Help designing a tower launcher please

I am working on a 29mm high performance rocket, and I need some help with building a tower that will work well. The only tower design that I found that might work is this https://www.rocketreviews.com/reviews/all/teds_tower.shtml, but is needlessly complex for my purposes. Thank you!

Unfortunately, tower launchers by their very nature tend to be complex. I actually kicked around the idea of making them to sell, but I'd have to charge so much for them to be cost effective that I quickly gave up that idea.

FWIW, do a search on the forum and you'll find some very nice examples out there, most using 10" green PVC sewer pipe for the support rings. The biggest problem you'll have to overcome is a way to hold the top of the rods stable to keep them from flexing. Most designs use rings at the top and bottom to hold the rods, and struts to hold the parts together.

Good luck on the build, let us know how you make out.

Tower launchers are simple in nature, too many people make them complicated.

I use either MDF or plywood and cut out 2 squares. Then space them apart with 2x4's or so. Drill in 3 or 4 holes accordingly in each of the squares and I used 1/2" EMT (steel conduit tubing). Easy and cheap, the only downfall is that its not adjustable. But for 10 bucks each, why not make more than one...

The one on the left is for a 54mm airframe. The one on the right is my first one, for 38mm rockets. Obviously you can make them super sturdy or minimalistic, but it would be smart to use guy wires on the smaller ones. I recommend at least a foot or 2 gap between the squares so that it holds the rods more firmly. And dont worry about the tops of the rods, they may wiggle slightly but it wont hurt a thing.

Neutron95 said:

I am working on a 29mm high performance rocket, and I need some help with building a tower that will work well. The only tower design that I found that might work is this https://www.rocketreviews.com/reviews/all/teds_tower.shtml, but is needlessly complex for my purposes. Thank you!

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Ok you said high proformance 29mm, so I will assume you are using a F10 or another motor without a thrust ring molded Into it, if that is the case, why not use a piston launcher? You could make one using the same concept as the one used on sunward piston launchers. I don't know about you but a 10% increase sounds good to me....

ScrapDaddy said:

Ok you said high proformance 29mm, so I will assume you are using a F10 or another motor without a thrust ring molded Into it, if that is the case, why not use a piston launcher? You could make one using the same concept as the one used on sunward piston launchers. I don't know about you but a 10% increase sounds good to me....

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He said Hi performance which means 29mm I or J motors. F10 is not high performance.

Ben

ben_ullman said:

He said Hi performance which means 29mm I or J motors. F10 is not high performance.

Ben

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Wel this is all reletive to what? An F10 is high proformance compared to say... An estes B6. Also, you kinda missed the point of the post there....


Also, where can you find a 29mm "J" ?!? Please enlighten....

ben_ullman said:

He said Hi performance which means 29mm I or J motors. F10 is not high performance.

Ben

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I think "High Performance" is a relative term...

There were a lot of minimum diameter "High Performance" rockets that went after Mach...and they sometimes used F's and G's....

Now if he said "High Power" instead of High Performance that would mean something different....along the line of an H motor and up but per his question: it would need to be in A 29MM case.

Specifically, if one reads the original post he did say "High Performance"
AND "29mm".... so that kind of narrows it down to what is available in 29mm motors (still a "G" and up) for a rocket designed for high performnce, which I interpet to be going fast, high, and I would guess do it efficiently...

Thank you for your answers, and Scrap Daddy, I am using a two stage rocket with an I224 in each stage, here is the build thread: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=11156 I will be using the flush rear closure that Cesaroni has, so a piston isn't entirely out of the question.

MaxQ said:

I think "High Performance" is a relative term...

There were a lot of minimum diameter "High Performance" rockets that went after Mach...and they sometimes used F's and G's....

Now if he said "High Power" instead of High Performance that would mean something different....along the line of an H motor and up but per his question: it would need to be in A 29MM case.

Specifically, if one reads the original post he did say "High Performance"
AND "29mm".... so that kind of narrows it down to what is available in 29mm motors (still a "G" and up) for a rocket designed for high performnce, which I interpet to be going fast, high, and I would guess do it efficiently...

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Agree totally with MaxQ Ben!
High performance depends more on the vehicle the motor. I believe the internat towers more then qualify as High performance towers.

Shoot my nasty old Home made alum rail tower will handle models the author is talking about. or one of these may give the author some idea for building his own. getting the rails true and parallel is generally the most difficult item, particularly if you want to use the launcher with different diameter models.

Micromeister said:

Agree totally with MaxQ Ben!
High performance depends more on the vehicle the motor. I believe the internat towers more then qualify as High performance towers.

Shoot my nasty old Home made alum rail tower will handle models the author is talking about. or one of these may give the author some idea for building his own. getting the rails true and parallel is generally the most difficult item, particularly if you want to use the launcher with different diameter models.

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You know, Micromeister, it seems no matter what the subject, you always seem to have photos! I think it's great!

When you've done something for a very long time ya tend to collect lot's of stuff and photos along the way.
They are only worth anything if they help, hopefully they do.