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Old 06-22-2022, 02:43 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Contact Annette Sostarich, the "Space Crafter" (as her Ebay Store is called, see: https://www.ebay.com/str/spacecraft...57.m570.l113337 ). She has an aerospace ^and^ a model rocketry background, and she has 3D printed numerous nose cones, fin units, and other things (including cabinets for crystal radios, just from my descriptions!) for me, and:

She also came up with an innovation, which works equally as well with Estes BT-5/Centuri #5 & MPC T15 nose cones as it did for the large, Centuri PNC-132 and PNC-160 nose cones, which each had a molded-into-the-base [which was pre-glued] "tie-cross" (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/no...a/72cen060.html ). By 3D printing nose cones--of *any* size--with this tie-cross 'printed-in,' the one-piece, hollow nose cones can, without any modification, be used in streamer & parachute recovery models (and boost-glider "pop-pods"), and in motor-ejecting models (such as the Estes Streak, Centuri Li'l Herc, Centuri X-24 "Bug," etc.). ALSO:

Annette could 3D print high-fidelity duplicates of old launch controllers such as the Centuri Lectra-Line ones, the MPC Lunar-Lectric "pistol grip" one, the Estes FS-5 and Solar Launch Controllers, etc. PLUS:

I'm also sure she could 3D print--perhaps in multiple, to-be-glued-together parts, depending on her 3D printer's "workspace volume"--launch pads, such as the Centuri Servo-Launcher (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/no...a/72cen052.html ). Because the Servo-Launcher had extremely short--six inches or so?--battery-to-igniter leads (and thus had very little voltage drop along them; and it was designed for the old "cut-apart," rolled-up nichrome wire igniters with the "flame-paste booster propellant" on the wire every three inches or so, that being the "pre-Solar Igniter" era), it could fire the old igniters using only ^two^--not four--"Photo-Flash" D batteries. With today's improved igniters and improved dry-cell battery chemistry (alkaline, lithium, NiMH rechargeable, etc.), two of these modern D batteries could probably ignite clustered motors, if used in a Servo-Launcher. And incidentally:

Pneumatically-activated launchers or this type are used for firing wire-trailing rockets for lightning-attracting experiments, because there are no conductive igniter wire leads that the lightning can flow down, to fry the experimenters. At least one such NOAA and/or university experiment (or experiment series) used AeroTech rockets (either Arreaux or Mustang kits), fired using a pneumatic launch controller, to trail very thin copper wire aloft (the lightning strikes always vaporize the wires). So if you ever want to conduct a re-enactment of Elijah calling fire down from Heaven, this is an easy--if a bit hazardous, but certainly spectacular!--way to do it. :-) (...sees--in his equine mind's eye--GH going out to buy a big roll of thin-gauge enameled magnet wire...).
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
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