I'm sorry to hear that. If the balsa nose cones are okay (they might have swelled, like my MPC kits' ones did--maybe the hardwood nose cones and hardwood fins fared better in storage?), perhaps the new Semroc could buy them and get new tubes for them, and produce those kits. I never bought or flew any of the old FSI's kits, but I liked what I saw in their catalogs because their kits and equipment were like those of the early years of Estes. But as with Lawrence (in Reply #16), the local availability of standard-size Estes motors (which fit and worked fine in my mail-ordered Centuri kits), plus my very limited budget back then, made the oddball FSI motors (and their corresponding kits) not attractive enough to try out.

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Semroc already has that capability. They already have the tubes, and can crank out nose cones with the nifty CNC balsa shaper that Carl built.


My experience too, though I did squander my hard-earned pay on a small selection of FSI and AVI E and F motors to use for mercury and gemini dual eggloft altitude flying. I thought FSI kits were "weird" because my perceptions were shaped by Estes and Centuri from an early age.

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

Yeah, I think the "weird" sized motors and motor mount tubes in the kits did more to hurt FSI than anything...

There's a good argument for commonality...

Later! OL J R

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

I was referring to FSI's hardwood nose cones and hardwood fins (those fins were hobbyist plywood or sheet basswood, I think). Those particular old FSI parts might have survived their less-than-ideal storage conditions unscathed, or at least well enough to be usable.But for the "Buzz Bomb" firework piece (whose readily-available 0.69" diameter tubes were used for the first mass-produced model rocket motors), 13 mm (1/2") diameter motors--which Orville Carlisle made by hand and favored--might have become the standard motor size, with 0.69" (18 mm soft conversion) or perhaps some other size motors being considered "large" ones... :-)

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Yeah. Semroc has some of the FSI plywood fins in stock. Semroc - 1. New FSI - 0. Hardwood cones? Meh...

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

Good--I just hate to see usable components go to waste. Hardwood nose cones quickly become too heavy as the diameter increases. For smaller rockets (up to BT-50/ST-10 or so), they're nice; they're easier to finish and are more dent-resistant, and for front motor boost-gliders, they can be "used as their own ballast" when needed. A few other companies also made BT-20 to BT-50-ish hardwood nose cones for their kits.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

The Semroc parts are NEW production. The old original FSI parts are probably mouldering in whatever new storage barn they ended up in. And so what? Would you really want to build a rocket with wood parts that have been poorly-stored for 20-30+ years? And why would or should Semroc buy parts that even the New FSI doesn't want? Randy has a pretty slick rocket part production operation at the eRockets facility. He can cut tubes to size, mill balsa parts, and laser cut fins and centering rings of any sort.

__________________
-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

FSI kits were not exclusively hardwood. Some kits used balsa parts. Even the mid-power Black Brant II used a balsa nosecone, boat tail, and fins.

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I love sanding.

Agree. Kinda like the Estes/NCR 28mm motors and motor tubes.
Mr. Bob
Countyline Hobbies
Grovertown, IN.
574-540-1123
countylinehobbies@yahoo.com
www.countylinehobbies.com

Exactly... thought about that too...

At least undersized motors can be "shimmed up" with masking tape to fly in "standard" size motor mounts (like adding a 1/2 mm thick layer of tape to fly a 28mm motor in a 29 mm mount) but when it comes to OVERSIZE motors, or large differences in diameters between the "weird" and "standard" sizes, it becomes impractical or impossible...

Later! OL J R

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!