Monday, August 4, 2014

Whatever Happened To . . . 3/16" Raise Springs?

I've sold a few thousand of the 1/8" rod RAISE Springs.
This was one of the first Odd'l Rocket's products.
I had very positive responses on the springs. Chan Stevens did a great review on Rocket Reviews: CLICK HERE

But the question came up: "Why don't you make them for 3/16" rods?"

I contacted the vendor and had ten of the 3/16" springs made up.
It was over $150.00 for the initial set-up fee. After sending these out (with shipping, this first small run of springs ended up costing over $18.00 each.

On the forums I asked if anyone was interested in trying them out. Seven 3/16" springs were sent out, understanding that a "review" would follow.
I never got a single report back!
If you ever volunteer to do a product review, please follow through and send your comments to the vendor.

The interesting thing about the 1/8" Springs - When a rocket sits on the "arm", the weight of the model locks the spring on the rod. On the 3/16" spring it didn't seem to grab the rod as well.
Larger rockets are heavier and too much weight could slide the spring down the rod

The old Centuri Rocket Positioning Spring worked well if you kept it away from the engine hook! Estes also sold the springs for a while.
I thought this was something Centuri had made for them. It turns out they were wheel retainers for larger R/C airplanes. You would simply slide the wheel on and twist the spring over the axle.

Recently I bought a Centuri Starter Set on Ebay. Included was an original rocket adjustment spring. I was curious to try them side by side with the Raise spring.
I could barely get the Centuri spring over the 1/8" rod that came with the set. It wasn't adjustable!
The Odd'l Raise Spring slides up and down the rod by just pinching it with two fingers.

2 comments:

  1. I've got a few of your 1/8" springs floating around my range box. Handy things :)

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  2. Thanks Sascha!
    My original Raise spring lives on my 1/8" launch rod. Hundreds of launches with it since 2009.

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