Matchstick Gun

[jbett98]

I grew up East of the PDX airport and just for yuks my buddies and I taped a new roll of aluminum foil to a stick of balsa wood and then hooked it up to some helium balloons.
Neatest thing you ever saw was over 300' of twisting shiny metal foil streaming up and away out of my back yard.
What we didn't expect was a serious investigation by the State Police and Multnomah County Sheriff in who the culprits were that shut down the airports radar while that tin foil loitered in the flight paths of the jet liners trying to land.

 

[Joe13]

I grew up East of the PDX airport and just for yuks my buddies and I taped a new roll of aluminum foil to a stick of balsa wood and then hooked it up to some helium balloons.
Neatest thing you ever saw was over 300' of twisting shiny metal foil streaming up and away out of my back yard.
What we didn't expect was a serious investigation by the State Police and Multnomah County Sheriff in who the culprits were that shut down the airports radar while that tin foil loitered in the flight paths of the jet liners trying to land.

So your saying your the one that invented North Koreas radar defense system?

 

[jbett98]

What I'm saying is that what seemed like a really cool, fun and somewhat innocent thing to do,
turned into federal crime by the way the state gestapo went door to door asking folks if they had seen anything.
We didn't think that the airports radar control guys could pin point a fast rising roll of foil, but by the way the Staters were zeroing in on us, we thought we were all going to jail.
Luckily, nobody witnessed the launch and we sure didn't try that again.

What was more fun was to fill a large balloon with acetylene and oxygen from a cutting torch and rig a delayed fuse incorporating a lit cigarette, and then send it all up with a helium balloon.
About as loud as a sonic boom.

 

[Mikej]

What was more fun was to fill a large balloon with acetylene and oxygen from a cutting torch and rig a delayed fuse incorporating a lit cigarette, and then send it all up with a helium balloon.
About as loud as a sonic boom.

What I alluded to in my post, even though I got the substance wrong, was acetylene. It's not calcium carbonate, that's limestone. It's calcium carbide, and adding water to that produces acetylene.

 

[etrain16]

What I alluded to in my post, even though I got the substance wrong, was acetylene. It's not calcium carbonate, that's limestone. It's calcium carbide, and adding water to that produces acetylene.

Ahh...carbide - glad you corrected that, now I can go looking for some Amazon sells it

They also sell this:

 

[Mikej]

"Backyard Ballistics" What could go wrong?

Dad's carbide cannon was this model.



Put a little water in the bottom. Powdered carbide in the hopper. Pull the "Sparker" plunger up. One to however many pushes of the charger plunger. One or two was sufficient but more would make it belch an orange flame with little sound. 10 seconds, hit the plunger and BANG!

Dad always got it out on the 4th of July and fired it at 6:00am outside my bedroom window.

 

[Hawaiian]

We made these as kids. Probably get the ATF to show up at your house today.

 

[chemist]

Didn't we all make Reynolds Wrap Rockets when we were kids? Or just acting like kids?

The strike-anywheres were tipped with phosphorus sesquisulfide, P4S3, not sulfur, and they were phased out partly because they will detonate if struck hard. Ask me how I know! But please speak loudly when asking a question....

 

[Mikej]

That's the one! Of course we used masking tape. Not duct tape, it hadn't been invented yet! And we taped over the front too, helped with retention of the "Projectile", what ever that was at the time.

 

[etrain16]

Didn't we all make Reynolds Wrap Rockets when we were kids? Or just acting like kids?

The strike-anywheres were tipped with phosphorus sesquisulfide, P4S3, not sulfur, and they were phased out partly because they will detonate if struck hard. Ask me how I know! But please speak loudly when asking a question....

Hmmm, speaking of striking something and making a loud bang, another cheap method we used to create booms was to buy roll caps for cap guns - set out a roll or five, then douse them with gasoline and hit them with a hammer - big boom with a lingering burn. Any caps that didn't blow in the hammer strike would go off in the flames afterward. Ah, childhood

 

[2A2Dend]

Hmmm, speaking of striking something and making a loud bang, another cheap method we used to create booms was to buy roll caps for cap guns - set out a roll or five, then douse them with gasoline and hit them with a hammer - big boom with a lingering burn. Any caps that didn't blow in the hammer strike would go off in the flames afterward. Ah, childhood

Yup, we did that too. You can probably hear my muttley laugh

 

[Slobray]

Many here keep saying "when I was a kid", well, just to let you know that there's not much difference between kids and Privates in the Army. You know something bad (or awesome depending on your perspective) is going to happen when you overhear "this is gonna be great" from a couple lower enlisted soldiers.

What was more fun was to fill a large balloon with acetylene and oxygen from a cutting torch and rig a delayed fuse incorporating a lit cigarette, and then send it all up with a helium balloon.
About as loud as a sonic boom.

Years ago, we did this (without the helium ballon) in the Motor Pool at Ft. Campbell. It almost cost us a few Article 15's.


Ray

 

[Slobray]

They also sell this:

View attachment 279580

I've still got the first edition of this.


Ray