Transporting Rockets

This is how I get my rockets to the launch site without damage.

The box is built with 1x pine lumber and cheap 1/4" birch plywood and 10 coats of marine varnish...It's gotta look pretty.

Yes, that is an upscale (168%) naked Orbital Transport and an Upscale (BT-50/BT-80) Astron Spaceman. The Big Bertha was for a Big Bertha competition and it depicts a Gemini Titan Bertha.

sandman

Now that is sweeeeeeeeet. Good job!

Jeez man...nice get-up and rocket collection. From the rockets I have seen in some of your pictures, your stuff makes mine look like a bunch of riff-raff scrap.

Talk about attention to detail. That box looks great. You should make some shadow boxes to display your old kits. Perhaps a small plaque in the front with the kit name might be a bit much?

Thanks for sharing.

Please, don't put yourself down. You're making me feel guilty. It took me a long time to accumulate this stuff. I have been building rockets on and off (mostly on) since 1959.

The box is quite simple really. All the support and cross pieces are 3/4" x 3/4" strips covered with cheap foam pipe insulation.

I just used a lot of varnish on the outside.

My Little Brother's rocket box is covered with a whole bunch of old decals, mostly extras. His looks neat for a 12 year old.

sandman

Dang Sandman, now I know why you are a master boatbuilder...excellent craftsmanship!!! I usually just throw the rockets in the car and it shows. Very nice case...

Carl

Rockets, IF thay are to be damaged, should be damaged either on the launch pad in the air or returning to the ground.

Not in my car...unless my car insurance covers it.

sandman

Don't you believe what Tulanko says. Last time I saw him he had rockets bundled up in sleeping bags so as to not marr the finish. In fact, if he was to really speak his mind, he would probably say something like:

Nice carrier but you need some pant legs connected to string so you can suspend your rockets in the box, then pack them with foam popcorn to keep them stationary. Then you need to seal each seam with boat sealer just in case your carrier should fall into the ocean. Then you need to have it tested for air tightness by NASA just in case the carrier is ever taken by aliens. Now about the locking mechanism.... something in a magnetic, polar, ballistic, trip-wire, super-hydrolic, only used by the US government secret troops, lithium crystal based, ugh.... I'm running out of breath. But you get the picture.

Dang, Carl... Phillip the Gerringer knows you pretty well...

. . . One heckuva job, Sandman.

Do you have plans for a "Range Box" too?

Originally posted by sandman

[...]
The Big Bertha was for a Big Bertha competition and it depicts a Gemini Titan Bertha.

sandman

Click to expand...

Just noticed the "GT Bertha"! Reminds me of a very funny rocket I saw about 10 years ago at NARCON here in Colorado. Tom Beach (now editor of Sport Rocketry magazine) launched an "Initiator 1B" -- 1/2 Aerotech Initiator, 1/2 Estes Saturn 1B.

Maybe a new "scratch built" theme -- Make Believe Scale?

I built the Gemini Titan Bertha (Bertha Bell 7) and my Little brother built a Mercury Redstone Bertha (Liberty Bertha 7)complete with escape tower (Remove before flight)

Peter Alway is in my local club and wants to build an Apollo Bertha.

sandman