Vol. 05: Soda Bottle Rocket

You don't have to be Burt Rutan to start your own rocket program. With a few empty soda bottles and some PVC pipe, you can build a high-performance water rocket.

By Steve Lodefink

+ Downloads & Extras:

+ Soda Bottle Rocket

Watch a video clip of author Steve Lodefink and his 4-year-old son Ivan launching their soda-bottle rocket.

In MAKE 05, we show you how to make your own soda bottle rocket so you can start your own rocket program even if you're not Burt Rutan. With a few empty soda bottles and some PVC pipe, you can build a high-performance water rocket. Here's a video of author Steve Lodefink and his 4-year-old son Ivan launching theirs.

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Showing messages 1 through 14 of 14.

Music wire
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How in the world are you supposed to bend the wire?
Posted by Dwj300 on February 12, 2006 at 09:48:48 Pacific Time

Water Pressure Bottle Rocket
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In high school, I participated in an extracurricular competition called science olympiad. One of the events in SO, called "Bottle Rocket", is a flight-time competition based around the same kind of 2-liter bottle rocket design. There are a ton of great resources on the official SO website for all of you whom are interested.

However, the main reason I'm writing is to share one of the secrets of my team's design: a ping-pong ball air deflector. With this design, a ping pong ball on the tip of a 16-24 inch pole is extended from the nose of the rocket, and functions to theoretically form an air cavity around the majority of the rocket's body, reducing drag. We certainly experienced much higher maximum altitudes, although we never actually calculated any physics behind the presumed reductions in drag. This design does not preclude the use of a parachute. We typically used the bottom 1/4 of another 2 liter bottle as a nose cone (or cap, as it may be), packing the parachute and its rigging underneath it and extending the ping-pong ball air deflector pole upwards from its center.

Note: the spherical ping-pong ball may not be the ideal deflector shape, but it was an excellent substitute for practical reasons, namely, their strength, low weight, and economical cost.

If you are somewhat skeptical, I encourage you to examine photos of the saturn rockets - you may notice a similar nose cone structure.

Happy making!
Posted by cxmac2 on February 13, 2006 at 15:02:43 Pacific Time

Question about glue
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What glue are you supposed to use for the nose cone? In the mag, it just says "cement it in place atop the nose section."
Posted by Dwj300 on February 21, 2006 at 14:27:28 Pacific Time

2 Liter Bottles
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Be careful when you are buying 2 liter bottles. The first couple I bought had flanges that were too big to fit into the 1" pvc sleeve. I went back to the store and found Dr. Pepper 2 liter bottles with the (older style I guess) small flanges that fit perfectly inside the pvc.

For the music wire I found some round steel 1/8" wire at Home Depot - the kind in the verticle bins with all sorts of rods etc. I'm not sure what "music wire" is but this worked perfectly for me.
Posted by savmac on February 23, 2006 at 23:42:31 Pacific Time

rocket platform type?
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Does anyone know which is better - the launch tube as in the article, or the traditional launch pad for competition? I'm interested in making this my new hobby, and just looking for info.

Thanks

Posted by VinnyF on March 09, 2006 at 09:20:43 Pacific Time

Fin Template?
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Does anyone have a template for the fins? If so, put one up on the web somewhere, if you don't mind. If not, I will post one when I make my fins.
Posted by drbolt on March 14, 2006 at 10:27:10 Pacific Time

Simple launch mechanism
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I have made a simple version of this using a garden hose click on connector.

Use the male part of the click on connector to screw onto the PET bottle.

Attach the pull down click female part of the connector onto some plate attached to a simple tripod. Get a small ring the fits over the pull down click component. Then get a hand brake from a bicycle and feed the wire throught the ring so when you depress the break it pulls down on the hose connector and releases the male connector. Now simple insert a bicycle tyre value throught the middle of the connector (Where the water would normally flow) so the pump connection part stick out the bottom. Fill the bottle with water click it into position on the connector then attach a pump. Pump away then pull the hand brake to launch.
Posted by Leja1965 on April 03, 2006 at 21:34:41 Pacific Time

bottleneck / o-ring issues
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I am cutting a pretty deep groove into the launcher pipe for the o-ring, and it is still too wide for the bottle to fit. Indeed the 2-L bottle fits very snugly over the pvc pipe itself, so I cannot understand how it is possible to fit the bottle over the o-ring. The o-ring is always going to have a diameter larger than the 1/2" pipe. Are their different inside diameters for different 2-L bottles?

Posted by _Buzz_ on April 07, 2006 at 18:49:17 Pacific Time

launcher base?
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I'm new at this. How do you get the rocket launcher to stand upright? Three stays can't be enough. Looks like it's stuck in the ground but that can't be stable when you've got the airhose on one end, right?
Posted by wetbehindears on April 13, 2006 at 22:10:17 Pacific Time

connecting parachute to base
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one more clarification, please: your article says tie the parachute to the ring attached to the ..base... but from the video & pix, it looks like the parachute is attached to the eyering in the ...nose... which is it? does it matter?
Posted by wetbehindears on April 13, 2006 at 22:14:29 Pacific Time

Calling All Canucks!
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This may sound nutty, but I'm having a heck of a time finding PVC piping and fittings here in Canada (SW Ontario). Are there any fellows Canucks (or anyone else for that matter) who can give me some clues as to where I can find this stuff? I'd love to be able to order some online, but the retail sites I found so far only ship within the US!

Signed.... Frustrated!
Posted by crazylegs on April 23, 2006 at 07:25:27 Pacific Time

rocket vrs bottle
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This launcher is a blast and I made a couple for friends. However, for me, a plain bottle (no nose cone, no paint, no fins) goes a lot higher than a "rocket" ie a painted bottle with fins. The weight of the fins and paint seem to really slow it down. Also the fins don't keep it from tumbling at all. So far it's great fun to just shoot the bottles and certainly the kids that gather 'round don't seem to care. But I suspect I'm missing something. Any suggestions?
Posted by Slipmash on June 25, 2006 at 08:43:39 Pacific Time

Seal
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I'm having trouble getting the o-ring to seal at pressures above 40 psi. Any suggestions? I've tried using lots of vasiline, and even 2 o-rings.

Posted by ilobsm on July 18, 2006 at 08:56:02 Pacific Time

O ring
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My launcher has some severe problems. The O-ring seems fine, nice and tight. But, when I try to put the bottle on the launcher ,the O-ring stretches and folds itself down., allowing air to leak out. Is there any hope?
thx

Posted by Bobomlette on April 06, 2007 at 18:25:57 Pacific Time

Showing messages 1 through 14 of 14.

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