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First, I know, it's actually a slug-canon. But slug-a-pult just sounds much cooler.
The Slug, every garden owners worst nightmare. (I know, snails are a bit of a pest as well, but I would like to focus on the slug today).
There are many ways to fight the slugs in your garden.
You can put a little salt on them (they will melt).
You can use slugpellets, but there is usualy poison in them. Not very nice for the animals that eat the poisoned slugs.
You can make a slug-kabab (or slug-on-a-stick), but I don't think many would like to see that on a grill.
You can pick them up and throw them in the neighbours garden (but your neighbour will probably throw them back the next day).
And so on....
There are many ways to get rid of a slug but non as satisfying as the use of the Slug-a-pult.
You can shoot the slug a fair distance, and prevent the neighbour from throwing your old slugs back in your garden.
It is also much more fun to shoot the slug, the only icky bit is that you will have to pick up the slug and either train it to crawl into the barrel or you will have to force it in (the first option could be a little time consuming).
And to top it all off. I just like to think I give the slug a small chance to survive, and give it the ride of its life in the process. I'll bet that the slug will never have traveled this fast, this must be like warp speed in slug-land.
p.s. I noticed that some comments I made in the pictures don't seem to stay where I placed them but end up all over the place, so if that's a bit messy, don't blame me, I didn't shake my monitor that hard....
And before I forget, english is not my native language so there could be some mistakes here and there...
The Slug, every garden owners worst nightmare. (I know, snails are a bit of a pest as well, but I would like to focus on the slug today).
There are many ways to fight the slugs in your garden.
You can put a little salt on them (they will melt).
You can use slugpellets, but there is usualy poison in them. Not very nice for the animals that eat the poisoned slugs.
You can make a slug-kabab (or slug-on-a-stick), but I don't think many would like to see that on a grill.
You can pick them up and throw them in the neighbours garden (but your neighbour will probably throw them back the next day).
And so on....
There are many ways to get rid of a slug but non as satisfying as the use of the Slug-a-pult.
You can shoot the slug a fair distance, and prevent the neighbour from throwing your old slugs back in your garden.
It is also much more fun to shoot the slug, the only icky bit is that you will have to pick up the slug and either train it to crawl into the barrel or you will have to force it in (the first option could be a little time consuming).
And to top it all off. I just like to think I give the slug a small chance to survive, and give it the ride of its life in the process. I'll bet that the slug will never have traveled this fast, this must be like warp speed in slug-land.
p.s. I noticed that some comments I made in the pictures don't seem to stay where I placed them but end up all over the place, so if that's a bit messy, don't blame me, I didn't shake my monitor that hard....
And before I forget, english is not my native language so there could be some mistakes here and there...
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Signing UpStep 1Parts and Tools
The parts you will need to built this project will depend on what you can find around the house. And there are not a lot of parts in this project so you might have everything allready.
You can use just about any container you can find for a combustion chamber. But please be a wise Slug-shooter and never use something like a glass jar. There is always the slight possibility that the combustion chamber explodes in your hand, it is not a wise thing to end up with a face full of glass!!
The parts I used to build my Slug-a-pult:
1 plastic container with lid (I think the volume is about 250ml or 15 cubic inch)
1 piece of 3/4" PVC pipe, length is about 30Cm (1 foot)
1 PVC sleeve (I hope I picked the right translation for this one) that will fit tightly on the PVC pipe
1 lighter with a piezo ignition
1 piece of solid core copper wire (I think I used somewhere around 0,7mm² or Gauge 19 but you can use any gauge you can fit)
1 piece of duct tape and some hot glue (there are better ways to glue the pieces together but hotglue is the fastest to cure)
1 can of fuel. Hairspray will probably work just fine but I like to use "Starter spray" (used for starting old/stubborn combustion engines), it usualy contains Diethyl Ether. This will anesthetize the slug and put it in a mild sleep just before launch. This way, when the slug wakes up after the landing it will be very confused and can't find it's way back to your garden.
The Tools I used:
A small saw
A cordless drill
A hobby knife
A hammer
A hot glue gun
A small small screwdriver
Some small pliers
But as it is with the parts, use what you can, need or have.
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I tried to shoot a very smal slug one time and it shot about 2 meters. But i have to admit, the sound it made, had me laughing for the next half hour. That was the wettest fart i ever heard :o)
We have a pear-tree in our garden and i think we will end up with well over 100Kilo's of pears (again). We like pears, but not that much. So we will have a healthy suply of perfectly shootable pears. I guess everybody has some fruit or vegy plant with some left-over's.
Use this as a plug behind the snail as a perfect seal. This way the snail even has an in flight meal.
I haven't tried lightergas so far (I have 2 can's of startergas and my car just keeps starting on it's own so I have to empty them this way ;o)
But i think it should work. I guess that every flamable gas could be used, though not every gas has the same power. Some gasses burn faster than others so it might even be a better solution then the can's i have to empty.