Mini air-powered pen gun

How to make a small pneumatic gun out of a pen. It can be pressurized over 100 psi and shoot small nails into wood. THIS IS DANGEROUS if you choose to make this I am in no way responsible if you injure your self shooting it or if it explodes while your pressurizing it.

*I didn't know this but someone has already done a better job of a pneumatic pen on spudfiles http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/pneumatic-pen-gun-project-t7858.html thanks to Surfguy21 for this info

Step 1 Parts

For this project you will need a bic pen and another piece of tubing (I got mine from a mechanical pencil) that fits inside the front peice of the bic pen if you remove the ink cartrige. You will also need a Zebra mini mechanical pencil (got from staples) or an eraser that fits inside a bic pen and you can drill a hole through. You need a schrader valve (the ones used on bike tires), and a airsoft bb.

Comments

[ramicaza]

wow really cool how you actually made it out of a pen. I had an old one made from a marker but the 4mm barrel crumpled at 170psi :D... lol i made a new metal one though, and posted that here.

[mafzal2]

And now I am grounded for shooting my brother with this gun.

[Rehtes]

dude nice blade

[The Jamalam]

stop spamming, nobody cares.

[improyo]

what do you glue the eraser to???? is in the ink cartige

[sabladask]

see my instructable, i made a spring powerd piston bb gun.
good build

[Dreistein]

a mini pellet gun

[ilpug]

this is just a mini piston cannon. but very dangerous.

[eel laup]

that is very clever can u make a pdf url so non pro members can download

[lemminggenocide]

make six, put them into a cap gun cylinder XD that would be soo cool

[iTraceur]

Erm, I'm probably confused with the drawings, but when you push the trigger in, wouldn't it fire and hit your finger? I know I'm wrong, so could someone kindly explain, WHAT THE HELL?!

[DELETED_madscientist167]

(removed by author or community request)

[iTraceur]

Personally, i just like showing off, so freerunning.

But i admire and appreciate the dudes who actually put backflips and 10m jumps into good use.

[yeolddingdong]

do you go to anger classes

[DELETED_madscientist167]

(removed by author or community request)

[iTraceur]

Why do you hate freerunning?  And how the hell is parkour more 'peaceful'??

Oh, and i'm not american.  And, how old are you?

[DELETED_madscientist167]

(removed by author or community request)

[iTraceur]

Ok, i'm not going to bother arguing with you about parkour not being a martial art.  But you didn't answer my 2nd question: how the hell is parkour more 'peaceful'?!

[absolute zero]

what exactly is the difference.....

and this is a simple co axial piston cannon. when you push the scrader valve it lets air out, the pocket of air behind the piston becomes less pressureized. then the pocket of air around the barrel pushed back the piston and takes the path of least resistance, out the barrel.

[Jor2daje]

No, this uses a mechanically actuated piston, instead of relieving pressure from behind the piston you manually push the piston back using the inner barrel. I know a coaxial would be more efficient but I built this before I learned about pressure differential actuated pistons

[absolute zero]

not sure why i didnt get a message about your response.
But i was just looking back at this because my co axial mini isnt sealing, but i just notices that it isnt what i thought....
I think ill use this design if i cant get my piston to seal, trying to remove a ball pump as my exhaust valve(i dont actually have a schrader atm) isnt working very well...

[lemminggenocide]

I think the idea is that you push the barrel inwards, by gripping it on both sides with two fingers. In other words, you don't have to put your finger over the end of the barrel to push it inwards. hopefully this helps LG

[iTraceur]

Nice name. Right. Guess that's why it's called a co-axial pengun then... It'd be 10 times better to have the button on the side though... TO THE WORKSHOP! Oh, hang on... TO THE PENCIL-CASE! QUACK!

[lemminggenocide]

thank you. the name refers to my inept gaming skills .......... btw, good luck making the pen gun, I would like to make one, but I don't nearly have enough skill to do so. LG

[iTraceur]

Meh, strike that side-button-pen-gun. Too hard to seal it off. Ok, new idea - you know those pens that rotate at the back, with a little mechanism in the middle that pushes the ink tube forward? Turns out they're really easy to seal off, and I've got a nice-looking one... BACK TO THE PENCIL-CASE! Oh, and relating to your pen-gun making skills (Or, rather, lack of), Who really cares? Is there anyone on this site who can say they studied for a degree in 'Pen-Gun Making'? QUACK! (iTraceur, PhD, D. Psych, PgMD)

[iloveairsoftstuff]

good ible accept i didn't see where you got the 1st barrel from, the one that goes on the outside of the ink cartridge.

[Ben Nguyen]

OMB I think I'm gonna try this.

[MadBricoleur]

which specific pencil did you get the "larger tubing" from? i wanna build this so bad....! awesome... faved

[Jor2daje]

Instead of building this design, I would try the gun jsr made that I linked in the intro. I made one based on that design and worked even better and is capable of much higher pressures.

[Wambotrot]

I just don't get it.

[cyborgpigeon]

i see what your saying. jrs is piloted from behind, while this is activated by a protruding out the front inner barrel. either way if you activated the shrader it would act just as jsr's. potato patato in my opinion, props for makeing it out of a pen. also, something like this could be modified into a rather more sinister auto injector. just saying, i dont really want to give that any more thought. cringe ick.

[jamiespark]

really cool

[bob the builder #1]

JSR's pen gun is the same still though, cool

[Surfguy21]

Its called a co-axial pneumatic gun and the idea isnt his.jackssmirkingrevenge from spudfiles.com came up with the idea of making it small and like a pen.You should give credit to him and all the other people that came up with the co-axial idea.
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/pneumatic-pen-gun-project-t7858.html

[Jor2daje]

Its different dude with a co-axial pneumatic you release a small amount of pilot air behind the piston that allows the piston to move backwards letting the air escape down the barrel. This gun has like a second barrel inside the other and you manually push the back. Also that gun was made out of copper and steel this is made entirely of pen parts. But I will agree that they did come up with a better idea before me.

[Surfguy21]

O I see how it works now and sorry if I sounded mean before.Its a realy cool and concealable little gun.

[Jor2daje]

No problem, I definitely see the similarity between my gun and the one on spudfiles.

[AnarchistAsian]

wow, very nice, but it could use a few things.... like a video of it working and more detailed instructions better quality pics but GREAT idea!

[hoshi_neon]

this instructure is confussing... can u use the yellow box inside the pics ?

[cheeseboy]

wow this is a new idea that I haven't seen before, I am definitely going to try this, good pictures too. Also it would be safer if you wrapped it in electrical tape so that if it exploded the shards wouldn't fly everywhere. 5.0!