Any love for the Estes Big Foot Launch Pad?

[BEC]

D cells in the Big Foot base, along with the wide leg span, makes for a very stable LPR pad. One advantage to having the power at the pad.

 

[jrap330]

This is the launcher I started with in 1980. Strangely enough....at that time in our community only Centuri products were available...and it was a few years later before I discovered Estes.

View attachment 250536

This where I think Centuri became cheap..making a bracket to sit atop lantern battery. I had the wooden base w/ asbestos pad on their starter pack (1972) and then I brought their tripod (Big) launcher which was 3 wooden legs bolted to the base. I stupidly believe legs where hinged for portability and the color was Red (catalog picture Red) , but in life..unfinished wood. Still love the angle deflector vs Estes round disk which you see in mid and High Power Rocketry.

 

[jazzviper1]

GREAT news. You can now 3D print a big foot launch pad.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4557366

 

[JonathanOtt]

GREAT news. You can now 3D print a big foot launch pad.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4557366

Just remember, it is untested. I have not printed one to check fit and finish.

Jon

 

[cwbullet]

It does not appear to be complete on thingverse.

 

[Leo]

Files section is complete.

 

[cwbullet]

Files section is complete.

Thanks Leo. I was looking at the pictures.

 

[JonathanOtt]

Thanks Leo. I was looking at the pictures.

For some reason when I post something to Thingiverse from my work computer, it doesn't always transition the pictures of each file.

 

[Saluki]

Is there someone who has a wiring diagram or the original wiring instruction on how after one print a 3D Big Foot to set it up with the batter and wiring?

 

[Fishhead]

My first launch controller and pad was the Estes Big Foot Launch Pad. It was part of the Sizzler (1906) starter set (no. 1432). I wish that I could find the battery box, and legs of my old pad, but it seems that it's long gone now. I found the launch controller, and I've got parts (but not the time) to build a 6V battery box for it.

So, how many else started out with this launch pad?

Pointy Side Up!
Jim

I had one that came with the X-Wing starter set that I got for my birthday in 1978. Never used it. I was happy with the firecracker wick method we used when I started. I picked up another one with the X-Wing a couple of years ago on eBay. I really ought to put it together and launch the X-Wing. It's complete, but unpainted, and I kinda like it that way.

 

[Fishhead]

I think I still have the instructions. I'll check when I get home.

 

[Saluki]

I like the Big Foot launcher and I'm planning on printing one but had no idea what components needed to wire it up and their arrangement in the battery compartment. That's why I ask about this. Will take any help possible to set one up.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Leo]

Here you go....

 

[K'Tesh]

One of the things I did to my old BigFoot launch pad (and several of the subsequent Porta Pads) was to install a RCA plug on the pad, and a jack on the wire leading to the controller. That way I could separate the two for better storage. On the Porta Pads, this had the advantage of preventing any tension (say from an excited kid pulling a little too hard on the controller) from pulling the igniter out of the engine. I just had to make leads long enough to go from the plug, around the blast plate, and reach the zone where the igniter leads would be.

 

[RoyAtl]

I liked the Big Foot. There was a mod published in the Model Rocketeer sometime in '81 using a power transistor in the circuit to essentially act as a relay so you could avoid having to feed current up to the controller (disadvantage was that you didn't have a continuity indicator at the controller any more). I took a project box from Radio Shack and made it into the new base, cut slots into the walls for the legs, a 1/4" jack for pluggable clip leads, added a couple more D batteries for 9 volts total, and it served well for three or four years.

 

[Saluki]

Leo, Thanks for the instructions it will help.