I just moved to Colorado, and being new to the area I was really excited to find out that there is a Denver maker's meetup. For those of you who don't know, a makers meetup is where inventors and fans of Make magazine get together and talk about their inventions, ideas, and plans. It is held at a hacker space called Club Workshop on the gritty side of denver. The shop is amazing! I didn't even get a tour, but I saw a full woodworking room, a metal shop, a multi-lift automotive shop, a small textile area, and their laser cutter. This place looks like the kind of place I could definitely spend some more time.
The meetings are loosely structured, and the point is to bring and show other people what you've been working on. This particular meeting was largely filled up by Ron Kessinger. He is an artist/inventor/sculptor/prototyper and even that description doesn't even begin to properly describe him. He brought a big binder filled with photos and sketches of his previous creations. He had pictures of the giant dome house he built, really cool collimated flow water sculptures, knives, and prototypes for a variety of industries and products.
The project that really took center stage was his ping-pong ball gun. You can think of this as a variation on a potato cannon, however his is built to run on compressed air, and it runs on much tighter tolerances.
It runs off of a compressed air line and a standard wall outlet. After firing a few "dry" rounds, he proceeded to shoot off a few (ok a LOT) of ping pong balls filled with water. These things might not weight a lot, but they are moving FAST. A sheet of drywall was no match for them, and even particle board failed spectacularly when faced by a 1" sphere of water.
I have a ton of videos in a second. First here is a top view of the gun with the parts called out.
Here's the basic rundown of how this thing works.
By pushing one of the two trigger buttons (top I believe) you charge the 14 shot magazine that runs on the left side of the barrel and load a round into the cylinder. By pushing the second trigger once you begin to pressurize the gun, and by pushing it a second time you release all of the air through the mass relief valve, and then whatever is in front of the gun disappears!
I'm sure you are tired of reading, and just want to look at some videos of things getting shot. Here you go!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glvIJLeepck[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLrpo2P8oQI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBPuI9u_Oi8[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx_wt32aCJQ[/youtube]
If you are watching this and absolutely NEED to have one (and want to pony up the bucks for it!) I might be able to get in touch with Ron and see what he says...
31 responses so far ↓
1 Web News Site » Blog Archive » Ping-pong gun packs major punch! // Sep 4, 2009 at 5:32 am
[...] tennis … a very short game as well – eep! =( For more pics, vids, and info, head over to the TINYenormous blog Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Made On Earth | Digg this! Posted by [...]
2 Ping-pong gun packs major punch! » Developages - Development and Technology Blog // Sep 4, 2009 at 5:41 am
[...] Dang! That’d make for one rough game of table tennis … a very short game as well – eep! =( For more pics, vids, and info, head over to the TINYenormous blog [...]
3 Ping pong cannon blasts through drywall and particle board // Sep 4, 2009 at 7:00 am
[...] Lethal Pneumatic Ping Pong Ball Gun [TINYenormous via MAKE] Tweet ThisTipcrunchgear419:http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/09/04/ping-pong-cannon-blasts-through-drywall-and-particle-board/SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Ping pong cannon blasts through drywall and particle board", url: "http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/09/04/ping-pong-cannon-blasts-through-drywall-and-particle-board/" }); Meebo.exec("makeAllSharable", { rootElement: "post-110698", minWidth: 10, minHeight: 10, url: "http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/09/04/ping-pong-cannon-blasts-through-drywall-and-particle-board/" }); Previous Post [...]
4 Ping-pong gun packs major punch! · LR2 Blogs // Sep 4, 2009 at 9:55 am
[...] Dang! That’d make for one rough game of table tennis … a very short game as well – eep! =( For more pics, vids, and info, head over to the TINYenormous blog [...]
5 Пресата presata.com» Blog Archive » This Pneumatic Gun Can Put a Ping Pong Ball Through a Sheet of Plywood [Badass] // Sep 4, 2009 at 4:05 pm
[...] slams one at you with a paddle, it never hurts all that much. This pneumatic cannon changes that. [TinyEnormous via [...]
6 This Pneumatic Gun Can Put A Ping Pong Ball Through A Sheet Of Plywood | Gizmodo Australia // Sep 4, 2009 at 6:14 pm
[...] slams one at you with a paddle, it never hurts all that much. This pneumatic cannon changes that. [TinyEnormous via Make] Tagged:cannonsclipsgunsping pongpneumatic [...]
7 OhMyGeek! – Las pelotas de PingPong sí hacen daño // Sep 4, 2009 at 7:41 pm
[...] estás más interesado puedes visitar el blog del creador (y de paso ver más videos de la pistola en [...]
8 Technology blog » This Pneumatic Gun Can Put a Ping Pong Ball Through a Sheet of Plywood [Badass] // Sep 4, 2009 at 8:59 pm
[...] slams one at you with a paddle, it never hurts all that much. This pneumatic cannon changes that. [TinyEnormous via [...]
9 This Pneumatic Gun Can Put a Ping Pong Ball Through a Sheet of Plywood [Badass] | 0t4.net // Sep 4, 2009 at 11:04 pm
[...] slams one at you with a paddle, it never hurts all that much. This pneumatic cannon changes that. [TinyEnormous via [...]
10 This Pneumatic Gun Can Put a Ping Pong Ball Through a Sheet of Plywood [Badass] // Sep 5, 2009 at 12:23 am
[...] slams one at you with a paddle, it never hurts all that much. This pneumatic cannon changes that. [TinyEnormous via [...]
11 Ping Pong Ball Cannon Shoots Through Drywall | We Interrupt // Sep 5, 2009 at 1:17 am
[...] [Tiny Enormous] –Thanks Tony V. [...]
12 The Lethal Pneumatic Ping Pong Ball Gun · TechBlogger // Sep 5, 2009 at 1:29 am
[...] [via Gizmodo - Tinyenormous] [...]
13 The Lethal Pneumatic Ping Pong Ball Gun | Technology News // Sep 5, 2009 at 1:39 am
[...] [via Gizmodo - Tinyenormous] [...]
14 The Lethal Pneumatic Ping Pong Ball Gun | Technology - Cyooh.com // Sep 5, 2009 at 3:06 am
[...] [via Gizmodo - Tinyenormous] [...]
15 TheTechnologySources.com » Blog Archive » The Lethal Pneumatic Ping Pong Ball Gun // Sep 5, 2009 at 6:00 am
[...] his is built to run on compressed air, and it runs on much tighter tolerances. [via Gizmodo - Tinyenormous] Posted in General | Leave a [...]
16 This Pneumatic Gun Can Put a Ping Pong Ball Through a Sheet of Plywood [Badass] | Trends For Teens // Sep 5, 2009 at 6:33 am
[...] slams one at you with a paddle, it never hurts all that much. This pneumatic cannon changes that. [TinyEnormous via [...]
17 Pingpongbal-geweer maakt pingpongballen gevaarlijk! | Freshgadgets.nl - Gadgets, technologie en wetenschap // Sep 5, 2009 at 7:54 am
[...] In de onderstaande filmpjes zie je het pingpong-bal geweer in actie. Voor meer info en plaatjes kijk je op Tinyenormous.com. [...]
18 This Pneumatic Gun Can Put a Ping Pong Ball Through a Sheet of Plywood [Badass] | Tech stuff center // Sep 5, 2009 at 8:10 am
[...] slams one at you with a paddle, it never hurts all that much. This pneumatic cannon changes that. [TinyEnormous via [...]
19 This Pneumatic Gun Can Put a Ping Pong Ball Through a Sheet of Plywood [Badass] | Consumer Electronics Newz // Sep 5, 2009 at 12:46 pm
[...] slams one at you with a paddle, it never hurts all that much. This pneumatic cannon changes that. [TinyEnormous via [...]
20 The Lethal Pneumatic Ping Pong Ball Gun | Student Tech News // Sep 5, 2009 at 5:24 pm
[...] [via Gizmodo - Tinyenormous] [...]
21 Ping Pong Gun Deals Lethal Damage | Mobile Jewels // Sep 7, 2009 at 3:52 am
[...] TinyEnormous ] VIA [ CrunchGear [...]
22 Ping Pong Gun Deals Lethal Damage // Sep 7, 2009 at 4:05 am
[...] TinyEnormous ] VIA [ CrunchGear [...]
23 This Pneumatic Gun Can Put a Ping Pong Ball Through a Sheet of Plywood [Badass] | Iphone Study Blog // Sep 7, 2009 at 8:58 am
[...] slams one at you with a paddle, it never hurts all that much. This pneumatic cannon changes that. [TinyEnormous via [...]
24 Ping Pong, Killerspiel « 11k2 // Sep 7, 2009 at 9:33 am
[...] tinyenormous via [...]
25 Ping Pong Gun Deals Lethal Damage | Diy all the Way // Sep 7, 2009 at 11:06 am
[...] TinyEnormous ] VIA [ CrunchGear [...]
26 lethal pneumatic ping pong gun: ’nuff said. | Technology - Cyooh.com // Sep 8, 2009 at 12:12 pm
[...] TinyEnormous via [...]
27 Mike Stanczyk // Sep 16, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Here’s the video of the cannon firing through the wood board: http://blip.tv/file/2610748
28 cheanoeun // Sep 17, 2009 at 10:58 am
aproxomately how much would this gun be if i bought each of the parts separetly
29 TinyEnormous // Sep 20, 2009 at 12:43 pm
cheanoeun – I don’t know because I didn’t build it myself, but I do know it requires some pricey parts and some high precision machining. It would not be cheap, that’s for sure…
30 Ping-pong launcher your wife can’t know about - Hack a Day // Nov 2, 2009 at 10:01 am
[...] local hacker space are better left a secret when you return home for the evening. Case in point, this ping-pong ball launcher that can put holes in a sheet of OSB. The projectile is made more lethal because the ball has been injected with water to dramatically [...]
31 Lethal ping pong ball gun? - GRIMT3CH // Nov 2, 2009 at 11:39 am
[...] by art on Nov.02, 2009, under Funny, Hacks What do you get when you mix compressed air, a ping pong ball, a little H20, and some ingenuity? The ping pong ball gun of DOOM!!!! See more here. [...]
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