Giant Match

Step 4 Acquiring 15,000 match heads

1. Cut off the head of a match
2. Repeat step one 15,000 times

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I spent about 8 hours cutting off match heads to get enough for the tip of the giant match. Spending that much time doing a single repetitive task helps build efficiency, so heres some advice from my match cutting adventures.

(follow the photos)

- Open all 15 boxes and dump out the 750 matchbooks into a big pile on the floor

- Rip off the paper covers from the books, and make a second big pile of the coverless matches

- Separate the two rows of matches into individual rows each containing 10 matches. The individual rows are much easier for scissors to cut through.

- Hold a single row of matches over a container to collect them, and cut off the tips. Try to get as little cardboard with the match heads as possible.

Comments

[L_L_L_L23]

Lol reminds me of MythBusters. It would be a good idea to not do the match head cutting around New Years with all the sparklers and all

[rocketbat]

lol, repeat step one fifteen thousant times! im glad you didnt do individual steps!

[hintss]

i say 14,999 times

[darman12]

LOL...I was just thinking the same thing!

[beehard44]

no, someone carelessly threw a lit cigar into the batch, burning the whole thing down. i say 29,999 to go!

[guitarman63mm]

I was going to say, could you have lined them up and clamped them, then run them through with a circular saw, but there's a lot of heat and friction like spectrace said, meaning you'd probably light up your workbench. . Nice 'ible, btw

[logan996]

plus u might have a lot fly around

[manmelvin]

u just put each matchbook in a paper cutter works really well

[lookatmygrlyfont]

Could you just take a band saw to them and but them off in a big strip? they look like they are lined up perfectly for that.

[Spectrace]

you may have to think of the friction...

friction = heat + matches = firey mess

haha... Giant match = awesomeness