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  #21  
Old 11-01-2009, 07:38 PM
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Box Contents:

1. Motor Mount Notice - Front
2. Motor Mount Notice - Back (actually a price list for MMI items)
3. Rock-A-Chute Instruction Sheet - Front
4. Rock-A-Chute Instruction Sheet - Back
5. Rock-A-Chute Parachute Wrapper (3 of these were in the box)
6. Rock-A-Chute electrical ignitors (this card has 3 ignitors taped to it)
7. Rock-A-Chute motor ignitor retainer stickers
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Last edited by Gus : 11-02-2009 at 09:12 AM.
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  #22  
Old 11-01-2009, 07:55 PM
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Motor nozzle comparison:

Rock-A-Chute A motor on left.

Centuri A8-3 on right.

Note how thick the wall is on the Rock-A-Chute.
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  #23  
Old 11-01-2009, 07:57 PM
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"Designed for boys over 12" .... my how times have changed.
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  #24  
Old 11-01-2009, 09:40 PM
stefanj stefanj is offline
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Thank you for the great scans!

We've all seen scans of catalogs from the early days, but little things like motor instruction sheets have been neglected.

I'd love to see Minimax motor instructions, for example.
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  #25  
Old 11-01-2009, 10:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gus
Motor nozzle comparison:

Rock-A-Chute A motor on left.

Centuri A8-3 on right.

Note how thick the wall is on the Rock-A-Chute.


I have some Estes 1/4A and 1/2A engines with November 1967 date codes that have nozzles that look just like the Rock-A-Chute example. I also have three June 1968 1/4A3-4s that have the thick casing walls but a much flatter nozzle face as in the Centuri example above (or current Estes engines). It's also intersting just looking at them that the 1967 engines are in English units (1/2A .8-0S, for example) but the 1968-ers are Metric.
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  #26  
Old 11-01-2009, 10:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BEC
I have some Estes 1/4A and 1/2A engines with November 1967 date codes that have nozzles that look just like the Rock-A-Chute example. I also have three June 1968 1/4A3-4s that have the thick casing walls but a much flatter nozzle face as in the Centuri example above (or current Estes engines). It's also intersting just looking at them that the 1967 engines are in English units (1/2A .8-0S, for example) but the 1968-ers are Metric.


The Rock-a-chutes and Estes motors up to the mid '60s were made on the original Mable machine which used casings with an ID of .406". tI was Mable 2 or maybe Mable 3 that went to the .500" thin wall casing. Also the mable 1 motors had simple rounded nozzles.

As a kid I always wondered why .406" and not just .400 - it was years 'till I figured out .406 is 13/32"
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  #27  
Old 11-02-2009, 09:12 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gus
Motor nozzle comparison:

Rock-A-Chute A motor on left.

Centuri A8-3 on right.

Note how thick the wall is on the Rock-A-Chute.


All motors were that thick (.406" id) before 1968. Also, the nozzles all had gently curving, "horn bell" shapes (B14 was a bit different) until a little later (I've got a couple of .5" id motors from 1968 that have bell nozzles)
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  #28  
Old 11-02-2009, 09:35 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bazookadale
As a kid I always wondered why .406" and not just .400 - it was years 'till I figured out .406 is 13/32"
...and .6875" is 11/16". In various places the casing size is listed as .690" and .688". For some reason, we ordered .688", maybe because NE used three decimal places.
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  #29  
Old 11-02-2009, 10:51 AM
shockwaveriderz shockwaveriderz is offline
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great p[ic Gus. Notice the 4629 E. Cedar Ave Denver Co address. That just happens to be the location of Dick Keller's Dad's House , Skip Keller, which is where MMI moved to the basement after GHS was removed as President on July 30 1959.

Prices were much reduced over initial prices to move inventory out the door.

thanks

Terry Dean
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  #30  
Old 11-02-2009, 11:33 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl@Semroc
...and .6875" is 11/16". In various places the casing size is listed as .690" and .688". For some reason, we ordered .688", maybe because NE used three decimal places.

Carl,

Could you fill in a bit of the technical and business history for us?

When Vern started was he just using standard fireworks casings? What were the technical requirements in terms of strength? Did he (and you at Semroc) have to have these specially made or was there some company churning them out for some other purpose? When you got into motor making was there more than one place for you to get casings? I know how hard the current casings are if you try to cut through (an empty) one. Are they made the same way today they were back then?

Thanks,

Steve
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