LAKE TOWNSHIP, Ohio USA — At a glance, Steve Eves seems like a pretty down-to-earth guy. He's dressed in blue jeans and a faded T-shirt, and for the past 36 years, has made a living as an auto-body repairman.

But once the 50-year-old Eves moseys out back of his house in Lake Township to what he calls his "hideaway" — a 60-foot-by-30-foot workshop — the ordinary-fella persona slips away.

Steve Eves, who plans to launch his 36-foot long rocket outside Baltimore in April, at his home in Lake Township. Photo: Paul Tople, Akron Beacon Journal.

The auto framework specialist becomes a rocket scientist preparing to shoot for a world record.

In the workshop is his homemade, beautifully detailed, 1/10-scale Saturn V rocket. It'll have nine motors running on an ammonium perchlorate-based propellant that will create 8,000 pounds of thrust. It's 36 feet and 3 inches long, and when finished will weigh about 1,800 pounds.

Eves plans to launch his rocket from a farmer's field 60 miles outside Baltimore in April. And if all goes as planned, it will become, according to Rockets Magazine, the heaviest hobby rocket to be successfully launched.

"I'd love to get the record," he said, "but I realize a thousand things can go wrong. But to me, it's not so much about records as it is about challenges and overcoming them. Building this rocket and getting it 5,000 feet into space and back safely is a huge challenge."

High school graduate

Eves doesn't have a fancy engineering degree from MIT — just an ordinary diploma from Springfield High School, Class of '76.

But that hasn't prevented him from living his lifelong dream to build rockets.

"I've had a love of rocketry ever since I was 10," he said. "Doing hobby rockets is how I can pursue it as an adult.

"When you're flying smaller stuff like I've done in the past, it's mostly common sense that you need.

"But with the bigger rockets, like this Saturn V, there is a lot of physics and preparation involved. It gets too complicated and I rely on a team of experts from around the country to help me."

Eves decided to turn his garage into his own Cape Canaveral a year ago in May. He started with a month of Internet research and then designed the rocket by copying a 100th-scale toy model.

"All I had to do was duplicate the look dimensionally correct," he said.

Construction of the skeleton began in June 2007. Eves spent $800 for the wood — a 3/8-inch-thick, aircraft-grade plywood for added strength — and $1,000 for fiberglass to wrap around the wood frame so it can withstand the shock of thrust at takeoff.

"The easy part was getting it to look like the model," Eves said.

The hard part?

Making the hollow rocket technically perfect so it will head into space, he said.

Balance is key

Eves obtained computer programs that help him determine the crucial centers of gravity and pressure for the craft.

Balance is especially important for a successful flight, he explained, because hobby rockets can't use a computer guidance system. That's banned by the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Putting a guidance system in a rocket is illegal, because then a hobby rocket would be classified as a guided missile," Eves said.

In March, Eves and professional painters Dennis Wallin of Stow and Doug Markovich of New Franklin spent a weekend painting the rocket. The $1,500 worth of paint and wood filler were donated by PPG of Barberton.

Decals for the rocket are being supplied by Eves' brother, Bryan.

The rocket will be mounted in the parking lot of the Hartville Market Place on state Route 619 and displayed Saturday evening. Eves and a crew of about a dozen others will begin setting up at 5 p.m.

"I want to get some good photos outside along with exposure for the rocket and hopefully get some additional help to finance the motors," Eves said. "The nine motors will cost about $13,000 and I've only got about half of that right now."

After its display Saturday, the rocket will be returned to Eves' garage so he can continue working on it.

The biggest task left is installing the motors that are being custom built by Loki Corp. near Philadelphia.

Everything that needs to be done is constantly checked and double-checked.

"I've always got to pay incredible attention to every detail, especially anything like adding the motors that could affect the balance," Eves said. "The best way to balance the rocket is to add weight to the nose, and I could project adding as much as 300 pounds before it's done."

Eves will transport the rocket to Maryland in a 20-foot trailer.

The plan is to launch the craft to an altitude of 5,000 feet. At that point, the rocket should split into two sections and its path would become an arc.

An altimeter on board should register the beginning of the rocket's descent and trigger the deployment of four 28-foot parachutes for the main section of the rocket. The top section will have a single 35-foot parachute.

"The biggest trick is getting the parachutes to come out and open before the rocket, which is going in arc, builds up momentum coming back in," Eves said. "If they come out too late, there will be too much speed and they will rip. It's a very tricky maneuver."

Eves estimates that he'll have invested $20,000 in the rocket by launch time and put in about 2,000 hours of labor.

He acknowledges that the chances for disaster are high, but he believes that with all the help he has received and all his work, he has a good chance of accomplishing his goal.

"If we can get it up in the air and none of the motors fail and then get it under chute," he said, "I'm going to be the happiest camper in the world."

And the holder of a world record.

Copyright © 2008, Beacon Journal.