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Doug's Rockets
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| Here's where most of the rocket construction happens.
The back shelving section of the workbench is 6'6" high with pegboard backing.
The work surface is 3' deep by 6' wide with a vise on one corner and an
electric grinder (hidden behind the tool chest) on the other. Off
the left end is a pencil sharpener. My 3.9" Mars Lander - still unbuilt
- is in the white and blue USPS carton left of center.
The entire workbench was built in the living room of my apartment in Florissant, MO in 1985 and has survived two moves. With limited space, it is helpful to make everything mobile, so the tool boxes and shop cart can be easily rolled away and stowed to make room for the car. When building and/or prepping, it's great being able to roll everything to within arm's length. The 3-drawer tool chest (right of center) goes to the range with me. It's much easier to always keep your range tools in one box, ready to go, than to have to move them from your shop box to your portable box, and hope you remembered to bring everything to the field, so I set up the tool chest stacks with that in mind, putting stuff I won't need at the field in the bigger chests. The Zag box on the shop cart goes to the range, too. The small tool box on the bottom of the cart is my launch controller with a 7 amp-hour rechargeable battery. The cardboard box in the middle of the shop cart is a rocket transport box. I put packing peanuts in it to protect my MR's when carrying them to the launch site in my car. |
Above the bench is my stash of model rocket tubes in a carton from Totally Tubular. Left of that is 5 packs of sand paper in bulk. Below that is the Quest Supr Value Starter Set. The Prego box contains usable balsa scraps. On the right is a box of unbuilt kits - ie, my "round-tuit" pile. The street sign was provided by my brother-in-law as a tribute to his
sister – and my wife – Paige.
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| Kit face cards make great ceiling decorations. These are over the workbench. The unfinished bird is an Edmonds Ecee Thunder converted to RC. |
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| Under the bench are a thickness planar – which sees very little use these days – and two heaters. The 35,000 BTU kerosene jet blower is great – those two days a year when it's cold enough to need it in Dallas :) – but the electric heater in the middle gets used a little more often. | ![]() |
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The sanding station was bought specifically for rocketry. The disk and
table are perfect for squaring the ends of tubes after you've cut them, and
the belt is great for cleaning up hand cut fins.
I picked this sander because its table looked stout. Many of them had flimsy looking tables that I didn't think would stay aligned, which is critical for getting tubes cut square. |
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Doug's Rockets
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