guys today we’re taking a look at how to
build a very simple tennis ball cannon
made almost entirely out of soup cans
we’ll show you how to construct the
cannon get it can’t it’s not that funny
and then we’ll try out a few different
types of fuel to see how it works best
all we need to get started is eight or
nine soup cans a little bit of
electrical tape and of course a can
opener here’s the basic idea several of
these cans lined up together will create
a chamber where pressure can be built up
when our fuel explodes a tennis ball
suspended about halfway down the barrel
will be launched out the front flying up
to a hundred feet of course you need to
get cans that are the right size the
tennis ball should be able to fit down
in but not have a lot of extra space on
the sides more importantly though is
that a lot of cans nowadays have a
modified bottom that’s designed to make
stacking the cans easier while the
modified shape of the bottom does make
it a lot easier to stack the cans it
makes it harder to open the bottom with
a can opener so what you’re looking for
is a can that’s the same on the top and
the bottom if you go through hands
regularly you can just save them up as
[Music]
our last two cans let’s cut off the tops
but not the bottoms with one of these
two cans we’ll leave the bottom fully
attached with the other one we want to
do a special cutting job where we leave
two connection points one sort of at the
top and one at the bottom then we’re
going to try and fold that bottom in on
itself so it can act as a support that
still lets a lot of air through with the
last can we’ll leave the bottom attached
after rinsing and drying all of our cans
it’s now time to attach them together
the one with the hole in the bottom is
the bottom of our cannon and the support
should go a little over halfway up the
cannon now using some electrical tape
we’re tightly gonna wrap a couple of
layers around the scene where two cans
meet I like to make the folded support
at the top of the fifth can that way
there are four cans above the tennis
ball and five below nine soup cans taped
together is giving us a pretty good
barrel and our tennis ball rests right
at the bottom of the fourth camp let’s
give this bad boy a little bit of
decoration so it doesn’t just look like
our soup can cannon is now all
constructed No let’s see if we can’t
fire a tennis ball out of this bad boy
when I first started researching this
project I was told that the best fuel to
use his Zippo lighter fluid although
I’ve had some problems getting it to
work consistently let’s give it a few
tries and then if that doesn’t work well
we might move on to something else now
the fuel itself is just gonna burn if we
light it on fire so the goal is to get
it to spread out inside the cans and
then just start evaporating so we have
fuel fumes filling the chamber at
hopefully just the right ratios that a
flame near the hole at the back will
ignite all of it and will create a lot
of pressure launching our tennis ball
out of the front use my little torch any
barbecue lighter a regular light or even
a match should work just as well
I’m not going to be pushing the flame
inside the can I’m just gonna try and
hmm so the Zippo lighter fluid maybe can
work really well and I just don’t know
the right secret there’s probably just
the right amount of fuel just the right
way to spread it around and just the
right amount of time to wait as it turns
into fumes I think I have an idea for
something that will work a little bit
simpler this is methanol and I’ve done
some experiments with it before and
discover that it is pretty good at
igniting almost no matter what the mix
ratio is so I’m just gonna try putting
about a capful of this down into our
cannon and see how that works well we
got better distance the ball actually
left the cannon that time although not
whoo
using the methanol we’re getting pretty
decent distance the balls are launching
40 or 50 feet but I think we can do
better you can see that the balls and
these cans are not a perfect fit this is
the closest size of cans that I was able
to find if somewhere near you sells a
can that holds the tennis ball even
better than that you’re almost certain
to get a lot more distance since we
don’t have Kansas eyes I have two
different stopgap measures we’re gonna
take to sort of improvise shrinking
these cans down first let’s try just
using a wad of paper towels and pushing
that down into the barrel that should
completely close off all the air supply
and we should get a lot more pressure in
the chamber throwing the tennis ball out
a lot harder yeah using paper towels
wadding clearly works pretty well the
other thing we want to try is
restricting the barrel down to a
slightly smaller size this sheet of
craft foam is about a dollar and when
cut to the right size should provide
several successful high-powered launches
the inside of the cans that I’m using
have an eight and a half inch radius so
I’ve cut my sheet to eight and a half
inches and I will fit this down as a
tube inside the cannon you can see that
the foam nicely fills the gaps around
the tennis ball and now it just barely
fits in let’s add a little bit of fuel
and see how much of a difference the
foam makes difference oh my gosh it hit
the tree about 40 feet up and bounced oh
my gosh
[Music]
boom that is a pan in the heat seems to
have warped the foam by just a little
bit but I’m pretty sure we can still get
some more shots out of it
[Music]
remember to check your local laws and
ordinances before building and using
something like this depending on where
you live it may not be legal to fire one
and of course always be sure you’re
doing it in a safe environment and make
sure you’re not pointing the barrel at
anything that could ever break or be
injured guys that’s not all there’s more
for you to see that little box up at the
top will transport you directly to our
last video and you should go check it
out the box at the bottom will show you
what YouTube thinks you should be
watching next and this bomb here in the
middle will subscribe you to the channel
so you never miss a video don’t forget
to ring that Bell and we will see you
the next one talk to you then [Music]
build a very simple tennis ball cannon
made almost entirely out of soup cans
we’ll show you how to construct the
cannon get it can’t it’s not that funny
and then we’ll try out a few different
types of fuel to see how it works best
all we need to get started is eight or
nine soup cans a little bit of
electrical tape and of course a can
opener here’s the basic idea several of
these cans lined up together will create
a chamber where pressure can be built up
when our fuel explodes a tennis ball
suspended about halfway down the barrel
will be launched out the front flying up
to a hundred feet of course you need to
get cans that are the right size the
tennis ball should be able to fit down
in but not have a lot of extra space on
the sides more importantly though is
that a lot of cans nowadays have a
modified bottom that’s designed to make
stacking the cans easier while the
modified shape of the bottom does make
it a lot easier to stack the cans it
makes it harder to open the bottom with
a can opener so what you’re looking for
is a can that’s the same on the top and
the bottom if you go through hands
regularly you can just save them up as
[Music]
our last two cans let’s cut off the tops
but not the bottoms with one of these
two cans we’ll leave the bottom fully
attached with the other one we want to
do a special cutting job where we leave
two connection points one sort of at the
top and one at the bottom then we’re
going to try and fold that bottom in on
itself so it can act as a support that
still lets a lot of air through with the
last can we’ll leave the bottom attached
after rinsing and drying all of our cans
it’s now time to attach them together
the one with the hole in the bottom is
the bottom of our cannon and the support
should go a little over halfway up the
cannon now using some electrical tape
we’re tightly gonna wrap a couple of
layers around the scene where two cans
meet I like to make the folded support
at the top of the fifth can that way
there are four cans above the tennis
ball and five below nine soup cans taped
together is giving us a pretty good
barrel and our tennis ball rests right
at the bottom of the fourth camp let’s
give this bad boy a little bit of
decoration so it doesn’t just look like
our soup can cannon is now all
constructed No let’s see if we can’t
fire a tennis ball out of this bad boy
when I first started researching this
project I was told that the best fuel to
use his Zippo lighter fluid although
I’ve had some problems getting it to
work consistently let’s give it a few
tries and then if that doesn’t work well
we might move on to something else now
the fuel itself is just gonna burn if we
light it on fire so the goal is to get
it to spread out inside the cans and
then just start evaporating so we have
fuel fumes filling the chamber at
hopefully just the right ratios that a
flame near the hole at the back will
ignite all of it and will create a lot
of pressure launching our tennis ball
out of the front use my little torch any
barbecue lighter a regular light or even
a match should work just as well
I’m not going to be pushing the flame
inside the can I’m just gonna try and
hmm so the Zippo lighter fluid maybe can
work really well and I just don’t know
the right secret there’s probably just
the right amount of fuel just the right
way to spread it around and just the
right amount of time to wait as it turns
into fumes I think I have an idea for
something that will work a little bit
simpler this is methanol and I’ve done
some experiments with it before and
discover that it is pretty good at
igniting almost no matter what the mix
ratio is so I’m just gonna try putting
about a capful of this down into our
cannon and see how that works well we
got better distance the ball actually
left the cannon that time although not
whoo
using the methanol we’re getting pretty
decent distance the balls are launching
40 or 50 feet but I think we can do
better you can see that the balls and
these cans are not a perfect fit this is
the closest size of cans that I was able
to find if somewhere near you sells a
can that holds the tennis ball even
better than that you’re almost certain
to get a lot more distance since we
don’t have Kansas eyes I have two
different stopgap measures we’re gonna
take to sort of improvise shrinking
these cans down first let’s try just
using a wad of paper towels and pushing
that down into the barrel that should
completely close off all the air supply
and we should get a lot more pressure in
the chamber throwing the tennis ball out
a lot harder yeah using paper towels
wadding clearly works pretty well the
other thing we want to try is
restricting the barrel down to a
slightly smaller size this sheet of
craft foam is about a dollar and when
cut to the right size should provide
several successful high-powered launches
the inside of the cans that I’m using
have an eight and a half inch radius so
I’ve cut my sheet to eight and a half
inches and I will fit this down as a
tube inside the cannon you can see that
the foam nicely fills the gaps around
the tennis ball and now it just barely
fits in let’s add a little bit of fuel
and see how much of a difference the
foam makes difference oh my gosh it hit
the tree about 40 feet up and bounced oh
my gosh
[Music]
boom that is a pan in the heat seems to
have warped the foam by just a little
bit but I’m pretty sure we can still get
some more shots out of it
[Music]
remember to check your local laws and
ordinances before building and using
something like this depending on where
you live it may not be legal to fire one
and of course always be sure you’re
doing it in a safe environment and make
sure you’re not pointing the barrel at
anything that could ever break or be
injured guys that’s not all there’s more
for you to see that little box up at the
top will transport you directly to our
last video and you should go check it
out the box at the bottom will show you
what YouTube thinks you should be
watching next and this bomb here in the
middle will subscribe you to the channel
so you never miss a video don’t forget
to ring that Bell and we will see you
the next one talk to you then [Music]
Please follow and like us: