Model Rocket Liftoff Stand!

I built this stand for my Estes Bull Pup and figured other rocket people might want one too. Instead of just a plain peg, the rocket sits on a

twisting exhaust flame with smoke billowing out around the base, so it looks like it's mid-launch on the shelf.

What it does

- A two-step peg slides up into the motor mount. Out of the box it fits 18mm and 24mm mounts. Smaller tubes sit on the ledge and bigger ones slide

all the way down to the nozzle.

- Both peg sizes are customizable, so you can set them for 13mm, 29mm or whatever your rocket uses.

- There's a groove for the motor hook, so it sits flush with no motor in.

- You can lean the rocket up to 35° so it looks like it's arcing off the pad. The base stretches out into a smoke trail under the rocket so it

doesn't tip over.

- Change the seed to shuffle the smoke layout.

- It prints in one piece with no supports.

Files

- The STLs are ready to print at a few lean angles with the default 18/24mm peg.

- The .scad is there if you want to customize it.

Customizing

Download the .scad and open it in OpenSCAD. OpenSCAD is free from openscad.org. Turn on Window > Customizer to get sliders for everything. The

main settings are:

- Motor mount inside diameters: set these to your tube sizes, for example 13.1mm for a 13mm mount or 29.0mm for 29mm. For 29mm, also bump the

collar radius up to about 16 so the collar is wider than the peg.

- Lean angle: 0 is straight up.

- Rocket balance point: only matters if you lean it. Pull the motor, balance the rocket on your finger, and measure from the tail to your finger.

- Flame height: bump this up if your fins hit the flame or smoke.

- Peg clearance: go up a little if it's tight, down if it wobbles.

Then press F6 to render and use File > Export > STL. If rendering is slow, grab a recent OpenSCAD development snapshot and switch the render

backend to Manifold. It's way faster.

Printing

- PLA works great.

- 0.2mm layers, 3+ walls, 15–20% infill.

- Base down, no supports.

Heads up: a leaned rocket makes the base pretty long, about 260mm at 30°, so check your bed size first.

Post a make if you print one, I'd love to see what rockets end up on it! 🚀