Shown with a 3" x 32" Solid Motor Installed

The motor slides back and forth under thrust on 4 custom Delrin sliders.  Since the load cell only deflects a couple of thousandth inches, the sliders need only move an 1/8" or so.

The angled braces are each rated for 1,200 pounds force each.  That coupled with the corner bracing the stand could probably take 2,500 pounds force, we recommend no more than 1500 LB-F.

Here the stand is shown with a smaller 38mm motor, it looks pretty small in the test stand.  The 3" tubing clamps can be stowed on the unistrut out of the blast radius when not in use.  4" and 54mm clamps can be stored in a similar fashion. In order to make the 38mm motor mate with the load cell the plate the cell is mounted on has to be loosened and positioned.  Simply drop the plate about 1" then retighten the 2 bolts holding it in place. 

Most of the bolts on the stand are the same so only a crescent wrench is needed to make adjustments and to change motor configurations.  The tubing clamp nuts are installed finger tight only. Originally the stand was designed for vertical firing of small liquid rocket motors.  The 12 x 12 inch foot print and lineal footage of strut available for mounting hardware makes it ideal for this application.  A couple of guy wires to steady the stand and two stakes should secure it in place nicely.  

Laying the stand down you have a terrific horizontal test stand that is robust, easily adjustable, and will take any diameter motor with the addition of the appropriate diameter tubing clamp.

Total weight of the stand is about 40 pounds, figure 45 pounds shipped.

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Vertical Test Stand

This nifty little unit is available in 20, 50 and 100 kG thrust versions, it's an Aerocon Custom Design.   Stand is shown with 1" PIPE mounting flange,adapting your particular motor OD is easily accomplished using stock parts available from your local hardware store.

Your choice of 20, 50, or 100kG load cell

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Simple to use!  Here's all you have to do:
Plop unit on flat ground (unit weighs about 2 pounds). We strongly recommend inserting lengths of rebar or pipe through the hollow legs and stacking sandbags on rebar at all 4 corners.
Hook up 4 wires to your data acquisition unit
Calibrate unit with known weight
Insert motor into the retainer
Fire motor, collect data!
That's all there is to it.
The unit comes with approximately 2 feet of cable and 1 " Pipe mounting flange.

Ultra Simple Bucket Stand

By clicking the image on the left you'll see a simple test stand using a 5 gallon bucket, a chunk of aluminum I-beam, some concrete, and a single point cantilever cell.  This unit is designed to handle motors up to 45 pounds thrust and the Aerocon 20kG load cell. You can easily make this at home with parts you have hanging around. Feel free to print out this file and make one of your own.