What are some of the tools needed to make scratch building easier, I have the Estes tube marking tool but what are some of the other tools and tricks?

A razor saw (Xacto or equivalent)

A square (like a ruler that goes around a corner :-)

Another lighter duty steel ruler.

Lots of rubber bands and/or cheap plastic clamps.

1. A 12" steel ruler for making straight cuts with your X-Acto knife...
2. More than one X-Acto #1 knife with a fresh blade...
3. A spare pack (or two) of fresh #11 blades for your X-Acto knife...
4. 3 oz paper bathroom cups...
5. Assorted artists brushes...
6. A "T-Bar" or other aluminum sanding block...
7. An assortment of sanding papers, with a larger portion of 220-grit...
8. A can of 3M-77 spray contact adhesive...
9. A Zona saw, or a #3 X-Acto handle with fine-tooth cutting blade...
10. A set of disposable kitchen cutting mats...
11. Various mechanical pencils and fine-tip pens...
12. A pair of tri-edge rules, one Archetectural, one Engineering...
13. Numerous holding stands; wooden base with a dowel and an expended motor casing on one end, or some empty CD/DVD spindles...
14. A pack of sanding twigs -- foam strips 3/32" and 1/8" wide, 6" long, with sandpaper glued to two sides...
15. Various widths of masking tape...
16. A computer with a good graphics program (Corel Draw, Photoshop, The GIMP) to create patterns with...
17. Stack of #110 cardstock, to create templates and patterns made with your computer...
18. A decent color printer...
19. T-Pins...
20. Wax paper...
21. Various viscoscities of CA glue...
22. Small bottles of yellow glue...
23. A large bottle of yellow glue to refill the small bottles from...
24. A notebook to sketch ideas in...
25. A scrap bin, to catch bits and pieces of discarded balsa and tubing in...
26. An office "cubbyhole" shelf unit for holding your cardstock, decal sheets, etc...
27. Tack rags...
28. A good air compressor, 5-6 HP, oilless, with a good regulator...
29. Several inexpensive airbrushes for colors, and at least one or two larger detail guns for spraying primer and base whites. Don't use any gun with multiple types of paint; only use one type of paint with any one gun or airbrush to avoid gumming internally.
30. Two or three dozen fresh 1 oz jars to fit the airbrushes, and several jar adapters...
31. Paint thinners by the gallon. It's much cheaper...
32. Wooden clothespin clamps, with the wood pieces turned upside down...
33. Rubber band clamps...
34. Small one-hand "pressure/tension" bar clamps... (Perfect for us, No?)
35. Patience...

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Craig McGraw

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Thanks, those are the same tools I use for the RC planes, the tube marking tool works great and is easy to use.

33 An understanding wife.

Actually, you may want to scoot that one all the back up to #1.


From somebody who knows,

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Jay Goemmer
"Centuri Guy"/"Tau Zero"
YORF Member 28
Semroc SAM #0029
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"I think about organizing things all the time. Never seems to happen. I find something that piques my interest and I'm off on a quest. Or a Centuri. "

--Bill Eichelberger, 02/22/2022


“Centuri fret buzz in an updated form.”
Bill “Wallyum” Eichelberger re: Estes Flutter-By
03 Sept 2014

There's a lot of R/C stuff that comes in handy building rockets. I did without a lot of those things until I first started doing R/C.

BTW, there's another handy little item that I haven't noticed (I only skimmed the above lists). I recently got a hobby vice and wish I had bought one years ago. I only have one problem with it....my son always has something clamped in it.

Hey, where'd my pic go? I'll try linking from Hobbico instead of Tower.

This is a good thread. Should I make it a sticky?

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Scott D. Hansen
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Ye Olde Rocket Forum
WOOSH NAR Section #558

Item #9 of the list of items Craig put together above needs to be edited.
You need a #5 or #6 X-Acto handle for a razor saw, NOT a #3 handle....a #3 X-Acto is a gold version of the #1 with a screw-on pen-clip cap, which definitely will not accept a razor saw.
I'm not positively sure, but I don't think X-Acto even catalogues the #3 anymore but the #6 and #5 are still around.

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

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Not a bad idea to have a small first aid kit or at least a few Band-aids handy.

Here's a couple of very handy PC tools for making marking guides, centering rings, etc.
http://www.rocketreviews.com/tool_template_widget.shtml
http://www.rocketreviews.com/freeware_rocket_suite.zip

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Dave
Fire is the leading cause of fire.
Was once SAM#0132