APE - 24mm-75mm and 24mm-98mm Adjustable Launch Towers

Hi Buckeye,

I agree, it isn't the most affordable solution. Unfortunately, the water jet parts and 1010 rails aren't cheap. I also have a lot of time into machining the brackets, tapped rounds and rail stop. I'm not making a killing on these believe me. However, for a club or the guy that wants the best he can buy I think they are getting an excellent value as the flexibility and durability should be unsurpassed.


Chris

Buckeye said:

Honest feedback, here. As someone who struggled to design/build a tower with basic home shop tools and no metalworking experience, I really like this concept. Chris designs and makes the rings and supports, and I add the EMT. However, the $400-$450 price gives me pause, considering I still need to buy, drill, and assemble additional materials before the tower is functional. The craftmanship looks top notch, and I admit that I don't know the cost/value of good metalwork. So, this may be a good buy for a club, but maybe not for an individual. :2:

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Towers are not a large market. With the quality, it is a decent price.

Giant Leap's 'adjustable' tower mount onto an existing pad and is a fair amount cheaper. You could also say the GLR version is not as good, but it launched my Madcow ToMach fine.

I really like this design, but I don't think the price is affordable for the common flyer.

cwbullet said:

Towers are not a large market. With the quality, it is a decent price.

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Judging by the number of minimum diameter build threads in this forum, I'd say the tower market is, and will be, growing.

Chris,,
The machine work on that is just gorgeous...
It really is an attention to detail piece of art...lol...

Good for you Chris...

Teddy

Thanks Teddy. We'll see how it works out this weekend.

Buckeye said:

Judging by the number of minimum diameter build threads in this forum, I'd say the tower market is, and will be, growing.

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I am not saying there is not a market. It is a niche market of a niche hobby. It is going to be expensive.

I think it is an especially beautiful design with great machine work. I am tempted. I can't wat to see how he ties in guy wires or a pad attachment.

There were a few comments in my other thread about making it attach to a standard launch rail. It should be really easy to make some angle brackets that bolt to the existing hole pattern in the rings. There will always be a couple sets of holes not in use so there shouldn't be any modifications needed to the existing design. I'll probably offer them as an option. I'm not sure how many people would actually use them.

For anyone interested, I got the privilege to help setup this tower at Aeronaut and can I say it is one sexy piece of engineering.

The way Chris has it setup makes it easy to adjust the diameter of the guides and with the help of someone it took us 20 minutes to get it ready to erect. That is with two people not knowing what we were doing.

If you are debating on buying one of these, just do it! It is well worth the money.

Our new launch tower systems got a real workout this weekend. It started with my 54mm L265 minimum diameter flight. Then Mark launched his 75mm M record attempt on a CTI M2245. It blew a 4' diameter, 6" deep hole out from under the tower and slightly bent one of the adjustment arms. He got 39,000' but was short of the record. Next up was Clay's 75mm Level 3 attempt on a Loki M1200 SpitFire. The flight was good but his main chute tangled and it broke a fin. Finally Manny and Alex attempted to launch a 98mm research N3333. Unfortunately the motor CATOed in the tower. I didn't get a picture of the carnage but the good news is that the tower is in pretty good shape. One of the 1" EMT guide rails got severely bent because the motor shot downward against the rail stop, the other three are fairly straight. I'll be making one change to the design. The bottom ring will be replaced with a solid plate to better support the rails and prevent the ground from blown out from underneath the tower.

Kyle, NOT Alex, thanks for the kind words and for your help this weekend. It was nice to meet you and put a face to your TRF handle.

ChrisAttebery said:

Alex, thanks for the kind words and for your help this weekend. It was nice to meet you and put a face to your TRF handle.

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It's Kyle, but no worries it was nice to meet you.

Arrrrggggggg. Did I mention that I SUCK with names? That's what I get for thinking that I had them all nailed. :blush:

BLKKROW said:

It's Kyle, but no worries it was nice to meet you.

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I vote for pic # 5
as one of the coolest pics of the year............

Gorgeous tower Chris...

Teddy

Chris, excellent shots there! One correction to note. Loki Research sparky motors are called "Spitfire" not Skidmark. ;-)

If you send me the original resolution photos, whenever I find the time, I'll post them to my propellant page under the M-1200SF and I'll put a link to your website for the tower. I can't say it will happen anytime soon though. I still haven't even got LDRS photos uploaded and added yet.

Crap! I looked it up and made sure I got it right on my FB posts, but blew it here. I'm claiming exhaustion for my lapse of memory. :wink:

I'll get the pictures headed your way. Whenever you can get to it is fine by me. Thanks for the offer!

Loki Research said:

Chris, excellent shots there! One correction to note. Loki Research sparky motors are called "Spitfire" not Skidmark. ;-)

If you send me the original resolution photos, whenever I find the time, I'll post them to my propellant page under the M-1200SF and I'll put a link to your website for the tower. I can't say it will happen anytime soon though. I still haven't even got LDRS photos uploaded and added yet.

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Ken Adams posted these in the AeroPAC FB group today:

Mark's M2245 - Looks like a shell impact to me


Clay's M1200 SpitFire

My pleasure Chris....... isn't that why we all enjoy doing this thing called rocketry,,,,,helping each other out? ;-)

I made a serious attempt at FA on my tower last weekend. I found that a couple of the guide tube attachment brackets were bent about 3 degrees downward. Once the tubes are butted up against the base plate they should have much more support, but I decided to beef up the brackets too. The new bracket is 100% thicker and should be much stronger. The screws are countersunk so that you can access the tube screw without taking the middle screw out of the way too.



I also drew up a bracket that will allow you to mount the entire tower onto a 1010/1515 or Unistrut rail on an existing pad. You would mount a pair of these to the middle ring and base plate, then slide it onto your rail and tighten them down. This should make it easier to set the tower up for smaller rockets. I wouldn't recommend using it for anything with over 500N of thrust though.

Wow Chris I am very impressed with the thought, testing and obvious quality in both materials and workmanship you are putting into this. Unfortunately the timing is off on this one for me as I just purchased a tower back in May. However if and when I need another one, and I will for 98mm stuff, I will take a serious look at this design.

I decided to simplify the adapter brackets for mounting the tower on a standard 1010 or 1515 equipped pad. I machined a couple sets today and added them to my website

I made a running change to our launch tower systems. Instead of the set screw type stop collar that we've been providing I've switched to a clamp type collar.

I have ONE of the smaller 12" ID launch towers available that I'm going to sell at a 20% discount. $300 plus shipping (~$30).

This tower will have the 12" ID rings, a solid baseplate, the original arm brackets (not the heavier duty version I came out with), and the new clamp style stop collar. The rings, baseplate and adapter plates will also be unpainted.