logoalt Hacker News

myself248 • today at 2:28 PM • 4 replies • view on HN

Some years back, I helped build a Twinkie cannon, which was mounted in the front of a Twinkie-decorated car, built on a dune buggy chassis. We had to remove the roll cage to fit the fluffy cake body (made of airbrushed yellow fiberglass insulation), so we made sure to drive it quite slowly, but it was a beast underneath if you wanted it to be. (I once drag-raced a pizza driver, and only afterward noticed the cop on the next streetcorner. Luckily it's hard to write a ticket while doubled-over laughing.)

The CO2-powered cannon was capable of way more power than cellophane-wrapped Twinkies can handle. Dial the regulator up past halfway, and they'd just shred on exiting the barrel, splattering anyone near the front of the car with sticky creamy filling and cake crumbs. That was both messy, and disappointing to folks down-range who'd been hoping to catch a snack. (And it immediately summoned a cleanup crew of seagulls, who then wanted more...)

So we learned to keep it modest, and developed a decent sense of pressure vs range. The car geometry allowed only limited variation of the barrel angle, so it wasn't a full-on GORILLA.BAS experience, but it was pretty close.

Culinary ballistics keeps you young. I highly encourage it.


Replies

bombcar • today at 3:13 PM

It's also true of paintball guns - it's very easy to dial them up strong enough that they just shred the paintballs.

rskeens • today at 2:56 PM

Safety wise there is also the Maude Flanders t shirt cannon example from The Simpsons (more of an indirect cause).

4d4m • today at 5:45 PM

Neat! May i ask how you got such a unique fabrication and engineering gig?

➕ show 1 reply
sellmesoap • today at 6:44 PM

Frankly HN can be a bit of a sausage fest, but this takes the cake!

➕ show 1 reply