Water Tower

[bugwubber]

After watching a SpaceX launch, my son requested that we add water towers to our launch site.
(He was actually looking at the lightning protection system towers, but he thinks those are water towers.)

I thought well, I do have a 30gal barrel not doing much...why not, and make it functional as well.

So here is a rough design of a 30gal, 8-10ft high water tower.

NASA has a pretty boring paint scheme for the water towers near the launch pads, so I was thinking of going with the aviation red/white checkerboard.

If I'm doing my math right, I'll get about 3-4 psi, and will have about 250lbs in the barrel to deal with although I doubt I'd try to fill it full.

Hmm, I wonder what the pressure rating on those drums is...

watertower.jpg (242.95 KiB) Viewed 99 times

[Blenderite]

If you have the barrel all ready, that is a very cool idea. Keep us updated on this project!!!

[bugwubber]

Decided on a bit different approach to the water tower base. I built a ladder interface so I can just strap it on to the top of my folding/expandable ladder. Had my neighbors doing a double-take as they drove by.

watertower complete.JPG (857.43 KiB) Viewed 72 times

side view

water tower-side

DSC09547.JPG (3.14 MiB) Viewed 68 times

[ptx]

Nice! It looks like Tintin rocket from "Destination Moon"
Does it fill the same amount of water in all bottles ?
I am wondering if the first ones in line will get more water (?)

[bugwubber]

The water will find level so as long as I have the launcher level side to side, they should fill to the same. The trick will be filling different sized bottles or various water levels. To do that, I'll just temporarily close the valves going in order from least to greatest. Once main water is off, I can open the valves back up and turn on the air. Station 1 would always have to be "most" in that case.

[bugwubber]

First test results:

Unexpected results but success!
Large bottles and small bottles both filled to roughly the same % of total volume.

Totally forgot to consider the water bottles are tightly sealed. Therefore the water level is completely governed by atmospheric air pressure and the height of the water column (pressure). Each bottle will fill to that equlibrium level and stop. If I extend the ladder, the water level will increase or vice versa. I laughed at myself over that one. Very happy I chose to use that ladder. Will make a great teaching tool.

~Bugwubber

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

We saw that in your launcher video and we were scratching our heads too. Now it makes perfect sense. That's a neat idea, and it looks pretty impressive!