Well, sorta.
Friday was a nice warm day, all was going well. Jen home, I got the lawn mowed early, and decided it was time to start working on Fred, what with the weather supposed to be nice all week for a change.
So, I was in the back hacking apart some scrap wood, and building a quick frame to hang Fred from, so I could work on him. Jen hollers that she needed me out front, and I get there to see my Birthday/Fathers day present had arrived. A nice Air Compressor, essential to the airbrush I need, which did NOT show up.
Now, as I needed an airbrush, and looking into those they wanted $300 for the little compressors just for those, I had decided to get one decent enough to run a webcaster. So, looking around, we got a great deal on a 5CFM at 90 psi compressor. More than enough to run most tools, well more than needed for the airbrush, and brings about the possibility of me playing with pneumatic powered props in the future.
And, as I shopped for cobweb guns, I knew I was not paying the $50 most people wanted for one. I spent 2 years working as mechanic and lead in a packaging department for Fram Air Filters, on what essentially was a gigantic pneumatic hot glue gun what seems like ages ago. I may as well put the knowledge acquired there to some use, no? This was one of those projects that not only was I not afraid of, I was down right confident in doing myself.
One thing that did annoy me in the shopping, though. A lot of how-to’s used to be out there. But, they were taken down due to “commercial interest in the design”. Essentially people figured they may as well make some cash for making these guns.
It’s not exactly rocket science here. And, I was going to get my own how-to up here, but my camera battery died, and I didn’t feel like dealing with Jen’s camera. So, I found this one. Same process, they used a different gun. But, it’s not that hard to figure it out with whatever gun you get. I’ld add that a pipe cutter makes it easier, and I compressed the pipe at the end with a pair of pliers to control the airflow a bit better, and make the web casting just a bit less random.
If that one gets taken down for ‘commercial interest’, I’ll just have to make me a second gun and post a how-to of my own.
The trouble was in finding a glue gun. More wattage means faster melting of glue, means more webs, and most places only had those dang mini guns. However, Joann’s had what I needed for $10. With 40% off coupon, make that $6.
Some copper pipe, a couple fittings later, and I made myself a little $10 webshooting gun. Despite Kyle’s disbelief in my ability to do so. And, a far cry from the $50 to buy one.
I immediately set about webbing one of the patio chairs. And, boy, does this make some great webs. I’ve seen some absolute artists with the bags of stretchy webbing stuff, that can make it look great. In my hands it looks like a cotton factory exploded in the yard. With the web gun, even I can get some good looking webs up. To my surprise, they’re even a bit stretchy and can be manipulated pretty well after sprayed.
So, while my webs are not strong enough to swing from, it did make me feel just a little bit like Spider Man over the weekend, making my own webshooters. (Peter has to make web shooters in the comics, it’s not a part of the mutation from the bite, unlike the movies)
Pictures will follow soon, I got more batteries on the way.
Now…my older brother is deathly afraid of spiders, and is on vacation for the week…Maybe I should put this webshooter to good use and turn his garage into his worst nightmare…
