Rocket Launcher for fighting chair build

[rustybucket]

Been piddling with this project for a couple months now. Finally got some non-rainy weather to make some progress.

The idea is to take an old fighting chair I had in storage with a ladder back, and convert the back into a rocket launcher with rigging station and some tackle storage.

In a perfect world I would have built this out of teak but after searching for teak I decided just to go with a birch plywood and epoxy coating which will be painted.

Some goals
- as many rod holders as possible
- as many cup holders as possible
- as large of a rigging station as possible
- as much tackle storage as possible
- look good

First up, I needed to mock something up. With nothing more than a general idea of what size/shape I wanted this thing I needed to mock up on something cheap. So I chose blue foam insulation at home depot. This was approx $13 for a 4x8 sheet.

Cut up a couple of pieces before I got the general shape I was looking for. Traced and cut out discs to use for rod holders and cupholders

[rustybucket]

After the mocking/comping I decided the rod holders were too close together. 2 choices, go from 6 to 4 rod holders.... or make the entire unit wider.... go big or go home baby!!! The added width makes the entire unit approx 47" wide. I sliced my foam piece up and taped a center section in to make the comp piece wider.



Transferring the design over to the birch plywood for cutting.


Two pieces cut


pieces screwed together temporarily, edges routed. More mocking/comping to make sure everytihng is good.

[rustybucket]

The tackle tray was cut out and the two pieces were laminated together using a high quality wood glue. Sorry, no pics of the laminating process. Basically squirt tons of glue, screw the two pieces together, clean up huge mess, lol.

After glue was cured time for some epoxy work.




Filling any gaps/holes in the plywood ends.

[MadHatter53]

Very nice !

[rustybucket]

Very nice !

Thanks! Thinking the tackle drawers are going to be starboard and hope to use real teak on the drawer faces.

Got the first coat of fairing on yesterday!


Cupholders have arrived!

[Boatsb]

https://mateseries.com