Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post - Centuri Saturn 1B body tube

Quote:

Originally Posted by BARGeezer

The original 1/100 Estes Sat 5 (#K-36) and the latest reissue (#2157) both use the BT-80 tube for that stage. Presumably the iterations in between do the same. I think this is done for expedience, since it's far more economical to use a readily available standard size tube than a specialty sized one. The difference is miniscule. The kit in question uses the BT-82 tube, per JumpJet. So, short answer, all you have to do is sand the two centering rings for the slightly smaller diameter and the BT-80- should work as a substitute.

As far as requesting a specific part not listed in their webpages or catalogs, I tried a couple of years ago to order the 3.42" tube used in the 1/45 Estes LJII, since I wanted to clone the old Mercury Atlas. The response was that since they no longer have a dedicated parts department, that would not be possible. So I made my own tube.

Well, darn.

Yeah, I've built both the Centuri Saturn V and the 1b and have unbuilt kits of each. I also have the Estes k-36 and several of the later iterations (built the 30th anniversary version back in '99).

I just compared tubes from the various kits and they are different than the Centuri tube.

Now here's the interesting comparison. I just pulled out one of the very early 90's Estes re-issue of the Centuri Saturn 1b and it DOES use the same tube as the original Centuri kit...NOT the BT-80. Go figure.

I've done more intimate comparisons on the original Centuri 1b and the Estes re-issue of same, because I want to build one of the Estes re-issue 1b's I have as a operating two-stager. Knowing that those two kits shared the same tube, I had assumed Estes used that same tube in their Saturn V K-36 and later iterations. Not so.

Earl