Stuff to do at home.

[Kermit]

I get bored easily. Any way I can extract gasses from the air or extract sizeable quantities of metal from ordinary sources? As far as I know, you can pass a magnet over fortified breakfast cereal and collect some fine grains of iron. It's not enough though.

[insane_alien]

why don't you go to a hardware store and get some iron nails and then file them down.

... or buy more breakfast cereal

[mezarashi]

why don't you go to a hardware store and get some iron nails and then file them down.

... or buy more breakfast cereal

 

/me applauds. Now THAT is the trademark of a genius problem-solver

[5614]

What do you want to do?

 

Chem experiments? Physics? Biology? Electrical? Computer? Gadgets? Explosives? Programming? Gardening?

[YT2095]

What do you want to do?

 

Chem experiments? Physics? Biology? Electrical? Computer? Gadgets? Explosives? Programming? Gardening?

 

well he`s screwed if he wants to do explosives isn`t he 5614, we don`t Do that sort of thing here do we!

or are YOU going to tell him how?

should be worth at least... oh,, lets say 25 warning points towards a BAN! )

[5614]

I coulda ask'd him if he wanted to nuke america or bomb england.... it doesn't mean he can do, doesn't mean he will do it, doesnt mean i can tell him how to do it, doesnt mean anyone can tell him, doesnt mean anything really, except that i'd get an answer about what he wants to do and then we work from there... for example if he did want explosives it's pointless (as you rightly said) for him to be here. So if he answered yes it'd save our time and his.

[YT2095]

still "pointless" to even present it as an OPTION!

[Kermit]

Actually, gadgets and/or explosives.

 

Just for fun, though. Don't really wanna kill anyone.

[Dak]

Stay away from explosives, unless youv actually had some safety training.

 

even then, be very careful.

 

Note that there was no technical info on how to make explosives in that

 

What kinda gadgets are you after?

[Kermit]

My original plan was to extract stuff from stuff (yeah, quite vague) and just make stuff from aformentioned stuff.

 

But I guess my ideas have changed a bit.

 

I'd be cool to make some projectile launcher to propel stuff over long distances. Any non-explosive thing I can make?

[Dak]

You could try making a mangonel -- theyre kinda like catapults, only using weights and pivots rather than tensile strength.

 

Or a bow. bows are always fun (making arrows is quite fun aswell), although you wont get that powerful-a-bow.

[Kermit]

Hmm, I wanna make a bow then.

 

What'll I need?

[Dak]

You can make a cheesy one out a stick of any bendy material with the tendancy to spring back into a strait line, some string, some lightweight stick-type-thing for the arrow, and something for the flight (feathers, leaves, cardboard).

 

TO MAKE ARROWS: first off, make javelin-length things, out of a light-weight strait length of stuff. Bamboo canes, certain plant/bush stems etc work well. make flights out of something (ideally, they are kinda floppyish, like ridgid leaves or feathers; cardboard works well for javelins).

 

carve 3 or 4 groves out of the not-sharp end of the javelin, making sure that they twist gently around the shaft (ie, they dont go in a strait line) (fig 1). now, slot the flights (your cardboard or whatever) into the groves and tie inplace with thin string (cotton thread works well). The effect should be that when you throw the javelin, the flights should make it spin (thus making even poorly-weighted and bent sticks go in a more-or-less strait line); another effect of flights is that they will keep the butt of the arrow at the back, and the pointy-bit at the front (ie they will stop the arrow from cartweeling).

 

After youv got the hang of it and worked out the correct size and placement of the flights, then you can move on to making arrows, by using smaller lengths of wood (javelins are easyer to practice on, but a bit hard to fire from a bow). Only difference between arrows and javelins: arrows have a single notch across the blunt-end, to slot them onto the arrow string (fig 2)

 

Make sure the arrow is slightly longer than the distance from your nose to an outstretched thumb.

 

TO MAKE THE BOW: take bendy staff, roughly 2 foot higher than you are. I find plastics generally work better than wood, for a cheesy bow.

 

a good trick to increase the power is to cut a notch into the tip of the staff, and around the staff about a 1/3 to 1/4 of the way down, bend it into a curve, and then use string tied to the two notches to keep it in that shape (fig 3). do the same at top and bottom.

 

Now, tie the top end to the bottom to make the bow (fig 4).

 

the smaller curvy bits increase the power, by the way.

 

TO FIRE: Hold the center of the bow shaft with your left hand. slot the notch of the arrow onto the string, about half-way down, and rest the shaft of the arrow on the thumb of your left hand (where it is clasping the bow).

 

Grasp the string with the index finger of your left hand hooked above the arrow, and the middle finger below. Draw the bow string back untill either your fingers are touching your chin, or you think the bow will brake if you draw it back any further.

 

Next: let go.

 

 

a couple of notes of caution: 1/, dont put the bow under too much pressure without finding out what happens to the material if it breaks: some materials (quite a lot of woods, for example) will explode if put under too much pressure, sending eye-removing splinters all over the place at a painfuly high velocity. If in doubt, dont pull the string too tight.

 

2/ if your going to sharpen the arrows, be careful. make sure no-one is going to walk into your line of fire, etc.

 

Wood makes the best bows, but is tricky to make a wooden bow. for best results, you have to use two different types of wood, and 'steam' them first: google around if your interested, and start off making 'cheesy' bows from lengths of plastic to get the hand of it.

 

even tho i call them cheesy bows, they can actually be quite good, although not exactly enraged-bull-stoppingly powerful.

 

Practice with different positions to put the bends, different shapes/positioning of flights, different materials etc.

[Kermit]

Thanks for the advice, Dak, i'll head over to Home Depot tommorow.

[MetaFrizzics]

The first thing you do when you want to make home-made weapons, is NOT create a traceable thread on the internet. Go to used bookstores and buy hardcopy old out-of-print stuff that nobody will notice. Or infiltrate a Neo-Nazi organization and go to the swap meetings.

 

Otherwise people will just think you are a cop trolling for loons, or a loon trolling for cops.

[Kermit]

I'm not planning on making a weapon to kill people with. In fact i'm not going to use it as a weapon, rather as something to shoot at trees out of boredom. Heck, the arrows are going to be blunt.

[MetaFrizzics]

Do you have children playing in your neighbourhood? I sense an accident about to happen. (hoping not).