MARSHMALLOW SHOOTERS

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Introduction

Marshmallow guns are a great little project for you and your children. Marshmallow shooters or guns require very little money, skill and effort to make. They are the best fun toy guns you can make yourself for just a couple bucks. Since they work a lot like legos, they are constant fun when they can remake and add-on to these toys. They are great for all ages and safe (except for your indoor carpet). We heard about these cool creations from a co-worker then my sons and I went out onto the internet to research how to make one. We found the design on instructables.com, which is an excellent website for cool projects.

Materials Cost

I purchased these materials in 2006 from a home improvement center. I have listed the cost that I paid for the pieces below.
Total Cost for 1 toy gun = $2.00 (approximately)

ALL PIECES BELOW ARE 1/2 inch PVC
Length of tubing (drinking water grade) – 10 feet long $1.62
T joint – 10 pack $2.56
L joint – 10 pack $1.92
end cap – individual piece $0.23
½coupler – 10 pack (optional) $1.28

Skill Level and Time Required

Skill Level = Easy
Total time = 10 minutes

You can choose to cut the tubing with a hacksaw which is the common method. We decided to go with an old-fashioned pipe cutter. This made it possible for the younger kids to do the entire project without serious risk of injury. Please see the tip below about pipe cutter and fitting tube into pieces.

My 7 & 8 year old sons had no problems measuring and cutting the toy gun pieces. They also found it very easy to take the pieces they had and assemble them in the right order using the hand-drawn diagram that I copied from instructables.com.

Tips

  1. Use pipe cutter instead of hacksaw if you are working with younger kids.
  2. Pipe cutter will cause ends of pipe to expand slightly but they will still fit into connectors but will be tighter.
  3. Do not glue pieces together. This will allow you to take the toy gun apart if it jams or you want to add more sections to it. These toy gun pieces work a lot like Legos.
  4. Let your kids be creative and modify the design and try them out The whole Lego aspect is cool.
  5. Study physics principles as they relate to the marshmallow shooter such as velocity, trajectories and the venturi effect.
  6. Fill in the extra cavities of the toy gun that are not part of the natural passageway of the projectile marshmallow. This allows the air pressure when you blow to be more directed in the ammo’s firing pathway. We just used some toilet paper in the handles. See diagram for more details.
  7. Filling up the front handle with marshmallows for a semi-automatic weapon might sound like a good idea but the marshmallows tend to get stuck then.
  8. Fill up a sandwich baggie with mini-marshmallows and duct tape bag to the gun barrel for faster and easier loading.
  9. Marshmallows will stick to the carpet and floor in your house so keep the battles outside. This will keep mom happy . Also look out for attracting unwanted ants to these sweet treats on the ground.

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