Tuesday, June 13, 2017

A Home Depot Launcher


"You Know You’re A Rocket Geek If…."

This is a common type of thread subject that appears from time to time on the popular rocket forums, that usually garners a lot of responses.

For me, the answer to this one is easy….

Whenever I am shopping at a store – any store - I keep an eagle-eye out for any item that could have a possible use for model rocketry.

This applies in particular to the big box home centers.  Here is my latest find.

While looking in the yard and garden aisle at Home Depot for some weed killer, I happened upon this intriguing item:
 
 

This is a tripod mounted lawn sprinkler.  I instantly recognized it as a launcher.  The extendable legs on this one are quite sturdy, even more so than the usual camera tripods commonly converted into launchers.  The footprint is quite large, which would make this a perfect launch tripod for MPR birds.

It doesn’t look like rocket science (!) to remove the sprinkler components and make the necessary conversions that would turn this item into a dandy launch pad base.

The unit is a little bit pricey, at least for my budget, but do-able.
 
Here's the info: