The Mothership used to be a Cub Scout leader. Periodically, whilst playing with The Girls, she is reminded of the utterly brilliant projects she used to make with her tribe of boys. Only recently she recalled this which may actually be the best craft ever and perfect for Jubilee Weekend: How to make a Toilet Roll Cannon.
You need:
a toilet roll tube
a cork
two bottle lids
a wooden skewer
a small balloon
a nail or pin
some flour
Firstly you need to make your cannon. Taking your bottle lids (actually I trimmed the bottoms from two paper cups) pierce with skewer. You might find it easiest to make a small hole first. You then need to thread one ‘wheel’ on, then pass the skewer through one end of your toilet roll (make a small hole first for ease) and out the other side, before threading on the other wheel.
Once the wheels are in place, snap off the pointed end of the skewer and cover the exposed skewer with a slice of cork. Glue each slice of cork into place to prevent the wheels falling of the axle. Under the opposite end of the toilet roll tube, glue the remaining cork. This creates a rest for the open end of the cannon and points it up and away.
Finally make a small hole in the top edge of the cannon, somewhere between the wheels. Think of this as the fuse hole.
Next you need to take your balloon and, before inflating, tip about a teaspoon of flour (or powdered paint) into it.
Thread the balloon in to the cannon, so that the open end is at the rear of the cannon and the bulbous end will be at the front of the cannon. Inflate your balloon inside the cannon and tie in a knot, keeping the pressure as tight as possible.
Next make sure that your cannon is on a solid surface in an open area facing away from nearby people.
To fire your cannon, press the nail or pin sharply downwards through the ‘fuse’ hole and into the balloon. Ka-boom!
Hmmm. Not working.
It is at this juncture I should like to say that Mothership and I repeated this experiment five times. And five times we failed to ‘fire’ our cannon. If you have any idea why, please get in touch. This should work. In fact, popping the flour-filled balloon independently of the cannon worked a treat. We are subject to the vagaries of The Mothership’s memory and she is getting on a bit, but if you succeed in getting yours to work, we would both love to hear from you.
What should have happened
Hey, you can try to insert a smaller balloon.
(6 inch balloon)
Close the whole on the back with a large 11 inch balloon.
(wrap it arround like a balloon drum.
fill the balloon with enough powder.
then you need to make some tape on the balloon hole, where you want to go inside with the needle. the balloon will not pop then on the whole where you put the needle inside of it.
put the needle much higher also (almoost on the top of the canon)
when you turn the needle like a handle to the back, it will pop the balloon from inside. due to the weight of the powder on the back it gives a wrong explosion. Therefor the wrapped balloon on the back. When the balloon pops it will give a little air movement to the top and you have an amazing canon!
really this is an amazing balloon creation, I love it!
This looks like fun 🙂 I will be pinning it and trying it with my girls.
Thanks for sharing at this week’s Kid’s Co-op
Oh my, I LOVE the idea of a cannon. What a pitty it didn’t work… But still sounds great!!!!! 🙂
Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
Tell me about it Maggy. I’m hoping that someone will read this and find the solution. Or that my mother’s memory comes back!
This looks like so much fun! I think it needs to be added to our summer fun list, thanks for sharing!!!
Maybe there was just not enough air in the balloon, so the pin couldn’t pierce the latex?
I thought so Judy but used very small balloons and they were fairly firm.
Did you try popping the balloon close to the opening of the canon? Maybe that would work better.
ooo, good idea Kirstin. I didn’t, but will give it a whirl.
My son will love this! Thanks for sharing and I’ll let you know if we have more success.
This is amazing. My son is going to absolutely LOVE it.