Mini Matchstick Gun – The Clothespin Pocket Pistol

this little pocket pistol will shoot a
matchstick with power blast toothpicks
into fruit and lob fiery darts over 20
feet away in this project we’re turning
your boring old clothes pins into a
powerful arsenal of desktop weaponry all
we need for this project is some wood
glue a utility knife and a simple closed
pin just make sure it’s the wooden kind
with the metal spring all right let’s
get started by pushing on the clothespin
sideways so we can break the tension and
remove the spring next we’ll need to
hold the two wooden pieces back to back
so the notches line up near the center
like this now let’s make a marking on
the top piece about half an inch from
the hole and an angled marking on the
bottom that we’ll cut out later
now just for convenience I’ve gone ahead
and filled in all the areas that will
need to be chiseled out so grab your
utility knife and carefully carve out
all the areas marked in blue the long
channel we just made here is going to be
one half of our gun barrel let’s go
ahead and carve the other half into the
bottom piece as well then cut out a
notch where we made that other mark
earlier with our two pieces cut and
pressed together you should have
something that looks like this okay it’s
time to make this permanent so why don’t
we try using a dab of wood glue on a
scrap piece of paper then carefully
slide the pieces through it giving them
both an even coating now simply press
the two sides together wiping away any
excess glue and let it sit for a bit
after about five to ten minutes it
should be just strong enough for us to
attach the spring push one end of the
spring into the inner chamber and hook
the other end over the outside notch
with a spring in place your pocket gun
is finished and ready for action all we
need now are some wooden matchsticks
that we could use as ammunition and they
should slide loosely into the barrel you
can see that as we continue pushing the
match the gun itself automatically
and is instantly ready to fire
you can hold it just like a little
pistol and when you’re ready to shoot
simply pull the trigger it’s amazing to
see just how much power is stored in the
spring that’s evident by how it slams
forward in just a fraction of a second
blasting our projectile overt when
eat away now let’s see if this can work
with toothpicks as well if we snap off
one of the sharp ends it exposes a
broader surface which just might work
why don’t we go ahead and test it out on
an apple you can see that from a
distance of about six inches there’s
just enough power to impale the surface
of course the closer you are the deeper
it penetrates and it’s impressive to see
the results are all fairly consistent
now I went ahead and put together a
whole battery of these tabletop toys and
experimented with different ways to
handle and fire them I discovered a
technique for lighting the matches first
then lobbing the fiery darts high into
the air which of course should only be
done outdoors and with adults
supervision if the tip of your gun looks
like this feel free to customize it so
it looks a little cleaner another option
is to carve the end back and smooth out
the barrel with a drill bit well now you
know how to take any ordinary clothespin
and turn it into a mini weapon of mass
satisfaction if you liked this project
perhaps you’ll like some others check
them out at the king of random calm this
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