Club Launch Rack on the Cheap

I made a 8 pad launch rack

Parts:

• Eight drill chucks with 1/2-20 threaded base - eBay - $4 a piece plus shipping
• Two JawStands - eBay - $49.99 refurbished, but who cares, it is for rockets
• Eight 2" 1/2-20 hex bolts - Lowes - $1.21 a piece
• Eight 1/2" washers - Lowes - $ 0.32 a piece
• Eight 1/2" lock washers - Lowes - $ 0.34 a piece
• Eight Estes blast deflectors - eBay - $3 a piece
• One 1x1" square aluminum tube - Lowes - $32

Results:

Nice work, Chuck.

Eight stations? Oh, that's right. Your club has the Wilson launch controller. Our club had an old Vaughn Brothers unit with 4 pads per bank.

yup. I am going to build a second so we can have 3 racks of 8 for NSL. Add to that 16 mid power, 16 high power, and 8 at the away cell (4 away pads and 4 high power). It is going to be one heck of a launch - 64 pads.

There are times when I wished I lived on the Right Coast.

"The future sure isn't what it used to be...we were promised Jet Packs!"

What do you mean? We had a rocket belt at LDRS 31!

Bob

cwbullet said:

I made a 8 pad launch rack

Parts:

• Eight drill chucks with 1/2-20 threaded base - eBay - $4 a piece plus shipping
• Two JawStands - eBay - $49.99 refurbished, but who cares, it is for rockets
• Eight 2" 1/2-20 hex bolts - Lowes - $1.21 a piece
• Eight 1/2" washers - Lowes - $ 0.32 a piece
• Eight 1/2" lock washers - Lowes - $ 0.34 a piece
• Eight Estes blast deflectors - eBay - $3 a piece
• One 1x1" square aluminum tube - Lowes - $32

Results:

View attachment 256850View attachment 256851

Click to expand...

Chuck those rockets aren't going to go very high with that roof over them.

. I will get some action photos this weekend.

Yeah...action....running and screaming

Very cool! Question (not criticism) - do you have a way to angle the rods away from vertical if warranted?

I have a Jawstand that I use for my personal launch pad, I've started a rocketry club with a local youth organization, and this has me thinking... Which is always dangerous!

To angle it away from the crowd, I use 3 wooden blocks to elevate on side.