DIY disastersI just can't do power tools. They always fly out of control and end up embedded somewhere they shouldn't. I've no idea how I've still got all the appendages I was born with.
Add to that the fact that nothing ends up square, able to support weight or free of sticking-out sharp bits and you can see why I try to avoid DIY.
Tell us of your own DIY disasters.
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chthonic, Thu 3 Apr 2008, 17:19)
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DIY Potato CannonLast easter when I was but a young 17 year old, a couple of friends and I decided it was about time we made a potato cannon thing that we had seen on youtube.
After all the right parts were bought from B&Q we proceeded to take it to my friends house and build it.
After we spent a while building it (I say we..my friends are all aspiring engineering students, i'm going to do history, my input was standing around and pretending the main tubing was a giant penis).
The way that the cannon was to work was that we took apart one of those electric lighters and filled the tube with deodrant, then used the spark to egnight it, firing the potato.
However, we found that the bottom cap of the pipe just ekpt on blowing off as we couldnt find a way to secure it onto to main pipe so we used a bit of duct tape to secure it on.
After we fired this Red Dwarf style prop successfully, the launcher stopped working. As it was already filled with deodrant, the only thing that wasnt working was the lighter. Bollocks. The four of us crowded around the end of the launcher and in my eagerness to show that I could be useful, i clicked the lighter a couple of times.
What happened next was a blur. The end of the cannon thing blasted off with a hell of a lot of force, right into my friends upper leg...about 3 inches from his crotch. A lot of screaming and blood came about soon after.
Luckily, nothing on him was too badly damaged, although he still has a great big mark there to this day.
EDIT wow...i didnt actually realise how uneventful that story was...
(, Fri 4 Apr 2008, 21:41, 1 reply)
it's called gluewhen you buy PVC you need to buy the PVC glue with it. If you glue all the parts together it won't blow itself to bits. My brother in law made one and to this day it can launch a spud far enough that we don't see it land.
If you bevel the edge of the barrel to a sharp point it makes stabbing the spuds in there easier as they cut themselves to fit.
(, Sat 5 Apr 2008, 2:42, closed)
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