Estes Condor #0807 Build, Part 8, Parachute Ties

Most instructions show scissors used to cut out the sheet parachutes. 

Use a straightedge and sharp blade to get clean, straight lines.

The shroud lines are old and have bends. 

Run an iron over the lines with the iron on a dry, cotton setting.

NEWBIES:

Try not to touch any stickers. The oils on your fingers could diminish the adhesive. Here I've lifted the reinforcement ring with my knife. Center and position with the sticker still on the blade.

TIP: 

To prevent a tear from starting, punch the hole up against the outside edge of the ring. Rotary punches work great but you've got to have cardstock behind the sheet when punching through the plastic.

Shroud lines can be hard to tie.

TIP: Use long tweezers to tie the knot. On shroud lines, I use a simple square knot.

Estes Condor #0807 Build, Part 7, Prepping Tube Ends & Nose Cone Loop

I only applied a wipe of CA glue to the upper end of the tube.

The rear centering ring is glued even with the end of the tube. If I were to apply CA to the low end, the wood glue wouldn't soak into the tube. CA glue seals when applied. 

After the CA glue dries, I lightly sanded the edge with 400 grit. Check the fit of the nose cone, light sanding might be needed inside.

 

The shock cord tie loop is very small and seems weak. The eyelet is small, trying to get looped shroud lines and a shock cord through it would be difficult.

I cut off the loop. A hole was drilled in the angled shoulder side with a knife tip. The hole was widened with a tapered file.

The shock cord will be tied through the new hole. The chute lines will be attached 1/3 the way down the shock cord.

The nose cone mold was pretty clean, just a slight raised seam.

Here I'm scraping down the joint using the back of my knife, like a cabinet scraper.

 

Estes Condor #0807 Build, Part 6, Fitting The Centering Rings

The is no engine block in the kit, I added one.

It was pressed in dry using an engine casing.

On the right -  

While the instructions might tell you to run a line of glue around the tube and slide the ring in - 

Add the glue fillet after the ring is slid in place.

The instructions suggest both rings are even with the ends of the tube.

I set the rear ring even. The upper ring was set about 1/8" lower than the tube end to allow for glue fillets on both sides of the ring.

The fit was tight in the BT-50 main airframe tube.

Both rings were sanded to get the diameters slightly smaller. 

Go easy and check, it doesn't take much sanding to get a friction fit.

Estes Condor #0807 Build, Part 5, Centering Rings & Hold Down Strap

I also had to cut free the die-cut centering rings.

On the right - 

You can see the compression wrinkles from the die cut process.

On the left, I put a soft curve in the hold down strap by rolling it around a pencil.

The rings were slipped on dry (no glue yet) to find the center position of the engine hook retainer strap.

The center was marked with a pencil so the overlap would end up on the opposite side of the engine hook.

NEWBIES: When gluing paper or cardstock you don't need a lot of glue. A thin coat (skin) cover spread over the entire face will be plenty.

Estes Condor #0807 Build, Part 4, Balsa Prepping

Here's why I don't like to throw out leftover balsa.

For whatever reason, Estes didn't include the small balsa standoff on the die-cut balsa sheets.

This is a small launch lug standoff.

If you've never seen how die-cutting is done - 

Razor blades are set into wood blocks. There is soft rubber usually surrounding the blades. Here, the blades sit inside and a little under the green rubber strips.

The blocks are pressed onto the balsa. The rubber recedes and exposes the blades. The blades press hard and cut into the balsa.

In 1970 - 1990s die cutting, there can be slight differences between like pieces on the sheet. This depended on how the blades were set into the wood block. 

For fin uniformity, this is why why you should "gang sand" the old style die-cut balsa.

Stack, hold tightly and even up the fin edges.

On the right side picture, I've sanded all the sides except the small top edge. You can see it is off before sanding.

 

Even the single piece glider fuselage should be trued up.

After freeing the pieces from the sheet, the edges weren't perfectly square.

Estes Condor #0807 Build, Part 3, Freeing The Balsa Pieces

These parts were not die-cut with a new blade. The cuts only made it about half way through the balsa.

To be sure I'll draw my knife through the shallow die-cut lines, I ran a sharp pencil over the cut lines.

Here's how the 3/16" thick sheet looked after tracing over the cuts with the pencil.

 

Save the extra balsa ends!

You never know if you might need them later on in the build.

Estes Condor #0807 Build, Part 2, Some Extra Parts

I don't know why - 

The build requires three short launch lugs. 

The kit included seven lugs.

You only need two centering rings, 

The kit included four in total.

It's interesting to look back on the older kits. In the ring at the upper left, the center circle isn't perfectly centered. 

The engine hook notch is a bit crooked.

The back side of the face card has a printed tri-fold mount. Another separate mount is included.

That small dowel is glued to the nose of the glider. It hooks over a lug on the booster during launch.

In older kits you can usually count on replacing the rubber shock cord and parachute tape disks.

The kit supplied shock cord was 18" long.