estes round engine shipping tubes

[Green Dragon]

have a question for the old-timers... errrr.. historians of the group :-)

just picked up a few old items in a lot, and it included one of the old round 'engine mailing tubes' .

I've had these before (filled up),but always sold them ,etc.

my question is - they did make a nosecone for this tube, so ...

1) is that cone available ? ( or am I talking BMS custom ?)

2) have there been ANY plans published for rockets to build from the tubes ?

if I build one, just for grins, would prefer to build an old plan than just scrtchbuilt 3fnc.

thanks for any help / links .

~ AL

[kurtschachner]

have a question for the old-timers... errrr.. historians of the group :-)

just picked up a few old items in a lot, and it included one of the old round 'engine mailing tubes' .

I've had these before (filled up),but always sold them ,etc.

my question is - they did make a nosecone for this tube, so ...

1) is that cone available ? ( or am I talking BMS custom ?)

2) have there been ANY plans published for rockets to build from the tubes ?

if I build one, just for grins, would prefer to build an old plan than just scrtchbuilt 3fnc.

thanks for any help / links .

~ AL

Yes, there were nosecones but I am not sure about the plans. I think there may have been a plan published at one time but I'll have to search around for it.

I don't think BMS has that nose cone but it would be easy to order as a semi-custom pattern.

Here it is, BNC-MTD down at the bottom of the page:

http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/rockets/nostalgia/70est114.html

[barone]

Wow.....I didn't know they made nose cones for the mailing tubes....Got a bunch of them under my desk here.....and with motors still in them..... :D

Don
NAR 53455

[Carl@Semroc]

2) have there been ANY plans published for rockets to build from the tubes ?

~ AL
My favorite use for the mailing tubes was the Lil Augie (http://www.dars.org/jimz/eirp/eirp_10a.tif).

We started to do nose cones for the old mailing tubes, but the tubes are all antiques now! I bought a few "back then" and they were all flattened on at least one side. The catalog stated that "the nose cone for the mailing tube may have some imperfections due to the fact that it is made from a standard size piece of wood which is a few thousands of an inch smaller than it should be." The mailing tube was about 1.003" and the "standard" balsa was 1.000".

I have thought since then that that was why they sized the BT-50 at .976" OD so they could use the cheaper 1"x1" balsa. Centuri had to use oversize balsa to get 1.040" OD.

[snaquin]

My favorite use for the mailing tubes was the Lil Augie (http://www.dars.org/jimz/eirp/eirp_10a.tif).

We started to do nose cones for the old mailing tubes, but the tubes are all antiques now! I bought a few "back then" and they were all flattened on at least one side. The catalog stated that "the nose cone for the mailing tube may have some imperfections due to the fact that it is made from a standard size piece of wood which is a few thousands of an inch smaller than it should be." The mailing tube was about 1.003" and the "standard" balsa was 1.000".

I have thought since then that that was why they sized the BT-50 at .976" OD so they could use the cheaper 1"x1" balsa. Centuri had to use oversize balsa to get 1.040" OD.

Carl

That's a pretty cool design! I remember the old Estes mailing tubes but I didn't remember a design that used those tubes as a part to build a rocket.

[kurtschachner]

My favorite use for the mailing tubes was the Lil Augie (http://www.dars.org/jimz/eirp/eirp_10a.tif).

It is interesting that this design used only a portion of the mailing tube, the rest was BT-30. It doesn't even use the special nose cone.