US rockets piston stager build and archive

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The_Quacken

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I just got my hands on a US rockets piston stager and as far as I can find these kits are mostly oop (I may be wrong however) so I’ve decided to use this build thread as a way to archive this specific kit in case people have a desire to scratch build this or use components like the piston staging system. Hopefully this will be a relatively detailed build thread as I’m trying to show as much of the process as possible but that means it might be rather slow as I’m about to ship out to college.
Anyways this kit has a ton of parts
415E70B0-A875-4D56-9321-7D0BB0FE0EF9.jpeg
 
Parts list. I’m slightly confused about the body tubes as they aren’t sizes I know but the second number in each is the length
 

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Parts list. I’m slightly confused about the body tubes as they aren’t sizes I know but the second number in each is the length
That's how USR breaks out the part descriptions for their body tubes - for example a 2218 is a 2.2" diameter by 18" long body tube.

I have built many USR kits and really like them. My close to home desert fliers are mostly MPR USR stuff. They are cheap builder's kits and I dig that.
 
This rocket is wild to build coming from just finishing a fiberglass kit. It almost feels like too old. The mix of Estes style construing and the fact I could hypothetically put a 3 grain 54 in it is wild. I’m thinking of fiberglassing the transition and maybe other parts just for fun and longevity. I’m super worried about hot staging into cardboard a ton but I guess it’s designed for that
 
For me just the G-motor to the D-motor was too far to walk and I like I said I did not find the second stage. I can't remember for sure, but I might have used a smaller 1st stage motor the first time, but it was not powerful enough. I thought the rocket looked cool and the design operation is very unique. If I were to try it again, I would use Tim from Apogee's method and put the electronics in a modfied bottom compartment of the piston tube. I would then find a motor combination the right size to enjoy the flight, but not walk so far for retrieval.
 
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