Anatomy of a Rocket

Well I managed to take a Rocket apart - so thought that I might as well make a picture gallery out of it and show the anatomy of a Rocket!

Firstly, all the bits together - they should be self explanatory:



Now to the handle. This is toped by an eight sided flange as shown in this pic here:

The flange fits through the baseplate and is crimped outwards to hold them together. Note the shape of the hole in the baseplate and the notches:



The interior of the barrel was interesting. I couldn't get this razor to open. It wasn't clogged up and not was it jammed in any way. When it came apart I noticed that the two interior shafts screw into each other. I'm surmising that somehow the knob was screwed too far up the upper shaft so turning the knob didn't have enough play to raise the silo doors.

This picture of the two shafts shows the join between the two and the opposing threads:



In hindsight the gap between the knob and the barrel was much smaller than normal. This picture of the knob shows the approximate maximum exposure when untwisted - it should obviously be much more:



The upper shaft is connected to the frame (?) for the silo doors. The connection is made by two pins highlighted in this picture which are pushed through two holes in a tongue from the frame that sits inside a central cut out of the upper shaft.



When I was twisting and turning this to try and ascertain why it wouldn't work I broke the head off. You can see where the tongue on the frame that attaches to the shaft is broken in this last picture:



Well if you have read this far this is either actually interesting to somebody apart from me or you need to get out more

I trust you have enjoyed this dissection of a Rocket (or I think it might actually be a Parat). Hopefully this will mean that you don't have to do the same thing!

Excellent Tutorial, thanks.

Mark1966 said:

Well if you have read this far this is either actually interesting to somebody apart from me or you need to get out more

Click to expand...

It's a little of both.

Very nice write up, indeed. I have long wondered what a Rocket looks like on the inside.

Thanks for taking the time to do this!

Cool. Can you put it back together now please

P.S. If the knob is the same width as the handle its a parat

Are you going to try to braze, solder, or epoxy it back together at the head?

@ Ian - I was too lazy to go out to the garage and check the size when I posted this but it is actually a Parat - same size knob and barrel.

@ Jason - not sure what I'm going to do with it a present. I'm not short of a razor or two so this might stay as parts in case I need to do a repair

I have put it all back together after I got it apart and with some adjustment of the depth of the join between the two shafts I did get it to open properly when the knob was turned - so that convinces me that this was the initial problem BTW.

nice, great tut vid dude

No worries - glad you liked it!

DUDE!

That's exactly how Parker TTO are assembled.

Only not as robust.

I broke one in the exact same spot you did at the connection to the spine the doors float on.

To get it back together you'd need a leprechaun, a genie, and 37 four leaf clovers. It needs to be solid and even. I tried solder, but couldn't get it true and even as well as thin enough to raise and lower through the baseplate. I tried epoxy, but it takes so long to cure that it leaned a bit before it hardened. Super glue wasn't good enough and snapped on one close.

I binned the top parts and Frankensteined an injector head onto the handle.

It's the exact same principle in the TTO Parkers, but they leave too much play in between the flange and the baseplate so that you can easily over turn and cause the doors to pop out or under turn it so the doors don't open enough.

Great pics!!

Does that 8 sided flange press fit into each other?

KM-instructor said:

Does that 8 sided flange press fit into each other?

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Yes, well at least that was where it came apart and I've reassembled it and it seems quite solid and stable. I presume during manufacture it was machine crimped outwards but cannot be certain.

Your rocket will never be forgotten. You'll make someones day at some point who wants to see the inner workings of a Rocket. Nice job.

Mark1966 said:

Yes, well at least that was where it came apart and I've reassembled it and it seems quite solid and stable. I presume during manufacture it was machine crimped outwards but cannot be certain.

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Thank you Mark, I was not sure how they came apart, and i think your right about it being machine crimped, I have a project that i have been thinking of doing, and after seeing your pictures I think it has given me that proverbial kick in the *** to do it.
Thank you.

Thanks guys.

Once it came apart I thought I might as well take advantage of it and show other stuff we don't ordinarily see. Glad it has been useful and kicked off a project!

Good job Mark. I'm sorry I never took any photos of the razors I've disassembled now.

So, looking at that, all you would normally have to do to pull one apart for repair or cleaning is unscrew the base knob and pull it out. Then the doors and post should just lift out, and leave the baseplate on the handle.

legion said:

So, looking at that, all you would normally have to do to pull one apart for repair or cleaning is unscrew the base knob and pull it out. Then the doors and post should just lift out, and leave the baseplate on the handle.

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Actually I don't think so because of the opposing threads. As you unscew the knob you draw down the silo doors and then get to the point of them being closed and it wuld be stuck there.

Ah yes, I see. So you would have to undo the crimping at the top and rotate the whole head to unscrew the bottom knob. Makes sense.

legion said:

Ah yes, I see. So you would have to undo the crimping at the top and rotate the whole head to unscrew the bottom knob. Makes sense.

Click to expand...

Yep - which may be feasible if you are very careful IMHO.

Great job on the tutorial. I've seen the Rocket on ebay. They always fetch big bucks. I've often wondered if there is something that makes this razor so desireable? Is it a good collectors item or a great shave or both?

I own a British Rocket (1951, gold).

They are well built, but extremely mild. So, I would say they are more collectors items than great shaving instruments.