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Old 10-06-2017, 11:18 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
Default Estes Alpha "purists'" part (link)

Hello All,

While shopping online for 3D printed scale model rocket parts on the Aerobotix store page on the Shapeways website this morning (our own member "Raygun" is the founder of Aerobotix), I had a "Now I've seen *everything*!" moment... :-) Now:

There are Estes Alpha K-25 purists here on YORF, as the various threads about the changes to its decor scheme, fin planform, motor mount, and other features over the years show (which I say not in ridicule or condemnation, but in admiration!). Estes Alpha "purism" has been taken perhaps to its limit by Raygun, who has created a 3D printed plastic fin unit of the balsa-finned Alpha (see: http://www.shapeways.com/product/HV...tionId=43827433 [he also produces a 3D printed duplicate of its balsa nose cone]!) This part faithfully reproduces all of the attributes of the Alpha's tail assembly--and I mean *ALL* of them. He describes this ultimate fidelity to the original, which includes "printed-in" attributes that the kit builder was instructed to supply, thus:

"PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

"This is a reproduction of the fin plan introduced in the Estes kit K-25. Note this is the full classic swept tapered fin plan first described in pattern sheet SP-25 and definitively dimensioned in Estes Tech. pub. TR-11. I thought it would be fun to make a fin unit out of it, to get folks of the sanding business which is becoming less tolerable these days. What I maintain as charm is NOT having the 'fin tip-to-root taper' that I commonly use, but describe the fins as per the original kit instructions. They therefore have the sheet stock thickness look, and having a perfect symmetrical airfoil profile as instructed to shape according to those plans. I have even left out fillets, as the plans pre-date the technique. You can compare this fin unit to my other offering in the PFS-50 ( Alpha 3 )-style fin can that I also reproduce maintaining those classic, though slightly different swept delta lines as well. I hope the purists could appreciate these as much as I do. Enjoy!" *ALSO*:

If this ^isn't^ the Golden Age of model rocketry right now, then there's no such thing as gold! :-)
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
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