I had built several Estes kits in the late 80s/early 90s and then another round about 2001-2002. The instructions always had the standard warning about possibly needing to wrap tape around the nose cone to get a good fit in the body tube, but I'd never needed to use it. In fact, parts always fit together like a glove.

I purchased a bunch of new kits over the past year, most of which date to 2013 production runs. The ones I've built so far are mostly E2X kits, and I've noticed that body tubes are routinely very loose fitting on nose cones, couplers, and transitions. Two to four layers of tape are typically needed to get a good fit.

Is this observation just a fact of life from shifting production overseas or have I been unlucky? I'll be starting Level 1 and 2 kits shortly, so it will be interesting to see if these parts fit together better than the ARF and E2X kits.

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I noticed this as well. I bought a Moon Mutt set being discounted at Toys R Us a few years ago and I had to wrap tape around the base of the nose cone as well. It seemed to me that the old blow molded plastic nosecones fit better than the newer ones.

Estes specifies tolerances even in China so this feels like an engineering change to address humidity issues.

Jerry--can you explain your theory a little more? What effect would humidity have on the rocket components that might result in such a change?

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Paper tubes attract and hold moisture and expand. That makes the ID smaller and that's why many Estes blow molded cones have ridges vertically along the shoulder. So the tip of the ridge touches the tube but if the tube expands the valley between the ridges absorbs the dimension change.

The tubes made in USA are virgin kraft and change dimension less than the ones made elsewhere and contain some recycled content, even if a little or even if the kraft quality is lower than Canadian. The best kraft and black powder comes from Canadia (South Park song: Blame Canada), the best birch ply comes from Finland and Russia, and the best balsa is no longer available because all old growth has been raped.

PML and Blue Tube has a phenolic content which is a water barrier and prevents dimension change. PML tube and its brethren is brittle and Blue Tube seems to have overcome that issue. Albiet at far higher cost. Why pay less?

Jerry

That makes sense. I thought you were saying Estes had made a change for the plastic parts to be smaller diameter, as though they expected these to expand after manufacture. Couldn't imagine how that would happen.

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