Intro : PVC Paper Rocket Launcher
This Instructable covers how to build the portable PVC paper rocket launchers seen at the Phoenix District 2010 Day Camp and at SHAC Jam (the United State's second largest 100th Anniversary of BSA celebration 2010). Paper rockets are an inexpensive and age appropriate activity for any Cub Scouts. It doesn't require an air source other than the cub scout himself. After some pretty hardcore QA testing by upwards of several thousand Cub Scouts (and a few Boy Scouts too), I found a few areas that will need improvement depending on how rambunctious your boys get with the launcher. I've noted them in the first image, so hover over the yellow boxes to learn more.
For our Day Camp, the scouts made construction paper rockets which I will detail in another Instructable. These are simply construction paper wrapped around a short section of 1/2" PVC pipe, taped, and then a nose cone and fins are added.
For SHAC Jam, the scouts followed a similar process, but due to the large (nearly 9000) number of cub scouts, the construction of the rockets was simplified to a basic construction paper tube (wrapped on the same short section of 1/2" PVC) with the nose end taped over, and crepe streamers added for stability. This greatly cuts down on the time to build and allows more scouts to enjoy launching without having to spend as much time building. I will detail this construction in a separate Instructable as well. Those that were at SHAC Jam on Saturday saw that a large number of boys (and siblings too) could make it through the long line in a relatively short time frame due to the basic design.
This design is free to use by anyone for non-commercial use provided attribution is given. If you have ideas on how to make it better, please feel free to comment and I'll add them to a later revision if it is cost effective and improves the design.
If you like this design, and feel inclined to show your appreciation, by all means buy me a cup of coffee here , and it'll give me some pep to come up with more PVC and Scouting related projects. As always thank you for taking the time to take a look at this.
For our Day Camp, the scouts made construction paper rockets which I will detail in another Instructable. These are simply construction paper wrapped around a short section of 1/2" PVC pipe, taped, and then a nose cone and fins are added.
For SHAC Jam, the scouts followed a similar process, but due to the large (nearly 9000) number of cub scouts, the construction of the rockets was simplified to a basic construction paper tube (wrapped on the same short section of 1/2" PVC) with the nose end taped over, and crepe streamers added for stability. This greatly cuts down on the time to build and allows more scouts to enjoy launching without having to spend as much time building. I will detail this construction in a separate Instructable as well. Those that were at SHAC Jam on Saturday saw that a large number of boys (and siblings too) could make it through the long line in a relatively short time frame due to the basic design.
This design is free to use by anyone for non-commercial use provided attribution is given. If you have ideas on how to make it better, please feel free to comment and I'll add them to a later revision if it is cost effective and improves the design.
If you like this design, and feel inclined to show your appreciation, by all means buy me a cup of coffee here , and it'll give me some pep to come up with more PVC and Scouting related projects. As always thank you for taking the time to take a look at this.
Youtube Video
