Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Centuri Mercury Redstone Tower Instructions

I know, I've been harping about the Estes Mercury Redstone capsule and tower instructions for a while. For an easier tower assembly I refer people to the Centuri instructions on the JimZ website. Those instructions don't come up now. On some Facebook pages people are still having trouble assembling the tower.

When I was first building the Estes MR I printed the Centuri capsule instructions. These cover the correct, easier (upside down) tower assembly, the capsule and how to tie a recovery sling that allows the capsule to fall tower up under a separate parachute.
The Estes instructions have you glue the tower sides (right side up) into the dimples in the antenna housing. Centuri has you first gluing two tower sides together. The tower sides are upside down. Then align them top down using the inverted escape motor bottom piece.

I took pictures of the instructions, I don't have a scanner right now. These were copied at twice my normal resolution for the blog. Enlarge them and they should be easily enough to follow.
For large, easiest viewing - Right click, then "Open link in new tab". Open the new tab at the top of the screen.


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6 comments:

  1. Rich HolmesAugust 3, 2016 at 7:44 AM

    These instructions (and some others that are now missing at the JimZ site) can still be obtained on the Wayback Internet archive. The Mercury Redstone page is at

    http://wayback.archive.org/web/20140604045515/http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/ks-1.htm

    and the capsule instruction pages in TIFF format are at

    http://wayback.archive.org/web/20140604045515/http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/centuri/ks-1e.tif

    and

    http://wayback.archive.org/web/20140604045515/http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/centuri/ks-1f.tif

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris MichielssenAugust 3, 2016 at 9:44 AM

      Thanks Rich!
      I never think to use the Wayback archive.

      Delete
  2. UnknownDecember 20, 2020 at 2:08 AM

    The KS-1 post is still active on my site.
    http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/ks-1.htm

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris MichielssenDecember 21, 2020 at 12:04 AM

      Hi Unknown,
      The Jim Z website has been updated, some lost files are accessible again.

      Delete
  3. JimmyMarch 8, 2021 at 4:20 PM

    Hi Chris,
    I’ve noticed a difference between the older Estes/Centuri instructions and the newer instructions in the Redstone kits. The separation motor nozzles are in line with the larger escape motor nozzles in the older instructions. The newer kits indicate that the nozzles are offset. I’ve tried looking for diagrams for clarification but nothing seems definite. Have you any idea what the correct orientation is? Nitpicking? Yep, I can’t help it sometimes...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris MichielssenMarch 9, 2021 at 10:08 AM

      Hi Jimmy,
      I tried to go to the Accur8 website for some information, but after John Pursley passed away the site isn't accessible.
      I looked at both the Estes Mercury Redstone instructions and earlier Centuri style plastic capsule and tower instructions. To my eye (in both sets of instructions) the three small jettison nozzles are offset (between) the larger escape nozzles.
      I could be wrong, I may not have a different set of instructions you are referring to.

      Delete

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