I kinda miss my Estes Mean Machine and have several similar rockets sitting in the inventory. I chose this one simply because it was the first one I ran into when I started to look. I also liked the simple color scheme on the face card. It a long, skinny four fins and a nosecone. I have no doubt it is a Mean Machine knockoff, though slightly shorter.

Those with nothing better to do can waste some time following this rocket through its life cycle at the following URL: http://flickr.com/photos/23694991@N...57612811845138/

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
John A. Lee O.S.L.
Alamo Rocketeers NAR Section 661
NAR 87285, L1 8 March 2008
TRA 03040, L1 8 March 2008
Photos of the "Fleet": http://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/

I used to tell Mom, "...I want to fly rockets when I grow up!"

She said, "Make up your mind, you can't do both!"

Construction begins with the motor mount. Marks are laid out on the motor tube for the engine hook and the centering rings. A slice is made to insert the hook and then the builder is instructed to punch out the rings from the sheet of cardboard. When doing so, I realized that I would have to be extremely careful because these are without doubt the flimsiest and thinnest rings I have ever seen in a kit.

The rings were glued in place with Elmer's yellow and thoroughly filleted, then filleted again.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
John A. Lee O.S.L.
Alamo Rocketeers NAR Section 661
NAR 87285, L1 8 March 2008
TRA 03040, L1 8 March 2008
Photos of the "Fleet": http://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/

I used to tell Mom, "...I want to fly rockets when I grow up!"

She said, "Make up your mind, you can't do both!"

I noticed that this rocket did not come with a thrust ring. I didn't like that and I had none of the proper size sitting around so I cut the end off of a spent 18mm casing to use for a thrust ring. It was glued in right over the engine hook.

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
John A. Lee O.S.L.
Alamo Rocketeers NAR Section 661
NAR 87285, L1 8 March 2008
TRA 03040, L1 8 March 2008
Photos of the "Fleet": http://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/

I used to tell Mom, "...I want to fly rockets when I grow up!"

She said, "Make up your mind, you can't do both!"

After the fillets on the centering rings were good and dry, I did a bit of light sanding to make them fit into the body tube better. I was afraid that too much force applied might bend them on the way in. The motor mount was then installed with yellow glue.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
John A. Lee O.S.L.
Alamo Rocketeers NAR Section 661
NAR 87285, L1 8 March 2008
TRA 03040, L1 8 March 2008
Photos of the "Fleet": http://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/

I used to tell Mom, "...I want to fly rockets when I grow up!"

She said, "Make up your mind, you can't do both!"

Geez, John, is someone tipping you off to my orders? This can't be coincidental - yet another build thread by you of something that I was getting ready to clone, and had just obtained the parts for. Hmmmm......

The Custom Engage was BT-55 based and was 59" long. It was a bit shorter in length and smaller in diameter than the Estes Mean Machine. The Custom Equinox, OTOH, was 1.637" in diameter and was 78.75" in length. Compare those stats to those of the Mean Machine. By the way, Custom Rockets has recently brought back the Equinox.

The Engage looks like a nice rocket - that's why I'm building a clone of it. I am following your build with interest as a result.

Mark \\.

__________________
SAM # 0011

I'm completely innocent!!!!!

I picked this up on Ebay a few mothns ago. That's why it was swimming near the top of the pile. I had not heard of it and, until just now, I was unaware of the Equinox.

When you do your clone, you WILL want stronger centering rings. I was going to do a Quest type shock cord mount to the motor mount because I don't like trifolds but, in this case, the trifold is going to be stronger.

__________________
John A. Lee O.S.L.
Alamo Rocketeers NAR Section 661
NAR 87285, L1 8 March 2008
TRA 03040, L1 8 March 2008
Photos of the "Fleet": http://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/

I used to tell Mom, "...I want to fly rockets when I grow up!"

She said, "Make up your mind, you can't do both!"

I should add that the Custom Engage more closely resembled the Estes Cobra 1500.

The Custom 50/55 centering rings that I have for my Engage clone appear to be strong enough, but if I have any concerns, I will add buttresses to them, made out of either balsa or corrugated cardboard. One other change that I may make is to switch to longer tube couplers, just to give the airframe more rigidity. I'll probably do that with my cloned Equinox/Mean Machine/Thunder-Roc, too.


Just jerking your chain a little. But the coincidence is uncanny - as you know, this is not the first time that this has happened. (See Semroc Cyber III). So it can only mean one thing ---- great minds think alike!!!

Mark \\.

__________________
SAM # 0011

John,

You'll find that if you attach your shock cord to a tube coupler, you'll have a really strong mount.

__________________
Don
NAR 53455
"Carpe Diem"

Ahhhh, so it would seem the Engage is a knock off of the old Estes Cobra 1500... I had the Cobra... Then a tree had it http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...79/79est34.html
Notice that an A8-3 was the recommended motor for the first flight? This was a POOR choice!

I get it. You are cloning but have some actual Custom rings. Is that right?

I have some other Custom rockets but none have had rings as flimsy as this one. Mine may be a fluke.

I still want to repair my Cyber III and give it a try in the 3 stage version...as soon as Estes makes good on the re-release of the A8-0. I almost didn't get back the 2 stage version on B6/A8.

__________________
John A. Lee O.S.L.
Alamo Rocketeers NAR Section 661
NAR 87285, L1 8 March 2008
TRA 03040, L1 8 March 2008
Photos of the "Fleet": http://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/

I used to tell Mom, "...I want to fly rockets when I grow up!"

She said, "Make up your mind, you can't do both!"