Hey all, I have a question on the Scorpius if anyone happens to have this one. I am getting parts together for a clone of it and the only thing I am short on is the wooden dowels used on the wings. In the instructions, the part is listed as WD-2C, part# 85912. There are eight of them. Now, looking at the assembly it leaves out two bits of information:

1. What is the diameter of the dowels?
2. What is the length of each dowel? They are all the same so it should be one measurement.

Also, is there a way to know what the thickness of the balsa wood is for the fins?

I have checked through the body tube guide and the nose cone guide and I have not seen anything that references "special" parts like dowels. Is there a reference for this as well? Please let me know.

As always, your help is greatly appreciated since I am still figuring out where to look for alot of old information. A measurement from an existing built rocket would surely suffice as well.

Thanks...Rick Ferguson

Check out this thread......

http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showt...hlight=scorpius

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Don
NAR 53455
"Carpe Diem"

Thanks Don. I keep forgetting about the handy little item invented called the "search" function. I checked it out and it seems that the length of the dowel is 5 15/16" long. I am still looking for more info regarding the thickness.

thanks again!

I don't have an original Scorpius, but I built one from a clone kit from PDR.

The fin material was 3/32".

The dowels that were part of the kit looked like bamboo BBQ skewers. They were way to thick. My best guess would be 1/16" dowel. I could not locate any dowels that small so I had to sand the skewers and modify the "pods" slightly to handle the thicker parts (I shortened the BT5 piece by 1/2" so I had a place from the sanded dowel to "expand" back to the full dowel diameter before leaving the BT20 portion). The dowels were 5" long. Another way is to calculate the size. The dowels are supposed to fit between the BT5 and BT20. Looking at the OD of the BT5 and the ID of the BT20, then divide by 2, the dowel should be .0845". A 1/16' is .062 (perhaps a tad small), but a 3/32' is .093 (a little big, but it could be sanded)

Also, I assume you have a set of plans - Note that I found 2 inconsistances in the Estes plans.

Step 16 states to "adjust the dowel units so that a dowel is in line with the small fin". I set mine to match the decal placement picture. None of the dowels align with a fin.

Then, steps 18 & 19 show the support for the top pod toward the top of the rocket, but the decal placement picture shows it towards the bottom. Again, I built mine to match the picture. Also, I felt it would improve the stability (the higher that fin, the less stable)

Below is a picture of mine as it is launching. Not the best view.

Les

Attached Thumbnails

 

I believe they are 1/12".

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Scott D. Hansen
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WOOSH NAR Section #558

I saw in one of the EMRR postings on the Scorpius where it looks like instruction tasks 17-19 are wrong, at least in the pictures. I just marked my copy of the plans to make sure that I turn the upper tube the opposite way of the plan drawing.

You said that the dowels are 5" long, which goes along with others who had the same measurement. But someone said their dowels were 5 15/16" long straight out of the bag. I'll keep checking as well on those......

That kit that was built was also a clone kit from PDR. They mentioned that they had to sand the dowels down quite a bit to get the short BT's over them.

BTW, is PDR still in business? Their website is up, and the kit is there, but it doesn't look like any info has been updated in over a year. just curious....

Thanks again for all the help!