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tall button of the blast deflector onto the rail, then the second hose clamp. Now take the top of the tripod and slide the bolt into the hose clamps along the rail slot opposite the one holding the blast deflector until the end of the rail buts up against the nut on the top of the tripod center. Snug down the hose clamps—one near the end of the bolt, the other down close to where the end of the rail is against the 1/2" nut. e first time you do this you'll deform the hose clamps as they bend around the rail, so keep tight- ening until that is done and the rail is snugly held against the bolt. Finally, screw the legs onto the tripod top. Adjust the leg lengths to get the rail angle you want. Now admire your handwork, and launch a rock- et off your new pad. Reverse the assembly process to take the pad down for transport. Unscrew the legs. Loosen the clamps a little—a turn or two is all you need—and pull the top's bolt out of the clamps and slide the clamps and the blast deflector off. I put the hose clamps in a sandwich or quart Ziploc type bag and impale that bag on the bolt to keep the clamps from wandering away between launches. Some small bungees or straps to bundle the legs together are also helpful. 14 MAY/JUNE 2022 SPORT ROCKETRY Finished blast deflector assembly. the sides of the scraper, so that the axis of the hole is about 30 degrees away from the main flat por- tion. (is is awkward to describe—see the Deflector standoff hole picture.) Once the holes have been drilled and the edge bent, install one rail button in the bent portion with the button on the handle side. Take the 2" long 8-32 screw and slide the second rail button up to the head of that screw, then thread on one of the 8-32 nuts and snug it up to the button. read on another nut a quarter inch or so, and then, with the last nut on your fingertip inside the handle and under the hole in the handle, turn the long screw/button into that nut until the threads are engaged. en tighten down the nut on the other side. is gives you a button on a nearly two-inch standoff out of the handle in line with the one on the bent edge. It's a good idea to use a little thread locker on all the nuts as you assemble this. Check that the axes of the long button and the short button are essentially parallel and adjust by bending the scraper handle or the bent lip until they are, so that this assembly will slide onto your rail eas- ily. You now have a rail-button-mounted angled blast deflector. Put it Together Lay the rail down on a horizontal surface so you can get to one end. Slide the top (short) button of the blast deflector into one of the slots on the rail, followed by one of the hose clamps. Next slide the Blast deflector and hose clamps arranged on the bottom of the rail.

