Does anyone know how to make a Matchstick Gun??

[Shockwave]

My grandfather and his brothers were talkin one night a LOOONG time ago about when they were kids, they used to take 2 wooden clothes pins with the metal springs and turn them into a little gun that could fire flaming matchsticks. Thyey never did tell me how to make one of those however.
So, does anyone on ATOT have any clue how to make a gun that would shoot flaming matchstick??

 

[wfbberzerker]

i know how to make a matchstick into a little rocket launcher

 

[Shockwave]

Well, thats a start. How?

 

[FoBoT]

no, we made those lighter fluid pop guns out of soda cans

and we blew stuff up with firecrackers

one time (this is really stupid), i taped a shotgun shell to the end of my pellet gun, so that when i fired the pellet, it would hit the primer and light off the shell

lucky for me it didn't work

 

[iwearnosox]

My friend and I used to be into stuff like this. I got bored with it, he kept on until he blew his arm off with part of his innards.

Be careful.

 

[FoBoT]

How To Build A Match Rocket

 

[HappyPuppy]

It only requires one clothespin to make a matchstick gun. A pocket knife helps, too. I'm not going to tell you how to do it because you are obviously too inept to either do it or handle the responsibility of handling such a lethal weapon.

Have a good day.

BTW, Google is your friend.

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
It only requires one clothespin to make a matchstick gun. A pocket knife helps, too. I'm not going to tell you how to do it because you are obviously too inept to either do it or handle the responsibility of handling such a lethal weapon.

Have a good day.

BTW, Google is your friend.

*heh* I call BS.

Anyone else know how?

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: iwearnosox
My friend and I used to be into stuff like this. I got bored with it, he kept on until he blew his arm off with part of his innards.

Be careful.

:Q

My father and I made a oxy/aceltyne mortar once. My grandfather even helped on the project. It was immediately scrapped after we nearly blew my dads head off by accident. Havent played with mortars since, although most other explosives have been touched upon.

 

[tcsenter]

Matchstick rockets are a great little starting point, not much damage you can do with a match other than burn the tip of your finger. After some time perfecting the match rocket, you can move on to bigger and better things, like:

The Five Cent Sugar Rocket and other cool stuff like mortars, black powder, flash powders, cherry bombs, etc.

But please use your head and don't ruin it for the rest of us by becoming another Darwin Award Candidate whose failures or lapsesof good judgement make the 6:00 news.

 

[iwearnosox]

I think the closest I came to blowing myself up was when I was in college. I worked night security at the plant where they made minuteman missles. There's literally bunkers filled with tons of drying explosive material that you have to drive around to check the temperature an humidity on. One of the other security guys was smoking near one. Estimates were that if the place went up it would destroy half the town it was located in.

I quit the day after.

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Matchstick rockets are a great little starting point, not much damage you can do with a match other than burn the tip of your finger. After some time perfecting the match rocket, you can move on to bigger and better things, like:

The Five Cent Sugar Rocket and other cool stuff like mortars, black powder, flash powders, cherry bombs, etc.

But please use your head and don't ruin it for the rest of us by becoming another Darwin Award Candidate whose failures or lapsesof good judgement make the 6:00 news.

See above post. After nearly removing ones own fathers head, one gains much more insight into what should and should not be attempted, and how to go about those projects one decides to do.

 

[wfbberzerker]

if you're into this kind of stuff, you might want to check out backyard ballistics.

 

[Lithium381]

sort of on a related topic, but does anyone know how much it costs for a box of "strike anywhere" matches??

 

[CubicZirconia]

Originally posted by: Lithium381
sort of on a related topic, but does anyone know how much it costs for a box of "strike anywhere" matches??

I think we sell them for ~1.19 at the Ace Hardware I work at.

 

[tcsenter]

I think the closest I came to blowing myself up was when I was in college. I worked night security at the plant where they made minuteman missles. There's literally bunkers filled with tons of drying explosive material that you have to drive around to check the temperature an humidity on. One of the other security guys was smoking near one. Estimates were that if the place went up it would destroy half the town it was located in.

The vast majority of high explosives, particularly those which are produced by extrusion or casting, are not sensitive to small open flames like matches, lighters, or cigarettes. You can drop them, throw them, step on them, hold a lighter to them, and nothing will happen.

They would require a much more intense heat source or a very rapid change in temperature than a cigarette can accomplish in order to promote detonation.

That said, there can be some nasty by-products and volatile chemicals which might 'exude' from high explosive compounds, and unless you're absolutely 100% certain of what you're dealing with, its best not to go around trying to prove or disprove what I just stated.

Black and flash powders are an entirely different animal. They readily ignite with shock, friction, open flame, or even sparks.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

I think the closest I came to blowing myself up was when I was in college. I worked night security at the plant where they made minuteman missles. There's literally bunkers filled with tons of drying explosive material that you have to drive around to check the temperature an humidity on. One of the other security guys was smoking near one. Estimates were that if the place went up it would destroy half the town it was located in.

The vast majority of high explosives, particularly those which are produced by extrusion or casting, are not sensitive to small open flames like matches, lighters, or cigarettes. You can drop them, throw them, step on them, hold a lighter to them, and nothing will happen.

They would require a much more intense heat source or a very rapid change in temperature than a cigarette can accomplish in order to promote detonation.

That said, there can be some nasty by-products and volatile chemicals which might 'exude' from high explosive compounds, and unless you're absolutely 100% certain of what you're dealing with, its best not to go around trying to prove or disprove what I just stated.

Black and flash powders are an entirely different animal. They readily ignite with shock, friction, open flame, or even sparks.

I heard soldiers in Viet used to use C4 as fuel for their campfires?

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: Shockwave
My grandfather and his brothers were talkin one night a LOOONG time ago about when they were kids, they used to take 2 wooden clothes pins with the metal springs and turn them into a little gun that could fire flaming matchsticks. Thyey never did tell me how to make one of those however.
So, does anyone on ATOT have any clue how to make a gun that would shoot flaming matchstick??

Yes, I've done it before, but it's been a long time. It only takes 1 clothes pin and some tape.

You can also create darts for it by taping a straight pin to a matchstick.

amish

 

[Mookow]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: tcsenter

I think the closest I came to blowing myself up was when I was in college. I worked night security at the plant where they made minuteman missles. There's literally bunkers filled with tons of drying explosive material that you have to drive around to check the temperature an humidity on. One of the other security guys was smoking near one. Estimates were that if the place went up it would destroy half the town it was located in.

The vast majority of high explosives, particularly those which are produced by extrusion or casting, are not sensitive to small open flames like matches, lighters, or cigarettes. You can drop them, throw them, step on them, hold a lighter to them, and nothing will happen.

They would require a much more intense heat source or a very rapid change in temperature than a cigarette can accomplish in order to promote detonation.

That said, there can be some nasty by-products and volatile chemicals which might 'exude' from high explosive compounds, and unless you're absolutely 100% certain of what you're dealing with, its best not to go around trying to prove or disprove what I just stated.

Black and flash powders are an entirely different animal. They readily ignite with shock, friction, open flame, or even sparks.

I heard soldiers in Viet used to use C4 as fuel for their campfires?

Yeah, you can put C4 into a fire without a resulting explosion

 

[fatkorean]

Ahh I remember making those. The matchstick rocket, the clothespin match shooter thingy, potato guns.. hehe the good ol days

-fk

 

[Evadman]

My mothers boss used C4 to make jiffy pop popcorn.

<edit>
I should probably say he was a demolition expert in Vietnam. Got the Purple heart and still has pieces of grenade in his sholder.