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This is an update to the $10 Rail pad and launch system article. If you haven't read that yet, click here. There are three parts to this update, all dealing with the longevity of the pad. What I thought would be a steel beast to last me forever - just in fact may not. Read on to see why and what I've done to combat corrosion. Update 1 is at two years in, update 2 is at three years and update 3 is at almost 4 years in.

UPDATE 1

After 2 years of flying, I made some changes and improved on a great design.

The first update was the rail. It had been raw metal. The metal corroded quickly with AP exhaust. I sanded it, painted it with high temp black paint and put a coat of polyurethane on it. Now it cleans up with a wet cloth and no corrosion. Excellent fix.

Here is the base. There were no changes, just two years of use to show the difference a bunch of rocket launches can make.

The box of wire burning power has been changed a little as well. This pic shows the effect of rocket exhaust. It's blackened the box and corroded the switches. But not nearly enough to damage anything. Just makes it look like - well, a rocket launcher.

Here is another change. The original 106' cable connecting the box to the launch button was CAT 5 ethernet cable. All the wires were used for redundancy. If one of the small wires broke, there would be several others. This was a good idea, but in practice failed. CAT 5 is solid wire. A day of flying in well below freezing temperatures froze the cable. Moving it broke the wire like it was glass.

Note the original RCA connector. It was not heavy duty enough for repeated use. The new cable is 110' of speaker wire - simple oxygen free copper wire - stranded with very small wire so that it won't freeze and break like the CAT 5. The new connectors are 1/4" and work much, much better. I also, made a spare cable just in case.

This is the new remote sized launcher button. The safety key is simple removing the cable from the 1/4" jack (below). I use a 90 degree jack so that it runs flush up the side of the unit. Carrying this with me at all times lets me know the rocket can't be fired. Safety is paramount and always comes first.

Here is a close up of the 1/4" connector on the launcher button remote control. This works much better than the original RCA jacks.

UPDATE 2

After 3 years of regular flying, the ehaust residue is really starting to take it's toll. While this pad is made of old-school, thick, U.S.A. steel - it's still getting eaten up. The aluminum on the blast deflector plate is doing much better so if you are building from scratch, I'd keep that in mind.

This is the pad when I first built it. Looks pretty and strong, huh?

The problem with my original design is that the rail actually sits on the steel frame. I had to move the hard drive deflector plate out a little bit to accomodate this. While most of the flame and exhaust is still hitting the plate, some is hitting the steel. Look at the picture above and you can see the space I am talking about.

Here is a close up of the steel. It's so eaten, it's gone through to the other side. This is the target of my current fix on the pad.

You can see that the aluminum is holding up better than the steel. The hard drive looks the same as day one - save being covered in black soot.

Directly under the blast plate isn't the only place being eaten. The pic above is the outside edge of the frame.

Even underneth the pad is getting eaten up with exhaust corrosion.

Ditto above.

So, to fix the main problem now I am shortening the rail about a half inch and putting in some aluminum plate from a heatsink out of my parts bin. You can see it below.

In order to keep the height down, I had to hammer down some of the fins. This doesn't bother me at all, as it just makes the blast plate that much thicker.

The beauty of this piece - it looks just like it was made to fit this slot. I've attached it with a thick layer of epoxy and some brass hardware. Immediate problem solved. In the meantime, I am going to have to figure out how to fix the rest of the pad - likely sanding and another coat of paint and polyurethane. Otherwise, it's eventually going to turn to dust and you can't fly off of dust. That update will be right here, so check back with me soon.

UPDATE 3

After 4 years of regular flying, the ehaust residue is really starting to take it's toll. While this pad is made of old-school, thick, U.S.A. steel - it's getting eaten alive. The aluminum on the blast deflector plate is doing much better so if you are building from scratch, I'd keep that in mind - though Estes BP can punch a hole in thin aluminum that a J570 can't. Don't ask me why - I've just seen it happen...

This is the pad when I first built it. Looks pretty and strong, huh?

You can no longer see my S. Rose NAR 80388 letters - but, it did get a new flag... and as Jaime Foxx says, "I got da flag.. I got da flag!"

I also removed the small brass weights and replaced with a full size THICK sheet of aluminum stock for additional stability weight. This should also help durability. The pad has much more weight and since I'd launched L2 kits on this before, I can only imagine the margin of safety has gone up...

With care and cleaning this pad should last another couple of years before needing more help. The thing that really amazes me about the whole project is this: When I first built the pad, I never thought I'd have to do anything to it - it's steel and painted. What's to do? Now, in just under 4 years- I've made three updates to it just to keep it functional. But isn't that the story of this hobby.. realizing you have no idea what's going on and just trying to hold on whiles it goes... Just do it, it'll be OK they all tell me.. and it sounds like a winner.