Water Rocket Launcher Construction Tutorial: Part 5

Welcome to the 5th installment in our water rocket launcher design tutorial. This week we are going to combine the pieces we have built thus far and we will see the launcher starting to take shape. In our previous installments, we have created a launch tube and a launcher base which we will be joining together and completing the core of our launcher.

To join the launch tube with the launcher base, we will need to cut another length of 1/2" PVC pipe to connect them together. A length of approximately 4 inches will be sufficient. This measurement is really not critical and was picked based on aesthetics alone. Feel free to tweak the dimension to suit your particular tastes. The dimension is up to you, or you can simple copy our design as shown.

The new piece of PVC you have just cut will become the interconnection between the base and the launch tube as shown. The new section goes between the 1/2" PVC elbow on the base and the 1/2" female-female coupler on the bottom of the launch tube. The parts are assembled as illustrated:

If you want to at this point, you may glue the sections together and allow the glue to cure. The launcher plumbing at this point will be complete and you can sit back and admire your good work.

Now that you have finished your launcher plumbing, we will share with you a technique we have devised many years ago to insure that this launcher design will not leak. What we are going to do is add a redundant backup seal to act as a secondary barrier for leaks at the base of the bottle.
A second purpose of the seal is to provide a flexible mounting base for the nozzle which will allow the cable ties we will be adding later to firmly hold the nozzle without excessive force or stretching.

You will need to make a trip to the hardware store and pick up a pack of replacement washers which are used in garden hoses. The pack we have purchased contained two different styles, flat washers and large round washers that resemble o-rings. For this build we decided to use the o-ring style, but the flat washers also work well. We have used the flat washers in the past with great results. Whichever you can find will work.

 You will simply take one of the hose connector washers, and slide the washer down the launch tube until it rests on the bottom of the launch tube firmly on top of the female-to-female connector at the bottom. This is one of the reasons which we installed this connector on the design.

As you can see, the hose connector washer will rest at the bottom of the launch tube at the position where the nozzle will seat.

The launcher is now double sealed against leaks. As seen in the image below, the nozzle is sealed internally bu the o-ring installed on the launch tube using our simple method and the nozzle is also sealed by the hose connector washer pressed between the nozzle and the connector at the base of the launcher.

There you have it! A super reliable water rocket launcher design. The only things we have remaining to do is to add the cable tie rocket clamp and fabricate a nice stable base for our launcher.
Be sure and come back next time when we will be bringing you our very simple technique for installing the cable ties on our launcher.
See you next time!

Water Rockets Night Flight

This week, we had some really good weather and the ice finally disappeared from our primary launching site. We decided to get out and have a little fun and test out the launchers we have built over the winter for a local scouting group.

 

We have been playing around with an amusing little idea for flying a rocket at night and using a high-intensity LED strobe to track the water rocket. We were inspired by seeing some local car clubs running some special tire valve caps with LEDs built into them.
We were able to find these little lights in a local auto parts store. The ones we found are called "Tireflys" and they were only about $10 for a pair so we decided to get some and see what kind of entertainment we could make from them. We hope you all can see how much fun we had with this little experiment and get out there and have some fun of your own. Perhaps There is something you and your team have been thinking about doing and we encourage you to get out and try it!

We found out that these cool lights come in several versions with different colors and different blinking patterns. We picked out a set that used a multi-color LED array that strobes red, white, and blue LEDs in sequence as they rotate. We figured that the colors of the U.S. Flag was an appropriate choice for our patriotic team!

After we returned to the shop, we dismantled the lights to see how they work. An internal mechanical g-switch inside is activated by the centripetal force of the spinning tire and it activates a timing circuit that flashes the LEDs for 20 seconds after the switch is closed. Sadly, the timing isn't proportional to wheel speed or anything, but what do you want for $10?

We first put a tirefly light on a bike wheel and spun it up in the dark as an experiment. We got to see how they looked and and we played around with it to try and figure out the best camera settings to capture still photos of the lights in action. It was very difficult to get good pictures even after a lot of experimenting.
We think that a long exposure with a tripod would help, We will bring a tripod for the camera next time and we have a remote shutter release called a "bulb" on order, so we will be able to get better pictures soon.

The following images of our launches turned out better than we expected. It's difficult to hold the camera steady for a long exposure and to keep the camera image framed correctly when looking at a small lighted object through the viewfinder.
We discovered that tapping on the rocket to get it flashing would provide enough light to get the photo framed. Then it's just a matter of holding steady until ready to launch and open the shutter and launch then close the shutter. This is similar to the methods used for astro photography and weather photography.

We discovered that we need to eventually make our own. Strobe circuit after only 2 launches. The problem we had is that it became too dark to locate the rocket in the water after the strobe shut off automatically. Once the flashing shut off we could no longer locate the rocket. We're glad we had the chance to have some fun and make a couple of cool photos.

We hope you enjoyed our little experiment and you will try some experiments of your own. Next time we will return with more of our launcher tutorial! (Unless we become distracted with another fun diversion)
Until next week!