Spud Cannon/ Sunday Funnies

My brother's friends built one a while back and we had a great afternoon watching them launch all manner of vegetables into the neighbor's back yard and the street beyond.

That was a hand-held shoulder-harness jobber, with the projectiles propelled by sparking some aerosol hairspray in the chamber.

You wouldn't want to have this one strapped to your hip.
Includes videos. Video 6 shows a 20-ounce bottle of soda punching a hole through a sheet of 3/4" plywood.

Now that's some good, pointless fun (from Drew Curtis' FARK).

And just for the halibut, a cute trunk monkey commercial.
Lots more trunk monkey videos here.

If the guy who came up with that concept isn't a millionaire, there is no justice.

SPUD CANNON UPDATE: Interesting site tip in the comments from Purple Avenger. The page chronicles all sorts of stories about when things go wrong with spud guns.
An excerpt from one testimonial:

Not having hairspray available, I decided to go with the next best thing - Acetylene. I grabbed the torch and without igniting it gave a healthy snort into the combustion chamber. Then another. And another. Then I became concerned about the fuel mix and threw a couple of pumps of Oxygen in there as well. I had the tube aimed at the open door of the shop balanced across the I-beams of our frame-calibrating machine. Not wanting to get too close to the cannon I lit a book of matches and tossed them at the open hole that now had Acetylene/Oxygen fumes leaking from it.

Ever hear a noise so loud it just registers as a loud squeal in your ears? I was thrown 10 feet back, the lid from the can of pigment flew back with enough force to leave a football-sized dent in my toolbox, and my glasses wound up on the roof of the paint-booth. The ball of tape was nowhere to be found, and dust continued to fall from the rafters for 5 minutes.

posted by Laura. at 07:01 PM

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