Sunward Aerospace Quad Tilted 18mm Motor Mount

Sunward Aerospace - Quad Tilted 18mm Motor Mount {Component}

Contributed by Matt Gillard

Manufacturer: Sunward Aerospace
(Contributed - by Matt Gillard - 03/16/09)

Brief:
I thought I'd try something new in the motor mount department. The mount kit comes in a plastic bag, with the parts and instructions, and as a bonus, a marking guide for a BT-70. This comes from the Sunward Eruption kit.

Construction:
The kit consists of:

  • 2 centering rings
  • 4 thrust rings
  • 4 engine tubes
  • 4 engine hooks

The instructions were straightforward, although a few minutes by the Sunward team on formatting so that font types and sizes were the same would make it look more professional.

At step 2A you are asked to make a mark on each tube at 51mm, which you never use, but later it asks you to add a wrap at the mark you made at 44mm. I assumed that this is a typo.

First thing is to put the engine thrust rings in each of the tubes and then add and glue the motor hooks. At this stage I added the 51mm mark on the tubes that is needed later.

I did not add the wraps, as I don't see why they are needed. In a normal mount they are there to inhibit over movement on the engine hook, but in this kit the bottom centering ring does that, and if you do add the wraps, they will show on the outside of the tubes which sit outside the BT-70.

The next stage is the difficult part and is where I made a modification to make things easier for myself.

Getting all four tubes to sit in the two centering rings was problematic, and the instructions suggest an extra pair of hands, which I did not have available at the time, so I drilled 5 holes through the two centering rings which were placed on top of each other.

Next using 5 thin rods, I aligned the two rings up. This kept the rings in place and true and square for the next stage. The four tubes are then added with the inside top center of each tube flush with the top centering ring. I added an elastic band to help keep the tubes in place whilst gluing. I tacked each tube into place with CA glue. I waited for that to dry, removed the stick and elastic bands, and then glued everything.

After the rods are removed, I filled each hole with a blob of glue with the exception of one hole which is where I used Kevlar® cord as a shock cord anchor.

One of the motor tubes is angled just slightly out--a millimeter lower then the others--entirely my fault.

Sunward Aerospace Quad Tilted Motor MountSunward Aerospace Quad Tilted Motor Mount

Sunward Aerospace Quad Tilted Motor MountSunward Aerospace Quad Tilted Motor Mount

Sunward Aerospace Quad Tilted Motor MountSunward Aerospace Quad Tilted Motor Mount

Sunward Aerospace Quad Tilted Motor MountSunward Aerospace Quad Tilted Motor Mount

Finishing:
The motor tubes sit outside the BT so the fact that the motor tubes are have grooves in them and are quite thin is an issue.

Construction Rating: 3 out of 5

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

Application:
Matt used this motor mount in his SCARY FAST rocket.

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