| So....... You want to clone or upscale a classic? |
| It's not a hard as you might think. Of course it helps to have made a few scratch built rockets first. Just so you have the feel for things. First off you need to pick a subject: For most folks they already have in mind the rocket they want to clone but just need a starting point. For those of you needing some inspiration try doing a search of Sven Knudson's wonderful site. Sven has scans of almost every catalog that Estes and Centuri put out plus lots of others from FSI, MRC, LOC, Canaroc, AVI, Enerjet and many others. |
| Now that you have your choice you'll need some sort of plans. Jim Zalewski or JimZ, as he is better known, has a fantastic website with plans of almost every rocket that Estes or Centuri ever made. These plans can be easily downloaded. Jim also has the decal scans you'll need (but we'll get to that in a bit). |
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| Now that you have the basics you're ready to start. But what's the first step? First you'll have to look at the parts list for the rocket. Estes and Centuri were both very good at providing a comprehensive parts list for their kits. Unfortunately they didn't always use part numbers that were readily decipherable into components we may know. For the most part Estes and Centuri used standard sized body tubes for all their kits. However, Estes tubes and Centuri tubes were not the same sizes. This is the Byzantine world of model rocketry were things don't always make sense. Who knows why they did the things they did. Perhaps it was to prevent one or the other from stealing designs. We may never know but we have to live with it if we want to clone. So..... Just what the heck sizes are there? Here's a list of the most common Estes and Centuri body tube sizes along with their dimensions: |
| Quick Index |
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| Common Estes Tubes and their sizes: Tube OD ID BT-5 .541" .515" BT-20 .736" .710" BT-50 .976" .950" BT-55 1.325" 1.283" BT-60 1.637" 1.595" BT-70 2.217" 2.175" BT-80 2.600" 2.560" BT-100 3.744" 3.702" BT-101 3.938" 3.896" |
| Common Centuri Tubes and their sizes: Tube OD ID ST-5 .543" .515" ST-7 .759" .715" ST-8 .908" .865" ST-10 1.040" 1.000" ST-13 1.340" 1.300" ST-16 1.640" 1.600" ST-20 2.040" 2.000" |
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