Pneumatic PVC Nerf Gun
Youtube user TopCityGear had experimented with a nerf blowgun before, but decided he wanted a bit more capability. The result is an air-powered gun made from PVC, a gutted cordless drill, and a sprinkler valve.
pneumatic
Water Cooler Bottle Blaster
British company BCB has developed what is essentially a potato cannon on steroids. Called the Wall Breaker, this pneumatically charged cannon launches water cooler bottles at 984 feet per second.
Need to break through concrete in a hostage situation? No problem. Want to rip a giant hole through a cargo van. They have you covered.
This was developed for the British military, so I’m not sure we’ll be seeing a consumer version available anytime soon. Impressive all the same.
How-To: Hand-Pumped PVC Foghorn
Instructables user rog8811 set out to build a functional replica of an old-timey manual boating foghorn. He shows you how to build the basic horn by cutting apart a PVC sink trap and hacking it on to a off-the-shelf air pump. Then he does something I’d like to see more of in my own and others’ project tutorials…
Pneumatic Antenna Launcher uses Android, Free App for AR Scope
We have covered Alan’s Biocca’s fantastic clearinghouse site antennalaunchers.com before, and Brookfield, CT, resident Andrew Stoev’s basic launcher design appears to be a slightly up-gunned version of Alan’s CSV19 pneumatic antenna launcher. It’s a beautiful build, but my favorite feature is the quick-release mount he added for his Android device. Using a free app called GeoCam, his phone, when so mounted, becomes an augmented-reality aiming scope that provides GPS location, compass orientation, and (probably most usefully for this purpose) phone inclination data.
Pneumatic muscle controller
Ben Krasnow shows a handy demo of how to build an air muscle, which is based on this Instructable. This technique is just crying out to be paired with the HowToons Robot Hands from MAKE, Volume 19, also on the HowToons site.
How-To: Make a pneumatic grave-escaping ghoul
Interesting video tutorial from YouTuber casafear1 showing how to create a pneumatically actuated zombie “ground-breaker.”
Old school intertubes
Photo from Museum of Retro Technology Years ago, I came upon The Victorian Internet by Tom Stangadge. It’s a fascinating read, telling the tale of how the world was girdled by copper wires carrying text messages to far flung places. The Victorian Age’s instant messaging system allowed geography and time to be compressed through the […]
