My Eliminator was damaged in a hard landing last August, and rather than throw it away, I felt it would be an interesting project to rebuild it using as many of the original parts as possible. I finished it up last week, and I like that it looks pretty close to a stock Eliminator. The rocket on the right in the pic is the rebuild; the one on the left is stock. I inverted the decal and aligned the fin can differently so I could tell them apart easier. I did have to make some changes, the major one being that I couldn't find any BT56 tubing. I substituted BT55 which is about .01 thinner in OD. Only the lower BT was damaged in the crash, but I opted to replace the entire BT rather than have a noticeable difference in OD. One thing that I couldn't do was save the motor mount. Being cemented inside the BT and the BT being cemented and running all the way through the fin can meant that I had to remove it all from the inside out layer by layer with exacto knife, tweezers, and needlenose pliers without damaging the fin can. Once I realized that I would be replacing the motor mount, the job wasn't that hard. I bought an E motor mount kit from My LHS and that problem was solved. I used all 4 centering rings that came with the kit in place of the 2" spacer that was original. The fit of the BT55 in the fin can was too loose so I used masking tape to snug it up some.
Also the NC shoulder was too big to fit inside the top of the BT55, so I spent about an hour sanding it down so it would fit loose enough for the ejection charge to blow it off. I found a can of Rustoleum spraypaint that was fairly close to the purple wrap BT color that was original. I was able to peel off the self-stick decals from the old BT and reuse them to my amazement. I then finished up by installing an ejection baffle and an 18" chute with a swivel.
Now I just need to get out to the field to see what this rocket will do when launched. The sims in OpenRocket indicate that it should be stable. In fact, it shows apogee at over 1500' at only 40' above sea level with an E9-8. I guess I'll see what happens when we get some good weather here. OpenRocket does show a discontinuity in BT diameter, but that is because the NC diameter is larger than the BT OD. The "sunburst" decal hides that somewhat though.
When I became a BAR last February, the Eliminator was the rocket that first cought my interest in the Estes catalog. But since it is an expensive rocket to launch, I went with the smaller rockets first, and finally bought the Eliminator with it's expensive launch equipment and engines in June. It is definitely a fav of mine. It's flight behavior is fun to watch. After about 15 launches, I've never seen it backslide after apogee. Instead, it arcs over and descends at about a 45 degree angle looking like a cruise missile. When launching on D engines, I find a D12-5 to be a good one for this rocket. A D12-7 lets the rocket pick up too much speed which can damage the chute when it deploys.
View attachment Estes Eliminator rebuild with modifications.pdf
Also the NC shoulder was too big to fit inside the top of the BT55, so I spent about an hour sanding it down so it would fit loose enough for the ejection charge to blow it off. I found a can of Rustoleum spraypaint that was fairly close to the purple wrap BT color that was original. I was able to peel off the self-stick decals from the old BT and reuse them to my amazement. I then finished up by installing an ejection baffle and an 18" chute with a swivel.
Now I just need to get out to the field to see what this rocket will do when launched. The sims in OpenRocket indicate that it should be stable. In fact, it shows apogee at over 1500' at only 40' above sea level with an E9-8. I guess I'll see what happens when we get some good weather here. OpenRocket does show a discontinuity in BT diameter, but that is because the NC diameter is larger than the BT OD. The "sunburst" decal hides that somewhat though.
When I became a BAR last February, the Eliminator was the rocket that first cought my interest in the Estes catalog. But since it is an expensive rocket to launch, I went with the smaller rockets first, and finally bought the Eliminator with it's expensive launch equipment and engines in June. It is definitely a fav of mine. It's flight behavior is fun to watch. After about 15 launches, I've never seen it backslide after apogee. Instead, it arcs over and descends at about a 45 degree angle looking like a cruise missile. When launching on D engines, I find a D12-5 to be a good one for this rocket. A D12-7 lets the rocket pick up too much speed which can damage the chute when it deploys.
View attachment Estes Eliminator rebuild with modifications.pdf
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