Body Tubes

[mycrofte]

OK, so what's the deal? I got a Estes Bandit with some stuff from eBay. I figured out how to make the missing plastic pieces with standard parts, and a lot of home brew parts.

The problem is that it comes with plastic couplers for adding short lengths to change it up but no tube came with it.

I got out the digital calipers and came up with I.D. 1.03" and O.D. 1.1". Even throwing in a "fudge factor" I can't find another tube that fits this. The closest thing I can find is Simroc ST-10105. Which lists at I.D. 1.0" and O.D. 1.04".

So, does anyone know what tube Estes used for this Bandit 2060 kit?

[tbzep]

OK, so what's the deal? I got a Estes Bandit with some stuff from eBay. I figured out how to make the missing plastic pieces with standard parts, and a lot of home brew parts.

The problem is that it comes with plastic couplers for adding short lengths to change it up but no tube came with it.

I got out the digital calipers and came up with I.D. 1.03" and O.D. 1.1". Even throwing in a "fudge factor" I can't find another tube that fits this. The closest thing I can find is Simroc ST-10105. Which lists at I.D. 1.0" and O.D. 1.04".

So, does anyone know what tube Estes used for this Bandit 2060 kit?

The extra plastic coupler is just the way it came out of the mold. The same nosecone/coupler was used for other E2X models such as the Rampage and Dagger that have a payload section and they just didn't fool with removing it before they stuffed it into the Bandit packaging.

The tube used isn't a regular Estes tube offering. It's close to a BT-52, but is thicker.

[Royatl]

OK, so what's the deal? I got a Estes Bandit with some stuff from eBay. I figured out how to make the missing plastic pieces with standard parts, and a lot of home brew parts.

So, does anyone know what tube Estes used for this Bandit 2060 kit?

In the early 90's Estes came out with a line of kits called "E2X" ("Easy to execute"?), which at first were a specific line utilizing these tubes/parts, but then the label was applied to a number of different rockets that were easy to build.

Anyway, the original line, Bandit, Rampage, Banshee, followed in later years by HiJax, HeatSeeker, MK-109 Stingray, and the Missile Command ARMY and NAVY rockets, all included pre-colored, pre-punched body tubes meant for a specific set of molded plastic parts. I assume the size of the body tube was probably determined by the size of the tooling required to make the punches, or possibly by the size of the engine mount/fin unit.

IIRC the tube was designated BT-1090. I think Mike Dorffler was one of, if not the main, designer for these kits. Maybe he'll come out of lurking mode and tell us more about them. One can only hope.

[mycrofte]

I got this bit from an Apogee news letter. So, I have an explanation, but no source for tubes. I was hoping to use the coupler for a clear payload section. Thought it might be nifty to put a white LED flasher in it an do a night launch.

The next line of standardized tubes to come out of Estes
were the HBT series; which were a creation of Mike Dorffler,
and stood for "Heavy" Body Tubes. In this series, the tube
size was named for the physical size of the tube. The first of
this new series was HBT-1090, which had a outer diameter of
1.090 inches.

[Royatl]

I got this bit from an Apogee news letter. So, I have an explanation, but no source for tubes. I was hoping to use the coupler for a clear payload section. Thought it might be nifty to put a white LED flasher in it an do a night launch.


Occasionally there is a HiJax rocket (which includes a clear tube) available on Ebay.

I've used my HiJax to loft one of the late-lamented Octave 5in1 cameras.

B6-4 flight (http://www.soarrocketry.org/images/hijaxb6-4.wmv)

C6-5 flight (http://www.soarrocketry.org/images/LillyMultipodFreefall.wmv)