Score!!! I see a new pad in the making!!!

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Shade

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I saw a buddy of mine (he is borrowing my plasma cutter for a big project of
his) got a bunch of free stuff out of the plant he works at. I asked how
much for one of the struts. He said he would charge me the same he paid
for it... FREE!!!

It's an 8 footer, 15 series (1.5" square)

SWEET!!! :jaw: :cheers:

So now what do I build to support it, I was thinking some thing along the
lines of a Saturn V tower. Not an exact replica but something with that
flavor.

I have an old trailer I could use to set it up on so it would be mobile. As far
as metal fabrication that is not an issue I have a fairly well equiped weld and
machine shop.

What do you all think I should do? Looking for ideas.

P1010005.JPG
 
Great find. Those rails are like $40+ shipped. There were several threads in the TRF archive that document builds using this type of rail. I built mine off of a design by TRF member "astrowolf67" that uses a PVC platform. That pad served me well for quite a while. Here's the link:

Rail Pad

All the best.
 
I get it! You're ahead $40 with the free rail and you want to know how to spend another $300 because of it. :)

I would say you have two choices:

1. Build a pad for the rail and use the trailer to haul it and your rockets.
or
2. Build a launcher out of the trailer.

Personnelly, I would build a launcher out of the trailer. Not because I think I would use it a lot, but it would be a cool project. Besides, I like to weld!
 
I get it! You're ahead $40 with the free rail and you want to know how to spend another $300 because of it. :)

I would say you have two choices:

1. Build a pad for the rail and use the trailer to haul it and your rockets.
or
2. Build a launcher out of the trailer.

Personnelly, I would build a launcher out of the trailer. Not because I think I would use it a lot, but it would be a cool project. Besides, I like to weld!

Actually, I have enought steel and aluminum laying around that I like will not need to purchase any more. If you like to weld you should check out my site www.shopfloortalk.com, there are some really tallented welders over there.
 
Hi Shade, joined the ShopFloorTalk forum today. Thanks for the link!

For your tower, in the past we've use TV antennae tower to attach the rail to, then build a pivot system to stand it up. I'll post the pics if I can find them.
 
Hi Shade, joined the ShopFloorTalk forum today. Thanks for the link!

For your tower, in the past we've use TV antennae tower to attach the rail to, then build a pivot system to stand it up. I'll post the pics if I can find them.

I would like to see the pivot system. I plan on fabricating my own tower, kinda for the look and feel thing. Plus I can post that build on both sites.

Thanks for joining SFT. It is a great bunch of guys.
 
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