Water Rocket Forum

Hi everyone, I've just joined up. Just had a great weekend camping and one of the highlight was certainly seeing people faces when we launched my new rocket.

I would like to make a staging mechanism next. We don't seem to have the gardena brand in the uk. I've tried a few different types of hose lock fittings now but despite all my efforts, I can't seem to take it apart to take out the springs. I've tried using plastic strips like on the AC video but it just doesn't seem to work. Does anybody know of a brand that this will work with in the uk?

Cheers

Hello there,

I don't know how much help this will actually be- but I live in the UK as well so here it goes. As far as Gardena equipment is concerned, for 9mm nozzles I use the brass fittings from B&Q and then simply make a gardena male nozzle via the Air Command tutorial (taking another lid with the correct thread and then adding the cut nozzle). With a hunt in the Supermarket, I found cleaning products have a hole pre-cut that is nearly the correct size- a quick file down makes for a snug fit. For making the actual nozzle- but I presume you have done this and are talking about the female attachment part. Obviously Brass would be too heavy in a stager!

As far as making a stager I haven't done this yet. However, when making the 15mm launcher- when I went on Holiday to France I just purchased the official Gardena product XD This works a treat. So to conclude, B&Q Hozelock stuff, if that fails plan a holiday to France! Hope this Help. I can upload some photos if that helps at some point.

An additional note: try and pop along to the local plumbers merchant. I highly recommend doing this for any launcher fabrication or indeed washer/o-ring issues. For me this was the missing piece in the puzzle- particularly when using Tornado tubes. Tell them what you want and they will try and help best they can.

Jamie B

Thanks for your advice Jamie. I haven't actually made the 9mm nozzle yet (using a pvc launcher) but yes you are right, it's the female part of the stager that I'm struggling with. So far I've tried Wicke's and a B&M brand. If I get the chance I'll try the B&Q and Wilco ones and let you know if either of them work.

What was your issue with the tornado tube then? I've only tried using them once. The only issue I had so far was a leak on the 2nd launch but it just needed screwing in a bit tighter.

howlingbaboon wrote:Thanks for your advice Jamie. I haven't actually made the 9mm nozzle yet (using a pvc launcher) but yes you are right, it's the female part of the stager that I'm struggling with. So far I've tried Wicke's and a B&M brand. If I get the chance I'll try the B&Q and Wilco ones and let you know if either of them work.

What was your issue with the tornado tube then? I've only tried using them once. The only issue I had so far was a leak on the 2nd launch but it just needed screwing in a bit tighter.

What I would recommend, is just buy the brass gardena release head, take it along to the plumbers merchant and see what they can do if your trying to build a launcher. In terms of staging, I am sure they can help, but obviously a decent quality plastic nozzle is necessary.

The tornado couplers I use, you can do up tightly to seal- but I wasn't having much luck and it was rather frustrating. I like to use a small O-ring that sits in the bottom to seal them, which means you can very easily undo them and yet they are well sealed.

Jamie B