Build an electric Cannon that shoots BBs - circa 1963

[Analog]

Uses a centerfuge with a toy motor...

 

[hjames]

Cute, might be hard to get "cellulose tape cans" though.

Easiest thing I can think of is to get one of those small centrifugal blower fans and clip off all but 1 (or 2 for balance) of the fins... Not quite in the airsoft category...

 

[seafian]

Hi, I'm not a native english speaker - what is/are BB ?

Thanks
Andreas

 

[Dr.EM]

Ball bearings. Metal spheres used typically to reduce friction on rotating shafts:

https://www.ted-kyte.com/3D/Pictures/Ball Bearing Exploded Complete w Cutout.jpg

 

[evandude]

perhaps more relevant, the term "BB's" often refers more specifically to ball bearings meant to be shot out of airguns:

https://www.outinstyle.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/DETAILS_CAMP5020.jpg

It's just semantics, but these airgun BB's are a whole lot cheaper than normal precision-machined ball bearings

Since this is in the ****-chat section... (true story) When I was in high school, a kid was sitting in the back of the room throwing BB's at the teacher when he wasn't looking. Eventually the teacher noticed, picked one up, and confronted the kid. He asked him "are these BB's, or are they ball bearings?", because he associated BB's with airguns and thus thought of them as contraban in a school, but apparently thought nothing of regular ball bearings, and I guess he didn't realize what 'BB' stood for and thus what a stupid question he was asking... The kid was smart enough to answer 'ball bearings' and thus not get in trouble

 

[seafian]

Ouch !

Now I fully understand. So the balls might be double effective: Once when they hit and again when they are lying on the floor ... at least when there are more than one on the ground.

In school we used to have this in a moderated version: Wettened paper balls blown through a blowpipe, e.g. a ballpoint pen sleeve. Quite disgusting ...

The more sophisticated version we did in the 70s in our outdoor games was shooting (window)putty bullets trough about 1m long solid plastic pipes (normally used for electric installations). When you were hit by these on your bare skin (short trousers etc) you could really well feel it ;-) .
Well, nowadays the youngsters play paintball

Thanks for the explanations

regards
Andreas