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  #31  
Old 01-29-2019, 12:05 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tau Zero
Thanks, Chris! I appreciate the vote of confidence.

Back in the day, I remember discussing body tube "names" with an Estes fan.

The best they could come up with was, "You can put three BT-20s in a BT-60, and have a three-motor cluster. See? It *does* make sense!"


--I *still* wasn't convinced.

However, it depends on how you were conditioned.


Bill Simon has said he wished that he'd done that tube size naming some other way (he claims responsibility). And yes, that's exactly how BT-60 got to be BT-60. If you look at the oldest Estes catalogs you'll see the first place it was used is the Ranger and Cobra - both three motor cluster models.
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  #32  
Old 01-30-2019, 04:54 PM
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Question It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tau Zero
Back in the day, I remember discussing body tube "names" with an Estes fan.

The best they could come up with was, "You can put three BT-20s in a BT-60, and have a three-motor cluster. See? It *does* make sense!"


--I *still* wasn't convinced.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BEC
Bill Simon has said he wished that he'd done that tube size naming some other way (he claims responsibility). And yes, that's exactly how BT-60 got to be BT-60. If you look at the oldest Estes catalogs you'll see the first place it was used is the Ranger and Cobra - both three motor cluster models.
Bernard,

After wrestling with the (very rough) attached section, I wish Bill had done it some other way, too.

"If the tube ends in '-J,' that means it's 2.75" long? Say WHAT?"

"And why do the big letters have little (i.e., shorter) tubes?"
.
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"I think about organizing things all the time. Never seems to happen. I find something that piques my interest and I'm off on a quest. Or a Centuri. "

--Bill Eichelberger, 02/22/2022


“Centuri fret buzz in an updated form.”
Bill “Wallyum” Eichelberger re: Estes Flutter-By
03 Sept 2014
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  #33  
Old 01-30-2019, 10:13 PM
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I'm not sure but I think that some of the Estes tube length length codes just sort of "happened". If you think that the J designation for a 2.75" tube was interesting. What about the BT-5T and BT-20AE? Both tubes are 1.5" long. There were some tubes that had some pattern to their length code (i.e. BT-5BJ (2.0"), BT-20DJ (4.0"), BT-63CJ (3.0"), BT-50EE (5.5")), and then there were some that had codes specific to a particular kit (i.e. 1298 X-Wing Fighter used an XW length code, but the LL-1, BT-3, BT-5, and BT-20 tubes were all different lengths).
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  #34  
Old 01-30-2019, 10:13 PM
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Question Centuri Thunderroc 5340

Quote:
Originally Posted by hcmbanjo
Great work Jay! Your work will help us all.
Can anyone please identify the nose cone used in this kit?

Centuri Thunderroc 5340 / ST-16180 (3) / 1.640” O.D. / 1.600” I.D. (1980 - 1983)

Thanks yet again!
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"I think about organizing things all the time. Never seems to happen. I find something that piques my interest and I'm off on a quest. Or a Centuri. "

--Bill Eichelberger, 02/22/2022


“Centuri fret buzz in an updated form.”
Bill “Wallyum” Eichelberger re: Estes Flutter-By
03 Sept 2014
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  #35  
Old 01-30-2019, 10:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tau Zero
Bernard,

After wrestling with the (very rough) attached section, I wish Bill had done it some other way, too.

"If the tube ends in '-J,' that means it's 2.75" long? Say WHAT?"

"And why do the big letters have little (i.e., shorter) tubes?"
.


I don’t think Bill will take the blame for the letter suffixes. I always just assumed that this happened the same way the nose cone letters seem to have happened....pretty much when a new size (or shape) was needed they just incremented the letter by one.

Although if that were strictly true I’d expect the body of the K-1 Scout to be BT-30A and the nose cone to be BNC-30A. For the body tube that turns out to be right, but the nose cone is BNC-30D. Oh well....
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  #36  
Old 01-30-2019, 11:03 PM
BARGeezer BARGeezer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tau Zero
Can anyone please identify the nose cone used in this kit?

Centuri Thunderroc 5340 / ST-16180 (3) / 1.640” O.D. / 1.600” I.D. (1980 - 1983)

Thanks yet again!


Per the Centuri plans at JimZ's, it is catalog #71043. Searching the Semroc "Classic Cross Reference" pages, that catalog # is a PNC-60AH. Interestingly, catalog #s 71013 and 71014 also show as PNC-60AH. So I would take it with a grain of salt.
http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts/xref.asp
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  #37  
Old 01-31-2019, 05:21 PM
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Talking

Quote:
Originally Posted by BEC
I don’t think Bill will take the blame for the letter suffixes. I always just assumed that this happened the same way the nose cone letters seem to have happened....pretty much when a new size (or shape) was needed they just incremented the letter by one.

Although if that were strictly true I’d expect the body of the K-1 Scout to be BT-30A and the nose cone to be BNC-30A. For the body tube that turns out to be right, but the nose cone is BNC-30D. Oh well....
(chuckling) It seems to be pretty arbitrary. At least enough to make my head spin.

It also seems like it could be one of those things that get set up initially, and then whoever picks up the process has to muddle through it.

Whether the muddling is successful, though...


It's additional proof that "your mileage may vary."
.
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"I think about organizing things all the time. Never seems to happen. I find something that piques my interest and I'm off on a quest. Or a Centuri. "

--Bill Eichelberger, 02/22/2022


“Centuri fret buzz in an updated form.”
Bill “Wallyum” Eichelberger re: Estes Flutter-By
03 Sept 2014
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  #38  
Old 02-01-2019, 07:18 AM
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Back in the 50's and 60's money was pretty tight, especially for hobbies. The Estes/Centuri folks probably never had a clue how big the company would grow, much less realize how many dozens of nose cones and tubes they would eventually carry. I imagine when they came up with designations, they figured they wouldn't need something extremely organized for just a few variations.
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  #39  
Old 02-26-2019, 11:01 AM
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Exclamation UPDATE: 26 Feb 2019

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ltvscout
When you have a "final" version or are close to it make a new post in the Plans forum and post it there. I'll then make it a sticky.
Scott,

Here's what I've got for now. It's not entirely complete, but it's been languishing on my hard drive for a month now without any updates.

(I was laid off [again] recently, so the whole job search scenario has been occupying my time.)


Please note the few "red letter" entries, for which I still need solid information.

Submit any questions/corrections/etc. on this thread. Thanks!


Cheers,
Attached Files
File Type: pdf Centuri Body Tube and Nose Cone List - 26 Feb 2019.pdf (53.5 KB, 43 views)
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Jay Goemmer
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"I think about organizing things all the time. Never seems to happen. I find something that piques my interest and I'm off on a quest. Or a Centuri. "

--Bill Eichelberger, 02/22/2022


“Centuri fret buzz in an updated form.”
Bill “Wallyum” Eichelberger re: Estes Flutter-By
03 Sept 2014
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  #40  
Old 02-26-2019, 10:45 PM
scott_mills scott_mills is offline
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Awesome work, everyone.
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