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Homemade CD Shooter?

Posted by Cliff on from the careful-you-don't-take-someone's-head-off dept.

Rinisari asks: "I've recently come into a very large amount of defunct, yet still structurally intact, CDs. I did some searching about on Google, but turned up nothing on my goal: A Compact Disc Cannon. Has anyone ever built a device for shooting CDs in a horizontal or vertical fashion? I'm thinking almost something like one of those foam disc shooters..."

6 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. I don't see why you can't build one.... by herrvinny · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have one of those foam disk shooting things, and from what I can tell, all it consists of is two rapidly rotating, short cylinders. When the trigger is pulled, a simple spring mechanism pushes the foam disk forward slightly, bringing the disk into contact with the rotating cylinders (which are positioned on either side of the launching route). The disk hits both rotating cylinders, and then gets accelerated quickly out of the launcher.

    You should be able to build this mechanism with little difficulty; the only problem might be that the CD's may be too fragile to be quickly accelerated in such a matter.

  2. Ballista by Bishop · · Score: 3, Informative

    Build a balista. You will need to build a specific "cup" to hold the CD.

    An advantage to a balista is that once you tire of shooting CDs you can switch to other fun projectiles >:->

  3. Survival Research Labratories Pitching Machine by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Survival Research Labratories developed a pitching machine which pitches 2x4's at 200 mph at a target up to 800 feet away.

    An engine, two car wheels and a loading mechanism. You could use a similar mechanism for your CD 'tosser'.

    But please, always remember to wear your safety goggles. And safety gloves. And a safety shirt...

    --
    "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
  4. Re:Have you ever thrown a CD? by Cuthalion · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've had no problems throwing cds 75m, when there wasn't a lot of wind. I was throwing like a hammer frisbee throw.

    --
    Trees can't go dancing
    So do them a big favor
    Pretend dancing stinks!
  5. Hammerhead by sunoke · · Score: 3, Informative

    Someone tried to do something like that with technic lego (and succeded). Take a look at his page.

    --
    I will adapt
  6. One possibility by Daniel+Rutter · · Score: 3, Informative

    Disc guns that actually shoot straight are a tricky engineering challenge, but the "Shot-Blade" pretty much solves it; I reviewed it a while ago. The Shot-Blade has a lot more spring power than it needs to shoot its little lightweight projectiles; I could see it being reworked into a CD launcher of some kind.