Monday, May 9, 2011

Estes Saturn V Build Part 19 Fins

The fins are all on one vacuform sheet. There is enough room between each fin to cut them with a straightedge guide.

I did leave 1/16" around each fin half when cutting them out.

Before sanding and gluing, only the root edge "flash" is cut off.


The 1/16" edge plastic "flange" is sanded against a flat surface until it is about 1/2 of it's original thickness.
There wouldn't be any way to accurately guage this unless you used a micrometer to check the thickness. I just sanded until the "roundness" was removed.
The fin on the bottom has been sanded. Enlarge the picture and you can tell a slight difference between it's flatter edges and the rounder, unsanded fin edges on top.

Time spent on build: 1:00 Cutting Out and Sanding Fins
Total time on build so far: 18:30

2 comments:

  1. Looks like your build is progressing nicely! I'm in the process of masking and painting the roll patterns on mine and hope to launch it Saturday after next.

    I modded the engine mount to accept an E engine - I'm reluctant to go much higher than that (for now).

    Here's a bit of advice on the engine fairings - cut 'em out leaving about a 1/4". Instead of trying to cut it, wrap some 220grit around a 4" BlueTube or Estes BT-101 and sand the crap out of it until the flash falls away. It'll make the cementing much easier.

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  2. On the fairings, that's exactly what I did!
    It'll all be in upcoming blog posts.
    Thanks!

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