I bought one of these for that specific purpose but had less than satisfactory results. Unless the grain of the dowel is EXACTLY parallel to the sides, the dowel eventually gets too weak at the smaller diameters to be pulled through holes without breaking.

How I make skinny dowels:

Tower Dowels by stefan_e_jones, on Flickr

I got the dowels at a craft store.

It takes many tries to get a dowel right (that is, fits in the feeler gauges in the Apollo capsule cardstock tower jig. Sometimes you'll get only 1/2" or so of usable dowel.

__________________
NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM

Thanks for the tip. I haven't gone that small yet. I may need to use a different material should I ever need to.

__________________
Regards,

Bob Bernatchez

NAR 29996

NHRC & ROCC Member

NARTREK Silver

I was not aware of those, but it is essentially what I am doing with a drill gauge.


Bill

__________________
It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill!

If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too...

Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit.

: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

Those feeler gauges are somewhat oversized from what is specified in the instructions.


Bill

__________________
It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill!

If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too...

Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit.

: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

Here's a quick update picture.

The Redstone is now resplendent in Rustoleum Gloss White. If you look carefully near the fins, you can see some of the cardstock details which I think look great. Next step is to paint the roll pattern then add Excelsior decals from Sandman.

I built a third wooden tower. Then I put it off to the side as the 1/12 dowels looked big and clunky. Even using Bill's technique to thin them some didn't really help. At my local hobby shop I found some carbon fiber lengths in the bargain bin in .08 and .04 sizes so I'm going to try that next.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

The MR looks great! The only thing about carbon fiber is finding a glue that will stick the stuff.

Joe

I have two K41's new-in-bag and another that has been opened but complete.
I have not built one since about 1983.
Have Semroc laser-cut fin sets for all 3 kits.
Might build one this winter.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

OK, Comrades, prepare to be blown away!

In the picture below you see my K41 Capsule which has sat patiently (more or less constantly since 1976) while I have tried to build escape towers having long since lost the pressed wood that came with the kit. I have tried dowels, toothpicks and carbon fibre. And while carbon fibre showed great promise for a traditional build, I struggled mightily with adhesives. The project has basically just sat still since the early part of the year.

As I mentioned in another post recently, I have seen the future and it is 3d printing and sure enough, today in the mail I received: a K-41 escape tower 3d printed in white plastic. I worked with Michael Key at Shapeways to modify (via scaling) an escape tower he already produced for a plastic kit. Unfortunately, it was not perfect in that the top of the rocket motor and the aerospike did not make it. That is being checked on right now.

Over the next few days I'm going to work on fitting it to the balsa cone. The tower includes the cone-shaped antenna section cover so that will have to be sanded off the capsule. Also, I will learn and share finishing methods for the tower as it does have the characteristic 3d-printed rough surface. I'll tweek it and give feedback to the designer. I'm also going to check it against my Weeks drawings. I used scale of the kit as 70" Redstone/ 1.637 BT-60 = 1/42.76 scale.

This should fit the BT-60 Dr. Zooch Mercury capsule as well.


I also ordered an 1/100 Apollo tower to replace the missing one on my Centuri Saturn 1b. Its molded in translucent plastic and is not as rough as the white plastic. I'll mess with it after I get the Mercury sorted out.

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Mark,

Nice job. Anything more on this project. Can you set me up with an LES for my MR?

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
If it flies, I can crash it!