The Q-Pick Blowgun

by trans4mation

20K20737

Intro: The Q-Pick Blowgun

If you're like me, you always love making little gadgets and stuff out of trash or stuff around the house. Here is the Q-Pick Blowgun instructions! Strike fear into the hearts of your foe! Dont let it's size fool you, this blowgun can pierce cardboard and is made out of stuff you should find around the office or house. By making this you will learn how to use tools and measurments, basic stuff. Play safe and have fun, here's how to make it! :)

STEP 1: The Materials You Need!

For this project you will need:

3 Pens

4 Q-Tip Ear Swabs

8 Toothpicks

A Sports Drink or Milk Jug Lid

A Toothpaste or Lipbalm Cap

2 Paperclips

And (Of course!) DuckTape!

Tools:

Scissors

Hobby knife or blade

Needle nose pliers

Hot glue gun (optional)

STEP 2: Pen Dissection!

Time to take apart your pens! Remove the nose, ink cartridge and end cap, and discard everything except the pen tube. Repeat with the other two. Make sure the inside of the tube is smooth and nothing is in the way, as if you were to use it like a straw.

STEP 3: Connecting the Tubes!

Take the hollow tubes you took apart from your pens and line them up perfectly so that it is flush and smooth on the inside, basically making a long straw. Then wrap it all up with duck tape! Make sure it's steady and strong but dont use too much.

STEP 4: Add the Paperclips!

Now get out your needle nose pliers and twist the paperclips into a straight line. Line them up with your long tube at the intersecting points of your pens under the duct tape. The point of this is to reinforce and strengthen your pen housing so that it stays straight and doesn't bend. Add more duct tape over the paperclip attaching the paperclip to the tube.

STEP 5: I Tip My Cap to You Sir!

Take your sports drink cap and get out your hobby knife. Cut a hole in the middle slightly larger than the pen so that it may slide onto the pen but still be snug.

STEP 6: Tiny Hole Carving

Now make 8 tiny holes evenly spaced apart around the edges of the cap, just big enough for toothpicks to fit through, if they're a little big thats okay. 

STEP 7: Time to Brush

Take your toothpaste cap or lip balm lid and carve a hole in the middle big enough for the pen to snugly fit through. This step is very similar to that of the last steps.

STEP 8: Its Ammo Time!

Time to construct your blowgun ammo! Take your Q-tip and cut it in half. Take one of the halves and shove the toothpick into the hard end of the half swab. Then securely wrap in duck tape!

STEP 9: Some Assembly Required

Time to assemble! Take your lids and slide them onto the tube around 3 to 4 inches away from the end as shown. Optional, use a hot glue gun to secure in place.

STEP 10: Finishing Touches

Almost done! Take your ammo and push them into the blowgun dart holder as shown, that way you can have up to 8 ammo when you're playing with it! Then add some duct tape of your choice and customize it, I used some green stripes on mine :) Have fun and be safe, hope you enjoyed this ible! Please like if you want more and please be sure to vote for me in the contests! Have a great day!

29 Comments

Ryantgarrison14 9 years ago

This was a pretty cool project but it hurts to get shot haha

stark5836 9 years ago

I put two of the confetti launcher things from Fourth of July (when you pull the sting and confetti comes out) and now it is a blow dart/ confetti blaster!!! Thanks for the idea for te blow dart!!! Keep it up!!!

zephyr14 10 years ago

How does it fire?? Ur probably thinking I'm a noob but I've got no idea :(

trans4mation 10 years ago

No problem Zepher14! A basic blowgun has ammo inside the chamber called a blowdart, and the firing process involves putting your mouth on the end and blowing on it, thus building up pressure behind the projectile and launching it. I hope that explained it well!

HyperCrafter 10 years ago

dude, u copied from the book mini weapons of mass destruction!!!

trans4mation 10 years ago

Well as you can see I gave the author his credit for the general construction, however if you view the instructable you will see its quite different. :-) Merry Christmas!

trans4mation 10 years ago

It depends on what size q-tip you use, mine can shoot across a room no problem-o!

trans4mation 10 years ago

I'm not sure, I never tried measuring the distance. It goes pretty darn far!

yapoyo 11 years ago

this step is hard.

yapoyo 11 years ago

this is cool, bu you copied from the book Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2. Just saying.

trans4mation 11 years ago

I have found many other ibles from that book on this website, and yes, if you look below, you can see I got this idea from that book, but mine is not entirely the same. Have a good day!

yapoyo 11 years ago

oh. looks like i didn't notice that comment. Looks like i am just a useless troll...

MechanicalMashup 11 years ago

Off topic but...

I see you used iMovie to edit your video. But I do not have that theme. Where did you get it from?

trans4mation 11 years ago

Well first off, it was the iMovie on my iPhone (I'm not sure if it's different much from on a computer), second, it was in the newest update of iMovie, and third, it was under the trailers option, not traditional movie of movie. Hope this helps! :)
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