Is there a stop to prevent the rail from tilting down past horizontal? If it tilts all the way to the ground, you might have to lift both the rail and the rocket to get the rocket on. It seems you would have to one hand the rail and one hand the rocket.
Yes. I left that out (along with the tripod legs) but I would add a leg that would extend down to support the rail in the horizontal.
Is there a way to set up the rail so the rocket fits on the top or bottom of the rail instead of the side. That should provide much less twisting torque on the BT and rail buttons while lifting the rail upright.
That could certainly be a problem with heavier rockets. I would never launch anything heavier than an Class 1 rocket, but even then I am concerned about this. But this is where things start getting complicated - both in engineering and expense, and I am trying out of necessity to keep both to a minimum. Placing the rocket on the top (or bottom) of the rail would require the rail to be stood-off the tripod tube far enough to clear the fins when raising, and given the weight of the rail and associated hardware, the rocket as well as any forces exerted upon it at launch, would require strengthening the brackets, pivot points to a degree that other styles of pads start becoming easier to implement (with increasing costs all around).
It might stay better balanced if the rail pivoted near it's center and across the top of the tube. Then when the rocket is slid onto the rail all the way, it would naturally tilt back down.
A good point and I considered that but left the pivot point to be worked out when integrating it with the tripod. I kept the drawing simple just to work on the proof-of-concept, and by leaving out the rest of the speaker stand tripod I was actually being a little lazy, because how the pivot works in conjunction with the legs is another consideration, as well as the weight & balance.
I'm starting to think that, perhaps, the non-tilting version might not be the simplest option. Using a folding leg to support it as you tilt the stand over would make loading easier, a heavy tripod is a pretty stable stand as long as weight is located near the center, and if you do need a sandbag for stability moving or detaching it is a small price to pay for simplicity and reduced costs.
Jawstands are now over $100, so that is out for me.
I'm somewhat attracted to the splayed-leg stands for their simplicity, but they have compromises, as well. They can require some ground prep to make it lie flat and stable, and doing a quick resourcing of 1" extruded aluminum even a stand for Class 1 rockets starts to get expensive.
