The Yellow Box (part 2)

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

Well, I couldn't resist.

After asking a couple of questions and getting a positive response to my request that the seller clean off the yellow ammo box with some Windex and snap another picture... I was hooked.

And it wasn't until much later that I realized that I had seen this item before...and probably shot them a message inquiring about it some time ago.  However, I hadn't talked myself into it yet.

But this morning, I found myself driving 2.5 hours west across the state to drop-in on the seller and inspect the goods.   (I already had inquired if they would take half the amount for just the ammo box, and not the motors, which are suspect.)  They confirmed it was still available and at the price they had listed.

The Ammo box had been modified to house a key switch, a push button momentary contact switch, a glowing red indicator light, and a two-prong plug for quick disconnect of the launch pad wires.

The space inside the ammo box currently houses 11 small motors.  (7 B6-6  and 4 C6-2)  They are in five old Cox motor boxes, 3 per package, along with 3 plastic ignitor plugs.  They're just sitting in there as a convenient way to keep them all together.

Now, this is a feature that I have not been familiar with before now.  The plug looks like a standard black plastic plug, but already has an inverted metal V that rides the wedge.  When inserted, it not only fastens the plug in place, but also has two flared metal leads for the allegator clips to attach.  It's not that far off from our current design, but it is different.


The Ammo Box has been spray-painted bright gloss yellow.  It stands 12" by 6" wide, and 7" tall.  Inside are two blue wires that end in spade lug terminals.  They appear to go to missing dry cell batteries.  Perhaps they are the overly tall batteries I recall seeing in Junior High School science labs of the time. 


One has to wonder why it was necessary for these cells to be so tall, but they could and would fit inside the closed Ammo Can without shorting out.  The black plastic screw top terminals would compress the spade lug terminals and keep all secure, in theory.

The weight would be needed to hold the ammo box upright when the lid was open and laid back. As it is, it takes all of the motors in place to balance the lid right now, and with the coil of gray zip cord, it's enough.  But once deployed, that wire would not be counterbalancing the lid, and neither would the motors, as they were being used up.

The 2-prong connector for the wire to the Ammo Box is a simple round affair, with one element a larger metal plug than the other.  It can only go together one way, and certainly doesn't carry much voltage nor current out to the launch pad.  I've not seen one like this in a long time, if ever.

I was told the gray zip-cord wires to the launch pad are 30 feet long.  That's longer than most Estes Launch controller wires these days.  Also, the ends of the allegator clips do NOT appear to be singed nor corroded. Judging from the number of motors MISSING from the boxes, I would guess it may have been used to launch perhaps 4 times.

There is no launch rod, blast shield nor launch pad of any kind included, but I have several variants available to me. 

So, except for replacing the batteries, and erecting a launch rod, I guess I'm ready for Spring launch season.   But first, we have to get through winter build season...


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