LMR Launchpad - Upscale of Estes Tilt-a-Pad

LMR Launchpad
Upscale of Estes Tilt-a-Pad

Here's my launchpad, before painting.

It's basically an upscale of the of the old Estes Tilt-a-Pad. A restraining harness was added to keep the legs from spreading too far. If necessary, the harness can be easily disconnected to open the legs wider.

Here's a closeup of the foot. A hole is provided to allow a 16p nail to be driven into the hard Texas ground if conditions require additional stability.

A string keeps the nail tethered to the leg.

The head is a wooden upscale of the Estes Porta-Pad's plastic mechanism.

It can be turned and tilted in any direction.

A 5/16" wing nut provides for easy tilting.

In pic below, the wheel at the core consists of two plywood disks with 5 holes drilled radially to accomodate the launch rods. 1/4", 3/16", 1/8", 3/32" and 22 gauge (MicroMaxx) rods are supported.

In this shot of the painted (and many times used) head, the 1/8" hole is shown. The paint around the hole has been eaten away by the normal wear and tear of use.

The flange at the base of the head is intended for attaching table legs, but works great for launchpads.

It screws onto the 5/16" bolt on the deck, and a wing nut allows for turning it in any direction and locking it in place.

Here's the finished product with blast deflector in place.

12-25-2008