- adding a cone on top
- adding trim pieces to cover the joint where the two halves meet up in the body of the rocket
- adding some stickers or painting the rocket - Canadian flag
- adding a periscope that sticks out of the top
First, the things that worked.
- Rocket engines made up of 2x material
- Bandsaw circle jig - doesn't cut perfect circles but close enough for this kind of project
- White hardboard - cheap and easy to bend
- Cargo strap clamps
- Titebond III
- Cheap roto-zip clone for cutting white hardboard
- Rather than overlapping halves for the inner ribs I should have just made two circles halves then bolted them together
- When gluing the White hardboard on the rocket body, I neglected to put masking tape on the upper base circle which led to the hardboard gluing to where I didn't want it to. This made separating the two halves very difficult
4 comments:
Hi Mark,
Found your blog on Google looking for other people working on a DIY rocketship projects for kids. I'm also working on spaceship play structure idea for my son.
I like the way you've halved the cylindrical shape to be assembled together for entry into the house. It really looks good. I'd like to see the rest of the project when it gets completed.
JT
JT - Rosemary would like to see it finished as well :) I haven't worked on the rocketship at all since this last post.
Right now the 'rocketship' is next to Joshua's bunk bed and he likes climbing through the top of the rocketship into the top bunk. If/when I add a nose cone on top I'll have to leave a door for him to get through.
I found an online cone calculator that should help if/when I get back to work on the rocketship.
Good luck with your play structure!
cheers - mark
Thanks, Mark, for sharing your work online. I just decorated my sons' new room in a space theme (stars painted on the walls, cute space themed bedding from Land of Nod) and I wanted to try to build a rocket playhouse like the one you've done. I'm excited to find your project online - I'll have to send you pics of mine if I ever get a chance to build it! I wanted to try to make mine with a second floor inside the cone area and an opening inside for the boys to crawl up there. Not sure how I'm going to do that yet, but I bought some balsa to try to build a model. WIsh me luck!
Laura - a second floor is a good idea, though that would be a pretty large rocket!
Last weekend my son and I put together a periscope that I'll be adding to the top of the rocket with the help of a lazy-susan.
Good luck on your project!
cheers - mark
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