Weldo
Washing Hands
Hey guys n gals! I just wanted to share this nifty little tool!
So a few months ago my dad was leafing through an Estes catalog when he noticed the Altitrak, altitude measuring device. I guess inspiration struck and now that he's retired he has some time for projects so he came up with this...
He really surprised me with it! I think it's a brilliant idea. It will give you a rough estimate on the angle from the horizon so with a known distance over ground from the launch rod you can do a simple trigonomic calculation to get an estimate on altitude:
D x Tan(A) = altitude
Where D is the distance from the launch rod and A is the angle observed from the instrument.
I went out to do some launching last weekend and tested it out. It worked very well. I measured my steps at home and two walking paces (one left, one right) for me is about 5 feet, so at the range I paced out about 100 feet and took readings from there. My sister usually comes to the range with me, so she pressed the launch button while I collected the data.
On one small "A" motor model I got about 174 feet and another "B" motor model yielded 284 feet! Data! Even if they are rough estimates it's still really cool to have quantifiable numbers.
So after the concept was proven successful I decided to make a more permanent version of the device.
Here's what I came up with:
I went with a plastic Speed Square to save weight. The wire arm is an 1/8" stainless steel welding rod and the weight on the end is a scrap piece of brass round bar left over from another project with two holes drilled to accept the wire. The screw in end of the brass weight acts as a set screw on the wire, holding the weight in place. The brass piece was drilled and tapped to 8-32 thread. A small notch had to be filed into the pivot point to allow the wire to swing freely.
To fasten the square to the wood handle I carefully pre-drilled down through the edge of the wood and the edge of the square and fastened it with two #6 x 1-1/2" wood screws. These holes were made on a drill press but you could do them with a hand drill if you are very careful.
So there you have it! I just thought I'd share with the hopes that someone might get inspired to try building one for themselves. It's really cool to have real data from a launch! You can make one of these on just a few hours with minimal tools or supplies. The plastic square is only abut $5 from Home Depot and the wire can be made from a coat hanger. The weight can be anything with some mass. The handle can be anything as well, a small PVC pipe, old broom handle, find a nice stick in the back yard, whatever. Get creative!
If anyone decides to try this out, please share your creation!
Thanks for reading!
So a few months ago my dad was leafing through an Estes catalog when he noticed the Altitrak, altitude measuring device. I guess inspiration struck and now that he's retired he has some time for projects so he came up with this...
He really surprised me with it! I think it's a brilliant idea. It will give you a rough estimate on the angle from the horizon so with a known distance over ground from the launch rod you can do a simple trigonomic calculation to get an estimate on altitude:
D x Tan(A) = altitude
Where D is the distance from the launch rod and A is the angle observed from the instrument.
I went out to do some launching last weekend and tested it out. It worked very well. I measured my steps at home and two walking paces (one left, one right) for me is about 5 feet, so at the range I paced out about 100 feet and took readings from there. My sister usually comes to the range with me, so she pressed the launch button while I collected the data.
On one small "A" motor model I got about 174 feet and another "B" motor model yielded 284 feet! Data! Even if they are rough estimates it's still really cool to have quantifiable numbers.
So after the concept was proven successful I decided to make a more permanent version of the device.
Here's what I came up with:
I went with a plastic Speed Square to save weight. The wire arm is an 1/8" stainless steel welding rod and the weight on the end is a scrap piece of brass round bar left over from another project with two holes drilled to accept the wire. The screw in end of the brass weight acts as a set screw on the wire, holding the weight in place. The brass piece was drilled and tapped to 8-32 thread. A small notch had to be filed into the pivot point to allow the wire to swing freely.
To fasten the square to the wood handle I carefully pre-drilled down through the edge of the wood and the edge of the square and fastened it with two #6 x 1-1/2" wood screws. These holes were made on a drill press but you could do them with a hand drill if you are very careful.
So there you have it! I just thought I'd share with the hopes that someone might get inspired to try building one for themselves. It's really cool to have real data from a launch! You can make one of these on just a few hours with minimal tools or supplies. The plastic square is only abut $5 from Home Depot and the wire can be made from a coat hanger. The weight can be anything with some mass. The handle can be anything as well, a small PVC pipe, old broom handle, find a nice stick in the back yard, whatever. Get creative!
If anyone decides to try this out, please share your creation!
Thanks for reading!