Page 71 - 15 Dangerously Mad Projects for the Evil Genius

50 15 Dangerously Mad Projects for the Evil Genius

WARNING! What You Will Need

Though this is not a real gun, and is actually a low- You can buy laser modules from standard
power laser, you should still be aware of certain component suppliers like Farnell and RS, but they
things: tend to be very expensive. So look online, where
■ Never shine a laser into your eyes or anyone they should cost no more than two or three dollars.
else’s. You’ll need the parts shown in the Parts Bin.
■ Resist the temptation to check if the laser is on
In addition, you will also need the following
by peering into it. Always shine it onto a sheet of
tools:
paper or some other light surface.
■ The balloon-popper resistor will get very hot.
T OOLBO X
Plenty hot enough to burn you, so do not touch
it while it is on. ■ An electric drill and assorted drill bits
■ Some resistor types can produce flame when ■ A metal file
used in this way, so keep the balloon popper far
■ Epoxy resin glue or a hot glue gun
from anything flammable.
■ Soldering equipment

Assembly

The project construction is split into three parts, Assembling the Gun
with three separate parts lists and sets of
The first thing to say about the gun is that you
instructions:
don’t actually have to make it. You could just use a
■ The ray gun ready-made laser pointer. Laser pointers do not
■ The balloon popper look very gun-like, so as an alternative to this
design you could modify a pointer by adding a
■ The can jumper
handle and trigger.
The gun (Figure 5-2) is deliberately made as
The Ray Gun small and unimpressive as possible to increase the

impact of its balloon-popping and can-jumping
For the “ray gun,” you can just use a laser pen, or
capabilities. Figure 5-3 shows the schematic
build a more gun-like module using the following
diagrams for the gun. It has only a few
components.

P A RT S BIN

Part Quantity Description Source
Chassis 4 inches u-section aluminum Hardware store
(200mm)
S1 1 SP toggle switch momentary on Farnell:1550179
D1 1 3-mW red laser LED module eBay
R1 1 100 0.5 W Farnell: 9339760

Battery clip 1 PP3 battery clip Farnell: 1183124
Battery 1 PP3 9V battery