Making holes in plywood - using a candle!

[Cheshirechappie]

Can you make holes in plywood by firing a candle from a musket?

Watch and find out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orO3PxLPiKU

(PS - Chemists must all have a slightly mad streak in them somewhere!)

 

[YorkshireMartin]

Can you make holes in plywood by firing a candle from a musket?

Watch and find out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orO3PxLPiKU

(PS - Chemists must all have a slightly mad streak in them somewhere!)

We used to shoot wax from air pistols at each others arses as kids. It did kinda hurt.

Checkout the video about gold from the same channel. It was made inside the bank of england bullion vault. Quite an eye opener, particularly when you realise that the American vaults are 20x the size.....

 

[NazNomad]

'Take Your Firearm To School Day' was very popular back then.

 

[YorkshireMartin]

'Take Your Firearm To School Day' was very popular back then.

It was! I did it once with a webley tempest. I did get into trouble but certainly there was no question of getting 5 years in prison or whatever. We just plinked at tin cans behind then local church. This was only 1994.

It does make you wonder what the hell happened in the mean time.

 

[NazNomad]

It does make you wonder what the hell happened in the mean time.

The Americanisation of Britain is what happened.

 

[ED65]

Anyone remember the kids' show "Don't Just Sit There" from the 70s? I think that was the title, it had Magnus Pike (edityke) in it anyway. On one episode they shot lard through plywood, clearly not an image you forget in a hurry.

 

[owsnap]

oh gosh.. what's with the hair?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I had a form teacher who used to make films. I did a roaring trade in bamboo pea shooters and one day he asked to film apparently hitting my friends ear from the other side of the room - he said as I was unlikely to be able to do it, just to pretend. My friend spent the rest of the afternoon in sick bay having a haw removed from his ear.
And no, I'm not taking bets on doing it again.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

'Take Your Firearm To School Day' was very popular back then.

It was! I did it once with a webley tempest. I did get into trouble but certainly there was no question of getting 5 years in prison or whatever. We just plinked at tin cans behind then local church. This was only 1994.

It does make you wonder what the hell happened in the mean time.

I remember as a scout about 50 yrs ago going to church and dropping my knife in the box outside the door that was left there for the purpose. You picked it up again on the way out. Most of my friends in the 10+ age group had their own 410 shot guns. people neither got stabbed nor shot ... weird..

 

[doctor Bob]

I think the USA and Russia have taken this idea a step further with Railguns.
A bit of plastic the size of your thumb can be fired through 4" of armour plating causing devastation upon piecing.

 

[NazNomad]

...people neither got stabbed nor shot ... weird..

Weapons don't kill people. Morons with weapons kill people.

8)

 

[Eric The Viking]

Anyone remember the kids' show "Don't Just Sit There" from the 70s? I think that was the title, it had Magnus Pike (edityke) in it anyway. On one episode they shot lard through plywood, clearly not an image you forget in a hurry.

"WDYSOYTSAGOADSLBI," usually abbreviated to just "Why Don't You..."

Huge fun - I used to work on parts of it in Bristol - very happy days and a really nice bunch on the production team.

E.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I remember as a scout about 50 yrs ago going to church and dropping my knife in the box outside the door that was left there for the purpose. You picked it up again on the way out. Most of my friends in the 10+ age group had their own 410 shot guns. people neither got stabbed nor shot ... weird..

I still have my sheath knife from my days in the school scout troop. We were expected to wear them, correctly, on parade, and every scout in the troop was supposed to have one.

On camp, there was inevitably a bit of knife throwing practice, but the first people to step in at any sign of knife stupidity were the older scouts - it was considered a disgrace. I don't remember anyone ever being hurt by a sheath knife, and actually most people thought them rather unnecessary - decent Swiss army knives got you far more kudos than a big sheath knife, and a properly sharp sheath knife in turn was better than a big blunt one. Back then I never did master the skill, but mine is now kept safe, and decently sharp!*

E.

*It wasn't expensive, and the steel is stainless and rather too soft for a really good edge.

 

[novocaine]

...people neither got stabbed nor shot ... weird..

Weapons don't kill people. Morons with weapons kill people.

8)

Unfortunately that describes a large percentage of the population.

note: a knife isn't a weapon until you want it to be one, to me a knife is a tool, just like a screwdriver, shame it isn't seen this way anymore.

 

[John Brown]

It does make you wonder what the hell happened in the mean time.

The Americanisation of Britain is what happened.

Eh? In what way is that relevant? Please explain.

 

[AndyT]

Thanks CC!

I've only just got round to watching the video. When I first read your post, I thought to myself "yes, you can - I saw it done when I was at school, by some old ex-military type."

I now know, from the video, that it was indeed Colonel Shaw himself that I watched do it. It was part of an evening of gratifyingly explosive demonstrations, performed in a nearby school. I remember the occasion, and the candle shooting, but had forgotten his name.

I think he might have also done something to show how a marsh gas will-o-the-wisp was formed, and how it could burst into flames. And there was definitely hydrogen gas accelerating along a long glass tube, making a marvellous rocket noise. Just the sort of thing for enquiring schoolboys!

 

[Giff]

Well it works....I suppose if you haven't got a Forstner the right size ? )

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Thanks CC!

I've only just got round to watching the video. When I first read your post, I thought to myself "yes, you can - I saw it done when I was at school, by some old ex-military type."

I now know, from the video, that it was indeed Colonel Shaw himself that I watched do it. It was part of an evening of gratifyingly explosive demonstrations, performed in a nearby school. I remember the occasion, and the candle shooting, but had forgotten his name.

I think he might have also done something to show how a marsh gas will-o-the-wisp was formed, and how it could burst into flames. And there was definitely hydrogen gas accelerating along a long glass tube, making a marvellous rocket noise. Just the sort of thing for enquiring schoolboys!

The whole YouTube Channel "Periodic Table of Videos" is well worth perusing, especially if you fancy a change from 'X-Factor Dancing on Ice' on the telly, or 'cute cat' videos. There is a serious application to the 'firing a candle through a barn door' experiment, in that some materials behave very differently if worked very fast (high strain rates) to they way they behave if worked at more normal rates. I'm not sure whether that applies to wood - it certainly does to some metals.

It did seem like great fun, though!

 

[ED65]

There is a serious application to the 'firing a candle through a barn door' experiment, in that some materials behave very differently if worked very fast (high strain rates) to they way they behave if worked at more normal rates. I'm not sure whether that applies to wood - it certainly does to some metals.

Can do: welding wood.