Pipes and Fittings

Contributed by Brian Brunsting

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We bought all the pieces and had the kids assemble “kits” for themselves. We then had each cadet cut a 2 foot piece of the 1/2 inch PVC with a PVC cutter (that works much nicer than a hacksaw). We estimated that each “kit” cost from $4 to $5 each. We haven’t had the kids glue any pieces together yet, but that isn’t necessary to make good use of the guns and fill our parking lot with marshmallows. I would encourage you to buy more pvc than you think you need to give the kids extra to play with and customize their guns a bit. The length of the pvc parts don’t really matter very much.

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Since we had so much fun I also made a gun along with my kids.

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For my daughter’s gun I bought a small joiner piece of pvc that served as a nice suppresor on the end of the barrel (I drilled some small holes along the side just to look cool). She used some cool looking duct tape on the straight pvc. See photo.

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My son wanted a much longer suppressor, so for that we used a piece of slightly larger pvc. I had to use a dremel tool to shave off some of the inside diameter to fit it over the 1/2 inch pipe. That we glued on. We spray painted it black (no primer needed). See photo.

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My gun also used the larger pvc for the suppressor. The extra length of my gun was actually very inexpensive. Most of the cost of these kits is in the angle pieces, not the main pvc. My gun also has a laser “site”. It doesn’t really help much, but it sure looks cool and the laser (stylus/laser/flashlight) was only $1 at the dollar store. The butt end of my gun I bent some pvc by heating it with a candle. I learned that at the last regional conference when making bottle launchers. I offset the pvc where I load the marshmallow so it was easier to access when blowing. Very easy to change since nothing but the suppressor is glued. See photo.