Outback Entertainment

So now I not only have to put up with flashing lights as someone goes to the loo (previous post), but am going to have to put up with missiles and mini chutes gently floating down from nowhere. What's next, little computerized green men wandering around saying " Take me to your leader" ?
It's obviously going to get a lot weirder out there in the bush. :))))))))))

Gday Doug
Ye me and my old man used to make them all the time when i was younger - the neighbourhood kittens loved the challenge of keeping out of the way. I used to use one of those big foot pumps but i'm sure a portable air compressor would be a lot easier... Those PET bottles hold a bleep load of pressure. If you do a google search i'm sure you'll find some crazy Seppo bloke who's firing them off at 300 or so psi... those Yanks love their weapons

Hi Doug,
I will probably show my age here but I can remember when I was roughly round 8 or 9 one of my birthday presents was this exact toy ( now days it would be banned)
The rocket was plastic approx 12 inches 1.5 and you half filled it with water
It was attached to a hand pump that had a locking device at right angles.
It stated that you had a max number of pump strokes then you released the lock.
It worked well especially when over pressurised
To this day I do not know what happened to it
Ian

Doug did you have any experience with the old penny bomb guns?
Ian

Yeh my kids and I do them occationaly. The mythbusters made huge ones with water bottles and tried to launch buster.

Doug, We just go to the tyre joint and get some new valve teats and then drill a hole the same size as in a rim in the top of a water bottle cap and push the valve in.
This can then be used on any water bottle that the cap will fit.
Half fill a water bottle then put the compressor onto the valve and pump up to as high a pressure as you can get. (usually about 70 psi on a normal compressor). Hold the bottle with one hand upside down and undo the cap as quickly as possible.
This takes a while to perfect as usually most of the pressure is released before the cap is off.
As well you often get sprayed with a bit of water in the process so it is good to do it on a warm day.
Trial and error will eventually give you the right amount of water, bottle shape and size etc to get the rocket to go aout 50 metres into the air.(If you get any better than this please let us know).
I try to take a couple of these caps and valves whenever I get called out to go to a fire with the CFA, (pump up with the truck compressor and use their water bottles), as a lot of the time we spend in the hurry up and wait mode sitting on our arse and it amuses the troops for a short time.

Hey Doug

My young fella was doing this at 18 months, he used to help me wash the truck after a tour, he would get the old water bottles and play blast off as he would call it with the hose.

By the way the Pub in your rig pic is in Normanton.

Happy Birthday for the other day

Cheers Steve.