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How to make a toy rocket for your kids:
Materials:
Red plastic bottle top, glued to large fabric softener top*. 6 large wrapping paper centres, largest one for main body. 4 speed nuts or similar as clips. Electrical tape, other coloured tape to suit. Suitable plastic cap for base. See MAPLIN BITS for electrical parts.
*NOTE: this should be translucent, so a flashing lamp or LED can be put in.
How to make it:
The main body is made from 6 large wrapping paper centres (the ones you usually end up throwing away on Christmas Eve) The 4 “rocket motors” around the bottom are all the same size,with the tops squashed flat, and taped equally spaced around the main, largest cardboard tube (a document shipping tube is ideal if you have one). Black electrical tape is the best sort to use, as it is “stretchy” and conforms to the tapering shape required. If you want to paint the tubes, use some old emulsion paint, and let it dry thoroughly before taping them together. The top part is a slightly narrower tube that fits into the main centre one. I used some foam packing strip to keep it central, and jam it in place. Some hot-glue around the top of the join makes it stronger. I used some Grey sticky tape, and aluminium sticky tape, around the centre and top sections, to add some colour contrast.Some of the aluminium tape is on the bottom of the 4 rocket motors too.
The “base” is just part of an old white ceiling rose, glued to the main tube. Some “U” shaped speed-nuts (look like clips) were pushed on to the inner edges of the “rocket motor” tubes, and onto the bottom of the large tube, to anchor them in position. At this point, if you want to add a small battery clip, switch, and lamp-holder with flashing lamp, get your bits from Maplin, and use some stiff copper wire (5AMp twin and earth is ideal) to build a “mock-up”. Do NOT glue in the plastic tops yet, do that last. If you have used one of those document posting tubes, it should have a white disk insert at each end. You only need one at the bottom, to hold your battery compartment in place. Cut your wire to the correct length, so that when it is screwed into the switch, the lamp holder and bulb are just visible in the large plastic top. The push-on push-off type switches are best, as these can be pushed through from the inside, and the retaining collar screwed on.When you are happy with the position of the lighting circuitry, you can glue the lamp holder in place to stop it rattling about, and put a dab of hot-glue on the bulb thread, to stop it working loose,if your kids a re a bit rough with it! Finally, glue the plastic tops in place. Four AA batteries and a 6 Volt flashing bulb works fine. If using a 3 volt bulb, then you only need a 2 x AA holder. If you opt for a FLASHING LED, there are various high-brightness ones at MAPLIN. You can use a “TILT” switch so the light comes on when vertical, and goes off when horizontal. See the MAPLIN BITS list on the right. HAVE FUN!
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