I'd like to share the build of my Estes Patriot Kit #2066 clone with you all.
Another member of the rocket club I belong to has two beautiful Estes 2066 Patriots, and was the inspiration for this build. Also, I was intrigued by the cluster motor aspect of this rocket.
I hope to use as much of the original design and Estes parts where I can. Step 1 is data collection and parts searching.
First, was to head to the local hobby shop and purchase the nose cone, albeit with a few extra parts:
Yup, the Big Daddy uses the same nose cone.
Next up, I ordered body tubes from Estes. I ordered both a 3" PSII slotted body tube (used on the Nike Smoke) and an unslotted tube. I also ordered the couplers from Estes. I know that the slots in the tube for the Nike Smoke are too wide, but they are also short. I wanted the factory slotted tube because of the precision of their slotting compared to my skill in slotting. The through the wall tabs on the fins are 4" long, and these slots are only 2", so I will extend the slot 2" at the appropriate width for my fins. I'm not worried about the larger opening (yet). I'm going to extend the fin tabs all the way to the motor mount, where the tab will be captured/aligned by the two mating cluster motor mount tubes. It will all make more sense once I get to that point in the build.
I also bought some 3/16" balsa stock and an Estes nylon 30" parachute while at the hobby shop:
I ordered and received the stickers from Mark at Stickershock. I also want to replicate the gold top wrap included in the 2066 kit, so I picked up a gold trim Monokote sheet at the hobby shop:
The vinyl from Stickershock is a little different than the 2066 kit. I'm going to slightly modify some of this vinyl as I use it. I may also just contact Mark later and discuss reproducing the 2066 decals directly, but for now, I have a plan.
Finally, I picked up some 0.063" (1/16" basically) 6061 aluminum sheet. This will be used to reproduce the rear centering ring and the square filler piece. I really like this aspect of the kit and didn't want to skimp on it. I've read on-line about machining aluminum using common woodworking tools, but never have tried it. This will be a learning experience. The plan is a pattern cutting bit in my router, possibly in the router table, using the laser cut centering rings (more on those next) as my template. We'll see how it goes.
More to come...
Another member of the rocket club I belong to has two beautiful Estes 2066 Patriots, and was the inspiration for this build. Also, I was intrigued by the cluster motor aspect of this rocket.
I hope to use as much of the original design and Estes parts where I can. Step 1 is data collection and parts searching.
First, was to head to the local hobby shop and purchase the nose cone, albeit with a few extra parts:
Yup, the Big Daddy uses the same nose cone.
Next up, I ordered body tubes from Estes. I ordered both a 3" PSII slotted body tube (used on the Nike Smoke) and an unslotted tube. I also ordered the couplers from Estes. I know that the slots in the tube for the Nike Smoke are too wide, but they are also short. I wanted the factory slotted tube because of the precision of their slotting compared to my skill in slotting. The through the wall tabs on the fins are 4" long, and these slots are only 2", so I will extend the slot 2" at the appropriate width for my fins. I'm not worried about the larger opening (yet). I'm going to extend the fin tabs all the way to the motor mount, where the tab will be captured/aligned by the two mating cluster motor mount tubes. It will all make more sense once I get to that point in the build.
I also bought some 3/16" balsa stock and an Estes nylon 30" parachute while at the hobby shop:
I ordered and received the stickers from Mark at Stickershock. I also want to replicate the gold top wrap included in the 2066 kit, so I picked up a gold trim Monokote sheet at the hobby shop:
The vinyl from Stickershock is a little different than the 2066 kit. I'm going to slightly modify some of this vinyl as I use it. I may also just contact Mark later and discuss reproducing the 2066 decals directly, but for now, I have a plan.
Finally, I picked up some 0.063" (1/16" basically) 6061 aluminum sheet. This will be used to reproduce the rear centering ring and the square filler piece. I really like this aspect of the kit and didn't want to skimp on it. I've read on-line about machining aluminum using common woodworking tools, but never have tried it. This will be a learning experience. The plan is a pattern cutting bit in my router, possibly in the router table, using the laser cut centering rings (more on those next) as my template. We'll see how it goes.
More to come...
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