rail questions

Leroy,

The rail types used in rocketry are more than adequate in most instances. Unless you had a specific purpose in mind that a regular rail would not work for, the cost and time associated with milling your own rail from solid 1" stock doesn't make good financial sense. Also, the extruded finish on a purchased rail works well for launching rockets, while a milled finish might bind or chew up your railbuttons.

The milled from 1" stock rail would be very very heavy with very little increase in stiffness over the extruded aluminum rails on the market.

Hello

I have built several rails by taking 1" square tubing .095 wall and cutting the slot lengthwise on a table saw. Set the fence on the saw to cut the required offset from the center and then flip the piece length-wise and cut a second slot to remove the center piece. It's nice to have a friend that can help as a 12' rail can get really unmanageable half way through the cut.

The .095 wall must be mounted to a backing of some type as well. I use 2" square .125 wall as this fit on our launch trailer,

Cheer's Scott

a friend has a milling machine and square stock isnt so expensive, thought it might be a low cost alternitive, also would be a smooth cut, LeRoy

where would be a good place to look for off the shelf C-channal, any pointers?, thanks in advance, LeRoy

go here:

look up your local distributors and see if they stock 10/10 (1") or

20/20 (2")

I was able to get a 12' section locally, I'd hate to pay truck freight for 1 rail.

-Dan

And in fact may be LESS STIFF than the extruded stock.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Find a local dealer for

Their 1010 product line the same as standard rail & the 1515 product line issimilar to extreme rail. They also have a great selection of accompanying hardware for connecting it to other stuff.

Remember that if you have a length maore than ~8' shipping will cost more than the rail. They have good stuff for connecting 2 or more pieces of rail together.

This stuff works for us...

and what we did with it.

Jim Rutkowski Executive Chef TrailerTrashAerospace

Here ya go... hope this link works...

I believe the total shipped cost for the 6ft was just over $30, not shabby.