into the end. Accepting some advice from TRF, I further secured the nail with some glue.

I thought the nail was just to make a small hole in the shoulder, then you tie a knot in the Kevlar and shove the knotted end, plus a little glue, into that hole. Those wire brads sure won't "bite" enough to work as nose cone anchors :y:.

 

[JAL3]

I thought the nail was just to make a small hole in the shoulder, then you tie a knot in the Kevlar and shove the knotted end, plus a little glue, into that hole. Those wire brads sure won't "bite" enough to work as nose cone anchors :y:.

Its a nefarious plan Jim has to sell more nose cones...

Actually, what I did was the result of an earlier post on here. I guess I need to go back and read and MEMORIZE the instructions again. I'm hoping that the CA I added will help to hold it in place. Otherwise, Jim's profit margin just took a minuscule turn for the better...after the August launch.

 

[JAL3]

After looking around a bit, I decided to go with a light blue and sprayed the entire body except for the nose cone. It received 2 coats.

 

[JAL3]

When the blue had dried, I pulled out a bottle of red and hand painted the outsides of the rings.

 

[JAL3]

The red was given about an hour to dry and then a second coat was brushed on to cover up the places where it was a bit thin the first time. Additionally, I put a ring of cellophane tape around the BT about 1/4" down from the nose cone and painted everything forward of the tape red as well.

 

[jflis]

Very nice She'll look *real* nice in the air too

As for that small nail, yeah, it's a "cord anchor", but a drop of glue really, really helps

jim