Jaw stand! New Launch PAD!!!

[sodmeister]

Dados you say.....oh yah ,a carpenter.

Stainless steel you say.....hmmmmm ,tin smith now I suppose LOL

Like I told you ,if you lived closer ,you could come over to my shop and spend the day messin` around with tools :handshake:

Paul T

 

[Verna]

We saw one yesterday at Lowes. I think it would make a nice low/mid power pad. Seemed heavy enough to me for maybe even a H motor.

Verna
www.vernarockets.com

 

[gdjsky01]

Wow this is very cool. I would order extras of those yellow plastic parts right away as you never know how they will hold up when exposed to long periods of UV. A real concern out here in the Southwest. Do post more detailed pic though!! Thx.

 

[jd2cylman]

You can also see my stand off, it will be what holds on my blast deflector when I get it made.
TA

Are you near any farmers? They always have old disc blades that need to be replaced. They are plenty thick for blast deflectors. Just a thought...........

Adrian

 

[luke strawwalker]

Are you near any farmers? They always have old disc blades that need to be replaced. They are plenty thick for blast deflectors. Just a thought...........

Adrian

Quite true... for HPR you probably can't get a better blast deflector period, than an old worn-down disk blade. You could always buy one new from a farm supply or tractor dealer... they're fairly cheap and you can get cone blades or hemispherical blades, but worn down ones are better because the edge will be dull. For LPR/MPR, the covers sold at the indoor lumberyard stores to cover electrical junction boxes work terrific... they're galvanized and have the pre-cut holes on one edge, and naturally lay at an angle under the motor instead of flat or perpendicular to the rod and motor nozzle...

Later! OL JR

 

[billspad]

Our club uses disk blades for high power blast deflectors. There aren't a lot of farms around here so I had to buy them new. I don't remember the price because it was a while ago but they were cheap. The ones I ordered were bigger than we wanted so I cut them down with a cutting torch. That solved the sharp edge problem. We've been using them for a few years and I'm confident that they're never going to wear out.

The club that ran the sport range at NARAM this year used pieces of Hardiebacker tile board for blast deflectors on their low power pads and they say they get a lot of life out of them. I'm thinking of trying a few because our stainless steel blast deflectors are looking kind of beat up.

 

[GDJ]

Our club uses disk blades for high power blast deflectors. There aren't a lot of farms around here so I had to buy them new. I don't remember the price because it was a while ago but they were cheap. The ones I ordered were bigger than we wanted so I cut them down with a cutting torch. That solved the sharp edge problem. We've been using them for a few years and I'm confident that they're never going to wear out.

The club that ran the sport range at NARAM this year used pieces of Hardiebacker tile board for blast deflectors on their low power pads and they say they get a lot of life out of them. I'm thinking of trying a few because our stainless steel blast deflectors are looking kind of beat up.

I have a couple of small TV dishes kicking around the house. Wonder how they would work?

 

[billspad]

I have a couple of small TV dishes kicking around the house. Wonder how they would work?

For low power, yes. For high power, once or twice before it burns through.

 

[GDJ]

For low power, yes. For high power, once or twice before it burns through.

So it would work well if the rockets had at least a 20 cm (8") standoff from the nozzle to the dish?

 

[billspad]

So it would work well if the rockets had at least a 20 cm (8") standoff from the nozzle to the dish?

It will certainly last longer. I've seen rockets with D12's hang on the rod and burn a hole in stainless steel.

 

[GDJ]

It will certainly last longer. I've seen rockets with D12's hang on the rod and burn a hole in stainless steel.

Actually one of my pads has a 1/4" thick aluminium tranny cover as a spill plate. A friend of mine had a rocket get stuck on the rod (Don't ask. I don't know why) and the D12 burned a 1/2" wide hole halfway thru the plate.

 

[thobin]

Here is the blast deflector attached, It also fits on the rod I have too.

TA

 

[chadrog]

Here is the blast deflector attached, It also fits on the rod I have too.

TA

Is that aluminum?

 

[thobin]

No its 1/16" stainless. It should hold up for a while.

TA

 

[chadrog]

No its 1/16" stainless. It should hold up for a while.

TA

Nice choice, looks nice too. I was thinking something along the same lines. My stand arrived today, I'm excited to get it set up!

 

[darthgriffin]

I hear a lot of talk here about low and mid power use, but all the pictures show rails on this thing. How does it take a rod?

 

[thobin]

I will finish my rod attachment this weekend and I will post a pic.

TA

 

[cwbullet]

You have sold me. I am going to build one. I was a skeptic, but this is a nice, affordable pad.

 

[thobin]

Here are the new pics of the launch rod attachment. Its just two1/4 by 4" inch eye bolts, I cut a slot so the eye bolts would pull through down to about 1/8" and put a washer and a wing nut on the back. This same set up can be used to attach a rail, just swap out the eye bolts for two carriage bolts. I drilled a 1/4" hole on my blast plate that I use for the rail launcher.

TA

 

[Neuport]

I put this together tonight. Nothing unique, just another one like others have posted. The wooden block is laminated from 3/4 plywood, the wrap around the jaw head is 0.060 aluminum I pulled from a dumpster today, the blast shield is 0.060 galvanized steel sold at Home Depot as a protection plate 5x8", the bolts holding the rail are 1/4-20 hex head bolts ground down slightly so they slide in the rail groove, the rail stop/blast shield holder is a piece of aluminum I drilled and tapped and threaded onto another 1/4-20 bolt. The hook on the back is a lag screw eye hook opened up a bit. The last picture shows some rail buttons and a retainer I made practicing with my "new" 40 year old hobby lathe.

 

[jcowles3]

Here is the blast deflector attached, It also fits on the rod I have too.

TA

This is great! Thanks I now throw out my plastic pipe POS... Nice work BTW, simple works!

 

[McKailas Dad]

FWIW, I just so happened to see these on sale today (on the 'Deal of the Day') on Ebay, $56.99 with free shipping.

Here

Even less expensive than Amazon...

 

[BeerorKid]

I just want to say thanks for this thread. I am mostly LPR, but want to go for a level 1 one of these days and want to convert many of my current rockets to launch off rail. I already bought the rail and guides / buttons and figured I could build some sort of launch pad somehow. I did not get that far till I saw this thread.

Thanks for solving my main remaining issue.

 

[Spooks]

I didn't have much use for the actual Jaw part of the stand, so I converted the stand into a pad itself...

Love it and it works great!!

 

[thobin]

Actually the jaw part works great for holding larger rockets while you work on them. It is an all around wonderful tool for rockets.


TA

 

[Spooks]

Actually the jaw part works great for holding larger rockets while you work on them. It is an all around wonderful tool for rockets.


TA

Didn't think of that! Doh!!

Thanks!

 

[dickmoran]

I picked up a 1010 rail at the local Graingers for under $40. Then I spent an hour in the pipe dept at HomeDepot. Brain was working overtime. A little smoke from the ears, constantly telling the orange guys that I did not need any help. Can you imagine what they would have said if I told them I was building a rocket launcher? Can you say Homeland Security! Anyway I held off getting parts because I needed to be able to lay the rod down horizontal to load my rocket. I stumbled on this thread and picked up one of these. Wow! Real strong, nice foot print but I will still stake it down. This thing can rotate 360 and go from 0 to 90 degrees. Perfect if you need to offset straight up for some reason. Another thing, it looks cool and holds the rocket when not being used as a launcher. Plan to mount the rail to 2x4 and clamp the 2x4 into the jaws.
I can not tell you how much I appreciate you sharing this idea!!!!!!

Dick Moran
NAR 6306L1
TRI 14074L1
MDRA 106

 

[DAllen]

Just a suggestion to people using these that we at Michiana Rocketry have found out (the hard way) is if you are going to install 1010 or larger rails on them you must spike these to the ground because the center of gravity is just too high for that size footprint. This is something we learned after we had someone's LOC Warlock fall over snapping off the rail buttons.

-Dave

 

[DAllen]

I'd like to see a picture of the design,I have one with a 6 ft. rail and I could probably attach a g motor horizontally to the rail without tipping it over. What kind of motor was being used,how heavy was the rocket?

I didn't make it but one of our club members cut some wood with groves in it to match the 1010 rail on both sides and we have to is clamp it down. The rocket I guess is around 6 to 8 pounds and I think it was flying on a large I or small J. Not sure. I certainly agree that most G powered rockets aren't going to cause much of an issue.

 

[thobin]

Warlock is a big fat rocket 7.6" dia 52" tall. I's say probably to big to be on the pad with out and anchor. Iv done extensive testing on my pad and it can handle a lot of weight and it does depend on where the rail is positioned if you have it between the legs it does tip over quicker the more weight you add, than if you have the launch rail right over one of the legs. However if you have a stiff wind and its a big fat flabby rocket it still can be pushed over. Best thing to do is to just stake it down and then it can hold just about any rocket you want to put on it. As for MPR there is nothing it cant handle.



TA