Rocket rack idea

[Red Lantern]

I made a rocket rack last year and it took forever to cut and liquid nail all those little pieces of PVC pipe.

I noticed today at Home Depot that they have these L shaped long metal strips with evenly spaced holes on the long part of the L. Looked like you could screw them right to what ever wood you're using on your rack. Just screw on two of those strips about a foot apart to do the job of all those little pieces of pipe.
This would probably work just fine but I was concerned because the metal is thin and the holes were kinda rough. It made be easy to snag onto one of the larger rough cut rocket sticks. I think it's unlikely that it could happen but I don't want to take the chance. I don't exactly know what these strips are for I was near the kitchen counters.

The solution to this is to forget about all of the above and use #8 hook eye bolts to hold the rockets. They are smooth and round and are just the right size to hold the stick of a larger rocket like the KARS.
I'm going to screw them into either a 1x12 or equivalent strip of plywood. Drilling Pilot holes will make the screwing go a lot easier.
At Home Depot they were $5.00 for a box of 50 which is enough to launch 25 rockets.

This should be MUCH less work than cutting and gluing all those pipe pieces.

[mastersparks]

Red Lantern, thanks for the ideas man. I've been thinking on and off of how to make such an animal myself. What would you attach the plywood to? A small sawhorse? I'm assuming you would use 2 #8 rings for each rocket and no tubes of any kind?

[RESET]

Could you get some thick peg board and use the holes that are already there? I dunno, maybe this is to flimsy? I like the idea of the eyes though.

[cobra240]

I tried using the metal shaped strips, it took two rows of strips to hold the rockets straight but you are right, some rockets did snag on the edges.

My other idea was to make a wooden rack and drill holes through a 2x4 to hold the rockets. The wooden rack design took up too much valuable mortar wood so I just scrapped the idea for a while so I could concentrate on building an E-fire system.

Yesterday however I was in Big Lots and saw a metal framed saw horse for around $12 (If I remember right). It had predrilled holes to attatch a wooden top. With the right size wood and enough holes, it should make for a decent rocket rack.

[Red Lantern]

Red Lantern, thanks for the ideas man. I've been thinking on and off of how to make such an animal myself. What would you attach the plywood to? A small sawhorse?

A sawhorse might work if it's angle was around 75 degrees. If the sawhorse is wooden and tall enough to keep the sticks from hitting the ground you might even be able to screw the #8 eyes right to it without the need for any additional wood. But this would depend on how wide the horizontal brace is and how high it's placed on the saw horse.

When I built my rack last year I bolted my board with al the tubes to a 3 foot tall aluminum step ladder. If I can find more of these little ladders I'd bolt a strip of plywood to it covered with the #8 eyes.


assuming you would use 2 #8 rings for each rocket and no tubes of any kind?

Yep. I think about 5 inches between the upper and lower eyes should be enough to keep the rockets straight.

[Rosko2]

If you're going to go with the screws check ebay first. I just got 800 eye screws for $17.00 shipped :twisted:

[Red Lantern]

This thing looks a lot better after being spray painted black. The eyes went in really easy and took only about 15 minutes to screw in. The first couple turns were by hand and then I twirled them the rest of the way in with a pencil.
I just put some random loose rockets for the picture. This board will be used for only large rockets so the rows are spaced 2" apart.
http://home.comcast.net/~treefactory/eyehooks.jpg

[MNPyro]

Looks great there Red!

If only I liked rockets...haha...naw nothing wrong with them, but for me, it's just an extra time consuming thing to fuse up all them rockets with no real "addition" to my show that some extra shells couldn't provide, with larger bursts normally...or at least from my experience with rockets.

Anyways, I won't ramble any more, looks great, and is any easy setup!

MNPyro

[mastersparks]

Red, so if you are spacing them two inches apart, that would be about 6 rockets per foot I guess. If one wanted a 20 rocket rack they would need a board just over 3 feet long, right?

[jokerman]

Looks great there Red!

If only I liked rockets...haha...naw nothing wrong with them, but for me, it's just an extra time consuming thing to fuse up all them rockets with no real "addition" to my show that some extra shells couldn't provide, with larger bursts normally...or at least from my experience with rockets.

Anyways, I won't ramble any more, looks great, and is any easy setup!



The worst problem with rockets is all the MESS they make without providing any great effect. I like the whoosh a little bit, but it's not worth it for me. Plus, to me, rockets are the most unpredictable firework you can buy and they can land very far away and start fires that you won't know about until the fire trucks arrive. I can't believe the size of the rocket racks people make here. They definately are cool to look at and the people put some love into their construction, but I can't imagine the area around where people are lighting these off look like afterwards! Can't help it since I'm a damn tree-hugger

[MTPG13]

I just built a 17 shot rocket rack using #8 eyehook screws and it turned out GREAT! Thanks for the neat idea Red Lantern!

Matt

[Red Lantern]

The worst problem with rockets is all the MESS they make without providing any great effect. I like the whoosh a little bit, but it's not worth it for me. Plus, to me, rockets are the most unpredictable firework you can buy and they can land very far away and start fires that you won't know about until the fire trucks arrive. I can't believe the size of the rocket racks people make here. They definately are cool to look at and the people put some love into their construction, but I can't imagine the area around where people are lighting these off look like afterwards! Can't help it since I'm a damn tree-hugger

I like the whoosh and the orange arcs in the sky you get from rockets. And if you use the right rockets together you can get a pretty impressive effect even if the breaks are a bit smaller than mortar shells.

The mess would be a problem but I imagine most guys here go out and pick up their sticks. I often recycle the sticks from larger rockets by cutting them into scale lumber on a hobby table saw. :)
But sadly the hundreds of rockets in my racks this year (and last) end up in the Atlantic ocean after a short trip down river.
This sucks but at least wayward rockets starting fires are out of the question.

[SEAHAWK]

red lantern....check this out.... http://www.pyroreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/1826/sort/1/cat/500/page/3

Is that what you were thinking? If so, I wanna see what you turn out. It seems sweet to me.

[Stinkyfeesh]

If only I liked rockets...haha...naw nothing wrong with them, but for me, it's just an extra time consuming thing to fuse up all them rockets with no real "addition" to my show that some extra shells couldn't provide, with larger bursts normally...or at least from my experience with rockets.


MNPyro

LOL, take a look at this video and tell me that it didn't look good! It was all rockets.

Now if you watch this one, at the end

http://www.pyroreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/2109/sort/1/cat/500/page/1

at the one minute mark is all one rocket rack except for the beyond reality and sunflower cake.

I think it adds quite a bit if you do it right and have the numbers. Like I said, that last video is one rack and not even fully loaded. Afterwards I spent no more time picking up sticks than I did large chunks of paper and cardboard.