Not any more. I just looked. I haven't searched on the web for it for awhile, but my recollection was that the hazmat fee made it inordinately expensive unless you got a fairly large quantity and divided it up among several people - as would a spelunking club. It's not as easy for teenage boys to do the things today that we did.
RWL
******* Remove NOSPAM to reply *******||On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 18:34:13 -0500, AlecTrician ||wrote: || ||>For entertainment at your next barbeque, here is a simple lighter ||>fluid canon we used to build by using about 8 coke cans, remove the ||>top and bottom of about 7 coke cans and duct tape them together so ||>they form a barrel, the eigth one on the bottom keep the top complete ||>with top tab hole open and punch a hole in the very bottom of the ||>can, obtain some fairly dense rubber balls that fit loosly into the ||>barrel, squirt a good shot of lighter fluid into the bottom hole and ||>shake the whole thing so that it evapoporizes, drop the ball into the ||>muzzel and apply a lighter to the bottom hole, and voilla, you have ||>lift off. ||>Al ||>>> Could someone tell me if there is a diagram of such a critter out there..(a ||>>> lighter fluid cannon I mean)? ||>>> I could be wrong, but I just don't see the lighter fluid having enough ||>>> "ooomph" to launch a missle || ||We used to do this when Coke cans were constructed out of real steel, ||not aluminum foil artfully engineered to hold 12 ozs of liquid. || ||Id be a bit concerned about doing this with modern pop or beer cans.
Substitute PVC? Texas Parts Guy
We got the carbide from a farm equipment repair shop in town. It was used in an acetylene generator to produce welding gas. Baubach Company in Omaha, NE carried it but it was in about a fifty pound drum. A little much to buy for Fourth of July and New Year's Eve.
bob g.
RWL wrote:
What we used for a spark plug was the one out of the Wisconsin garden tractor engine.
bob g.
R> >
Hell NO! PVC can shatter with disastrous results.
Even back when I was a teenager actually playing with stuff like this (Gee, I hope the statute of limitations has run...) I'd say common Schedule 40 black or galvanized steel pipe at a minimum, with a well-threaded cap on the end and a drilled & tapped hole for the ball-stop screw - and even then I'd be worried about the seam of the pipe splitting if you use a double-shot of Ronsonol.
Now that I'm older and (allegedly) know better, I'd try to find a chunk of seamless tubing or high-grade pipe, and weld the end cap on. Goggles and gloves. And I'd be tempted to find some woven Kevlar cloth, warm up the old Singer, and rig up a scatter-shield around the barrel. And keep a fire extinguisher or three at the ready.
Kids should still be allowed to have a little fun with stuff like this - but they should be taught to do it *safely*. Goggles and gloves and basic protective clothing should be a given.
Unfortunately, they don't make it easy to buy 'electric match' ignitors so you can be a safe distance away when you set things off that go ... ;-)
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