Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 8, Intake Tube Cutting

The instructions have you tape the intake tube pattern over a BT-5 and cut through both the pattern paper and tube at the same time. I thought that would lead to some shifting of the pattern while cutting.

I taped it on and used a pin to make small holes around the pattern.
The pattern was removed and the holes connected with a pencil line.

The kit supplies two BT-5 tubes. If you carefully place the pattern on the other side of the tube, you can cut both intakes from a single body tube.

Cutting the intakes was easier than I thought it would be.
The intakes were cut with a sharp knife. Notice the intake back end (inset picture) wasn't rounded off, yet. For now it's easier to just follow the cut curve to a point.

The rounded end (final shape) was done with sharp scissors.

The intake edges were sanded down until the needle holes were gone.

Some 400 grit was wrapped around the BT-20 main air frame tube and lightly sanded to contour the edges for a better fit.







Here's the inside and outside of the intake top after contour sanding.
On the left you can see the edge isn't square but sanded at an angle to fit the curve of the body tube.