How to make a marshmallow gun By Eric J. Wilhelm
This marshmallow gun (marshmallow shooter) will completely surprise you with its accuracy, range, and ease of construction. Plus, it’s tons of fun and a lot better than any store-bought toy because it encourages modifications.
1. Get the plans
You can find the plans for the marshmallow shooter on the Instructables page for this project (see URL below).
Materials:
22" of 1/2” PVC pipe (1/2” is a the nominal diameter, its actual outer diameter is closer to 7/8")
PVC end caps (2)
PVC three-way junctions (2)
PVC elbows (2)
Figure A: Testing out the marshmallow shooter. The face shield was made from a plastic 2-liter bottle.
2. Cut the PVC and assemble
Cut one length of 7" and five lengths of 3". Hacksawing is a good choice for this step. A How to Hacksaw tutorial can be found here: www.instructables.com/id/Hacksaw.
Lay out your pieces and assemble them. Friction should hold them all together.
3. Test your shooter
Put on your safety glasses. Point the gun in a safe direction. Load a mini-marshmallow into the mouthpiece, seal your lips to the mouthpiece, and give the gun a quick burst of air. Yes, the marshmallow does go around all those curves. Pretty cool, huh?! Keep your ammunition sealed. Dry marshmallows don’t work very well.
Clean up your marshmallows when you’re done. Especially, don’t leave any around roads: they will attract animals that could be hit by cars.
Eric J. Wilhelm is the founder and CEO of Instructables. He has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from MIT and is a co-founder of Squid Labs.
Figure B: All of the parts cut out
Figure C: The pieces laid out and ready for assembly
Figure D: How to hold and fire the marshmallow shooter
Figure E: Seal the mouthpiece. You can do this either by putting your lips inside of it or sealing your lips around it.
User Notes
Marshmallow Shooter Hack Attack!
By Zot O’Connor
About a week before taking my family of five kids to Las Vegas for the BlackHat and DefCon computer security conferences, one night, my son Aidan went off on a tangent about this S-shaped thing he’d seen online that fired mini-marshmallows. He asked if we could build one. I was skeptical, but as home schoolers, I said we could sure give it a try.
I researched online and found the “Marshmallow Shooter” Instructable. That night, we built one and I was shocked at how well it worked. We built another. I used this project to show Aidan how to use a hack saw, mitre box, rasps, and other tools. The next evening, the whole family built more and a gunfight broke out. Mayhem (and fun) ensued. “We should make a bunch and bring ’em to DefCon!” Aidan shouted. And with that, a plan was hatched, Before we knew it, we’d packed ourselves and our candy arsenal into the van and were heading for Vegas.
At DefCon, my first order of business was handing a gun to conference organizer Dark Tangent. Aidan showed DT how to work it. We heard of him using it for days afterward. By Saturday, I was having way too much fun shooting people in the hallways. Soon, we’d given out all our guns. We still had a long night of parties…so instead of dinner, my wife and I drove to Home Depot and bought materials. We made about eight more shooters and took them to the parties. I’d love to say that eventually we grew tired of blasting people with mini-marshmallows, that we acted our age, but I can’t claim anything but that we had tremendous fun.
