Thanks to a commenter on last week’s Now That’s A Knife post for pointing out that Jeremy Hanson’s Spudgun Technology Center has a custom machine for rifling PVC pipe to make more accurate barrels for potato cannon. They sell several varieties of rifled PVC (including clear) in assorted lengths. The way I hear it, the rifling machine was first designed and build by STC founder Ed Goldmann. [Thanks, Bryce Bell!]
These are from deviantART user dkart71. Back in 2007, we covered similar work from a Brazilian artist who goes by Blancosur. [via Boing Boing]
By Flickr user MacLane, for a recent contest on Lego Star Wars enthusiast-site From Bricks to Bothans.
Thanks to our commenters for pointing out that, contrary to my implication in Monday’s bolt-action spud gun post, Jeremy Cook—cool though his project certainly is—is not the first person to build a breech-loading potato cannon. Not by a long shot. (Heh, sorry.)
Jeremy Cook advances the potato cannon arms race from muzzle- to breech-loading eras with this .602 caliber pneumatic spud gun prototype that fires from a high-pressure gas reservoir instead of via the familiar fuel-ignition system.
Spotted in the MAKE Flickr pool, this homemade contraption from user Whymcycle who, besides having the best UID I’ve ever heard, has this to say about his creation:
Made from an 8 foot..96?..pair of power line spool hoops, sized down and painstakingly re-arc-ed back to more or less circular 84?, and crossbars of electrical conduit. Also with 4 handholds made from Schwinn Varsity drop bars…and foot straps of old car seat belts. We’ll see if practice, persistence and careful study of YouTube European footage..will allow me to learn some of the art of Wheel Gymnastics.
The device itself is called a “Rhönrad,” “gymnastics wheel,” or “German wheel,” and is apparently the basis of an entire sport in Germany.
“Some people have too much time on their hands!” That’s a frequent, snarky comment we get after we post a project with an intense level of dedication to something as seemingly frivolous as Lego spaceships, highly detailed gaming minis and terrain, dioramas, dollhouses, or in this case, desktop Muppet theaters. But those who say such […]
