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jagec

Lifer
Apr 30, 2004
24,442
6
81
Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
Disclaimer for this post: I'm not really sure if I should be giving anybody reading this any dangerous ideas. Whatever you do is at your own risk. I'm specifically recommending that nobody does this.

I once thought about making the PET version of a Molotov Cocktail. I've made them out of glass, but the trouble with plastic is, of course, that they don't shatter. So my solution is to have a long air hose going to it. You still tie a burning rag to the top, but now the rag is separated to avoid melting the plastic prematurely. Fill the bottle partly with gasoline. I really don't know the optimal mixture off the top of my head for optimal results here but I would guess half-way would be a good starting point for a real show. Compress it with air until it explodes. The high pressure fuel vapors will ignite rapidly once they hit the flame, and the explosion will vaporize and distribute the fuel which should allow very quick mixing of air and fuel, causing a nice explosion rather than your standard Molotov fire. (The increase in the surface area of the fuel is the key.)

The point of a Molotov cocktail is simplicity, portability, low cost, and built-in shrapnel. Plastic won't work as well.
 

kevinthenerd

Platinum Member
Jun 27, 2002
2,908
0
76
Originally posted by: kinev
Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
Originally posted by: Flammable
Originally posted by: kinev
You could make a machine that does your homework for you....oh, wait....that's what ATOT is for.

GG OWN4GE OP?

Hardly. I'll be earing by BSME Mechanical Engineering this December. Do you honestly think I'd have a question like this for homework? This is the sort of stuff they ask freshmen in the "intro to engineering" class.

Seriously, I bought a 20 oz Vault on campus, and something screwed up in the machine and I got two. As I was hanging out waiting for a class to start, drinking my second one, I was looking at the first one, pondering deep in thought about how well-made the bottle was. The precision with which it is made is beyond what I can do with my own hand tools, and I am unable to melt PET and re-spin it into such nice shapes. It's such a waste to throw out such a thing, especially considering that recycling into new bottles costs energy and money too. Besides, why would I want it to complete the cycle so I can pay over a buck for that same bottle again?

Then it hit me. I started thinking about how much pressure such a bottle could hold. It's designed to resist the pressure of soda when you shake it, and I started coming up with things like a paint ball gun, a paint sprayer, an air horn, an air-powered dremel tool, etc.

My question really hinges around another question: in what other basic functions, other than holding pressure, does this bottle exceed?

Under pressure and loaded vertically, it has a pretty good specific strength.

I really like the floatation idea. With air inside, they have very low density. I wonder how many tubes of epoxy it would cost me to make myself a boat! Now I just need to come up with a really good CAD model of one of them so I can better visualize the assembly. Maybe I could use it as a frame for tarps and stuff. The possibilities are endless.

Have you ever heard of that guy who built himself a house out of coke cans?

Naw, still don't buy it. Even with a nick like kevinthenerd there are too many stipulations in your "prompt" for it to be "I was just thinking...." By that, I mean that you put too many restrictions on what we could come up with.

"The focus should be as a component of a marketable manufactured product rather than, say, reuse for holding household change."

That's teacher/project talk right there. If you were really wondering about the creative ways of reusing a 20 oz bottle, why the heck can't I cut it in half and put some change in there? That way we won't use the energy that would be required to make a new one or recycle it. But, that's not "creative" enough, nor does it constitute a "marketable manufactured product".

Also, if your reason for coming up with this question is environmental or financial ("It's such a waste to throw out such a thing, especially considering that recycling into new bottles costs energy and money too. Besides, why would I want it to complete the cycle so I can pay over a buck for that same bottle again?) Then I would think that using it to drink from would be obvious, but, you say we can't use that, either. "You can't use it for drinks unless you can prove to me it's creative"

Now, if you asked "How could I use a 20 oz. bottle to fight zombies in a Mall", then yeah, that's stuff that we waste our time thinking about. In that case, the rocket idea and your Molotov cocktail idea would work. That is how we think (bong, silencer, rockets) and how you yourself think (Molotov cocktail) when not doing homework (i.e. fun). However, a Molotov cocktail isn't exactly "a component of a marketable manufactured product" now is it?

My guess is that you got this assignment in some type of economics or business class that you finally were forced to take the last semester of your senior year. You're confident in your engineering skills, but you are more of a "left brain" engineer (self described nerd) than a "right brain" thinker. That's why you stressed the Creative aspect of the assignment and it is also why you asked on here.

I won't even go into how you automatically assigned any answers you received as having value (because they do to you....your grade) by stating that there is a prize involved (even if it's only PWN4G3). If it was a purely fun/hypothetical question (like the zombies in the mall) then there would be no need for you to explain that there is no prize involved.

To sum up, your BSME Mechanical Engineering will be helpful in using your PIN number at the ATM machine, PM message me if I 'm right (for my own edification - I won't tell), and lastly, do your own homework.

;)

You're still wrong. I speak in a fairly formal fashion these days because much of my time is spent writing papers in the passive tone of academia (aka boring and technical). I have so many excess credits in non-engineering studies it's not even funny. I earned my AA from Brevard Community College before going to the University of Central Florida, so there's no chance I'd have such a class left. Before that I studied a little theology at Saint Leo University.

I wanted the emphasis to be as a "component of a marketable manufactured product" instead of something an individual could do because, honestly, that's how I think now. I gave up gaming a few years ago, and recently I've given up on a lot of "toys" like potato guns and whatnot. My invention notebooks are becoming filled with things that can make me money one day. Instead of being "cool" or "fun" my inventions now save energy, manufacturing time, materials cost, and, in a word, money.

So, I'll admit it's worse than using you for a class project. I'm using you for profit with the intent of PM'ing you before selling it to work out royalties. Doesn't that give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside?
 

MovingTarget

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2003
9,002
115
106
Hmmm....drill holes in bottom and cap. Attatch tubing to either end. Paint one side black. Place many of these in parallel attatched to some sort of board, with the black sides down. Tubing from one end goes to a water source, the other to a valve. Instant solar water heater! (camping size though...not very big)
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
73,501
35,186
136
Poke a wire through the neck (the bottle neck, not your own, silly) and make a hanger. Fill the bottle about a quarter full of red Kool Aid. Hang the bottle off the eve of your house outside a window so you can keep an eye on it. Hummingbird trap!
 

MovingTarget

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2003
9,002
115
106
Recently the fiancée and I used one as a rolling pin in the kitchen since we didn't have one.

May I also suggest watching the file The Gods Must Be Crazy. They have all sorts off interesting uses for coke bottles there, although for a glass one.
 

MovingTarget

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2003
9,002
115
106
Another idea: tie a bunch together in series to make one of those swimming pool dividers they use for the lap lanes. You could claim that is environmentally friendly and maybe trade those for carbon credits or something. :p
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
73,501
35,186
136
Winterize your cardboard box by covering it with bottles to form an insulating layer.
 

kevinthenerd

Platinum Member
Jun 27, 2002
2,908
0
76
Originally posted by: Leros
Melt the top together and use as some kind of flotation buoy. Maybe combined several together in a net.

With how many are available I just thought of a great one....

Make a barge!
 

kevinthenerd

Platinum Member
Jun 27, 2002
2,908
0
76

Alistar7

Lifer
May 13, 2002
11,978
0
0
Originally posted by: sash1
get a bic pen, some tin foil and make a bong

There is a better way to make a bong out of one. Cut the bottom off along the reinforced base. Fill deep sink with water to just below where the bottle begins to taper. Submerge bottle in water, place oversized bowl in top. Pack loosely with tobacco of your choice. Hold lighter over bowl as you slowly raise the bottle, stopping 1 inch before the bottle comes out of the water. The vacuum created will find the chamber with an obnoxious amount of extremely thick smoke. Remove bowl piece from top, place lips around top and SLAM the bottle back into the water while inhaling the smoke.

Fall to floor, curl up in fetal position while you hack your ass off.
 

BigJ

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
21,330
1
81
Originally posted by: Alistar7
Originally posted by: sash1
get a bic pen, some tin foil and make a bong

There is a better way to make a bong out of one. Cut the bottom off along the reinforced base. Fill deep sink with water to just below where the bottle begins to taper. Submerge bottle in water, place oversized bowl in top. Pack loosely with tobacco of your choice. Hold lighter over bowl as you slowly raise the bottle, stopping 1 inch before the bottle comes out of the water. The vacuum created will find the chamber with an obnoxious amount of extremely thick smoke. Remove bowl piece from top, place lips around top and SLAM the bottle back into the water while inhaling the smoke.

Fall to floor, curl up in fetal position while you hack your ass off.

Gravity bong.
 

sash1

Diamond Member
Jul 20, 2001
8,896
1
0
Originally posted by: Alistar7


There is a better way to make a bong out of one. Cut the bottom off along the reinforced base. Fill deep sink with water to just below where the bottle begins to taper. Submerge bottle in water, place oversized bowl in top. Pack loosely with tobacco of your choice. Hold lighter over bowl as you slowly raise the bottle, stopping 1 inch before the bottle comes out of the water. The vacuum created will find the chamber with an obnoxious amount of extremely thick smoke. Remove bowl piece from top, place lips around top and SLAM the bottle back into the water while inhaling the smoke.

Fall to floor, curl up in fetal position while you hack your ass off.

lol at tobacco. and it's only a 20oz, which is pointless for a gravity bong, 20oz is small. get a 1gal milk carton if you wanna make a gravity bong.
 

CraKaJaX

Lifer
Dec 26, 2004
11,905
148
101
Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
Originally posted by: Leros
Melt the top together and use as some kind of flotation buoy. Maybe combined several together in a net.

With how many are available I just thought of a great one....

Make a barge!

LOL. More than one person beat me to it.

http://www.instructables.com/i...a-Bottle-Pontoon-Boat/

http://www.treehugger.com/file...11/tired_of_living.php

:shocked:

Do it.