Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Estes Paveway III Build, Part 14, Shock Cord Mounts

This kit included a 19" long elastic shock cord.
19 inches? 
If you add in the two Estes tri-fold mounts and the recess inside the body tubes that only leaves about 10" of shock cord between the two halves!
That 10" span is before the overhand loop is tied to attach the parachute.
If I used the short kit shock cord there would certainly be some snap back damage at ejection.
I switched out a much longer piece of elastic.


There isn't a lug in the adapter base to tie the shock cord to.
The instructions have you make two tri-fold mounts. The shock cord is fed through the hollow adapter and the mount is glued inside the upper tube.

I decided to use a split segment of body tube for a stronger mount.
This is an early mount piece made from a BT-50 scrap. I ended up using a piece of BT-20.
Feed the shock cord through the adapter.
Loop and tie the shock cord around the body tube segment.

Apply a line of glue inside the upper tube.
Set the tube segment in the tube and press in place using the upper shoulder of the adapter.
After the white glue dries, glue the adapter into the upper tube.

1/3 the way down from the upper section a loop was tied into the shock cord for attachment of the parachute snap swivel.

1 comment:

  1. I have an Estes Ventris(engine block already inserted) and your split segment of body tube for a stronger shock cord mount is prefect. Funny, I did not think you did those larger rockets with 1/2" elastic, but a quick internet search brought me right back to ya.

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