Q-Tip Gun

I made it out of a few household objects, it launches Q-tips anywhere between 30-50ft.

Step 1: Supplies

1.Pen (all you will need from it is the plastic body for the barrel, so make sure you can fit a Q-tip inside of it)
2.Pill Bottle (the small kind that are like an inch in diameter)
3.Electrical or Duct tape
4. PVC Glue or some other type of glue that is very strong (i only used pvc glue becuase i found some in my garage)
5.A sparker- There are two possible sparkers you could use
1. I took a grill lighter and took it apart and just took out the butane tank and the long metal neck thing, so when it was done all i had was the body of the lighter with 2 wires sticking out of it ( there a picture of it on one of the next pages). - You will need 2 screws for this type of sparker
you can also use a grill sparker which would be easier
2. The other type of sparker you could use is a lantern sparker, i haven't actaully used one of these on something this small but i would guess it would work.
6.Drill with small bits ( obviously for putting the small holes in the pill bottle)

Comments

[Blindmisfits]

I cant get mine to work its bugging me

[saskskrat]

if it only works sometimes, try wiping out some of the gunk from the spray sometimes left behind on the screws. also make sure the screws a close enough together to spark. and check to see if the BBQ lighter is sparking.

[cbennett811]

i had some trouble with mine too. i think it was lack of oxygen. i drilled to small vent holes in the bottom of the pill bottle next to the barrel. it helped alot , but watch not to plug the barrel to tight and keep fingers away from the vent! i stuffed a wad of paper in and flames came out the vent instead of the barrel. left a wicked little burn. does anyone no how the grill lighter ignition actually works? it seems like it only sparks half the time. i tore a broken one apart to try to figure it out but i still dont get it.

[saskskrat]

Holy Cow!!! Me and a friend made this for a school science project, and it worked. destroyed a picnic table andclose to destroying said friends house, but it was fun and now we know that if your q-tip is jammed in the barrel you should just shove it out with something, not shoot it(huge backfire lucky it only hit my arm). in the end we weren't allowed to present it at school because it works like a real gun. If you have any questions send to my instructables account. this summer i will try to make a double barrel q-tip gun!!

[manmelvin]

Would anything work besides hairspray i cant find any in my house

[mo5]

outs works the best

[toogers]

use axe/lynx spray deodorant.

[noah1r]

wd40 will work

[bneboys]

any spray works as long as its flammable i use fly spray.

[Arrgh406]

do you think engine srtarting fluid will work?

[turtleguy7]

possibly but very dangerous

[mettaurlover]

now to figure out how to make it shoot flaming toothpicks...

[skidude28]

Why's the video private?

[thomasedisonjr]

Very dangerous! That plastic pill container can explode! Plastic shards in the eye can be serious! Also, there could be pill residue on the container which could get on the swab. If the swab hits someone in the eye, the medicine could enter through the tear duct. Yes, a long shot, but these things happen. This really has the potential to send someone to intensive care! Therefore, I cannot recommend your Instructable. However, I will not deny you a compliment for cleverness.

[XkidXhavocX]

quit bein a wuss.

[Spedy]

I've made these things dozens of times, it is VERY hard to make these things explode with just butane (though this is a valid concern.) For people w/o pill bottles available, films cans make nice chambers as well.

[tigerboy]

come on get a life other than putting people down

[XkidXhavocX]

thats why u wash the bottle and wear goggles

[bigfootduck]

u could also turn this into a mini spud gun. just take a slice of potato (about 1/8" to 1/4" thick) and stamp the tip of the barrel on the potato slice. when u lift it up, there should be a little piece of potato (the same thickness as the slice u cut) stuck in the barrel. when u shoot it, it is just like a mini potato gun. i did this and it was awesome! except i used a chapstick bettle instead of a pill case and thumb tacks instead of screws.

[The Expert Noob]

your video dosent work. Maybe you should try uploading it again AND MAKING IT PUBLIC!

[imthatguy1125]

cool i have built one bet the video doesnt work

[offlogic]

I hesitate to interfere with Darwinian forces like this, but I gotta say it: You best be wrapping that pill bottle with something! Plastic frag is tough on the eyes, and doesn't show up on X-rays very well.

[mrbob1000]

cat scans my man or mri's

[bigstiffe]

mri....lets seethat stands for MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGERY where do you thinkthere might be a problem in detecting PLASTICshrapnel...hmmmm maybe..just maybePLASTIC IS NOT MAGNETIC.. just apassing of info to my dear misinformed .

[aiden120000]

so how does an mri see body parts

[Quick Comment]

You have Metal in your body, that's how. ;P

<a href="http://www.hriptc.org/metal_metabolism.html"> Here is some </a>
<a href="http://www.howstuffworks.com/mri.htm"> How MRI works </a>

[Patrik]

MRI has nothing to do with metals in your body. MRI measures the resonance of hydrogen atoms when excited by radio waves inside a very strong magnetic field.

Considering that plastics are hydrocarbon polymers, I expect they would show up on an MRI very nicely, provided you can tune the MRI for the specific signal they give off.

Plastics *are* very hard to detect on X-rays however. Much harder than glass, for example. This is why there was such a hubbub a while back about new plastic-based guns which could go undetected by airport security.

CAT scans work by taking X-ray images from all angles to reconstruct the 3D structure of the tissues. Therefore, CAT scans are going to have the same trouble with plastic shards as X-rays.

Do keep in mind that X-ray technology has advanced a *lot* over the past decades. I'm sure today's airport X-ray machines have been tuned to be able to detect plastic guns by now. And I'd bet that plastic shards would be noticeable on a modern-day X-ray, if you knew to look for them. They'll never show up as well as glass, ceramic or metal though.

[JoshMan619]

yes, Patrik is correct, i work in the medical field, and therfore know firsthand that the magnetic part of MRI deals only with how the device works to complete its goal, and therefore, the object you are looking for need be neither, magnetic, or a metal of any type.. quite simply it works through the same concept of sonar (with sound waves), and laser mapping (using, of course, lasers).. but in this case, magnetic fields are used since they can pass through objects, depending on strength, to make a 3 dimensional mapping of the terrain, or in this case person, it is applied to =]

[Quick Comment]

That's why I listed the sites to go to to look @ it in detail and put a :P that turned out to be a ;P for some godawful reason. By actually reading those articles, I kind of figured out my first reaction was wrong, albeit still funny (to me at least). But thanks for posting it in detail.

[robacarp]

even still! tape it.....

[EvilGeniouse16]

Yes, i am the same guy as below, but anyway, i have a great big caution tip, if you keep upgrading the project like i did, you will find that you need a bigger hole on the cannon barrel part of the bottle. I have had the same size hole for every project, and thanks to that set back, the cannon is in 50 million pieces, and i have lost the hearing in my right ear (my fault anyway), So i caution, the bigger the barrel, or body, the bigger the cannon exit hole has to be!

[EvilGeniuse16]

First off, thomasedisonjr, I like the cautioness, you are right, we should be safe, and fyrothepyro, i like the design, i myself couldn't find a pill bottle, so i usedthe small teabottle,WOW, be safe and build a handle if you use a tea bottle, It gets hot fast!

[Lee333]

use a tiny plastic straw and u can use bbs untill the stray melts

[jamel190]

i made one with a large pill bottle......it worked great the first 4 times....then i put 5 sprays of gasoline in it........BOOOOM!!!!!! got 2ed degree burns on my hand

[BoomBoom123]

i made one of these.Very fun. But i would sujgest taking the ignitor out of the lighter and attaching it to the bottle, to make it more compact. I have also taken the lighter fluid out and attached that to the barrel as well, and i made the barrel from a film comtainer (with the cap glued on).great concept though. really got me interested

[pandiyanrajesh]

Good and useful website for childrens and young Graduants who are really interested in creativeness in the field of science and technology.

[fosockingdude]

english?

[JoeyJaroz]

First off you stole thoes pics at the top but still good instructable and i found axe to work as a good propellent and if you soak the q-tips end it goes farther also cut and sharpen q-tip/ or putting a needle in the end is fun

[X_D_3_M_1]

its not stealin

[twitchy]

yay something to do today.... oh lil brother