Psfm Staple Launcher
Entry posted by Planetperson
996 views
Monday, October 2, 2006
"What could be better than small pieces of metal flying undetected across a classroom until they make an annoying snapping noise at the far wall?"
Hey there,
! Today's entry is a very special entry. Right now, I am pleased to have a place to finally post the simple instructions of my one truly, incredibly ingenious invention: the Portable Staple Firing Mechanism, or PSFM for short. This is a staple-shooting device whose structure I came up with back in my late grade school days. You may have heard of the highly ineffective mechanical pencil staple shooters that work by shooting a staple out of the mechanism that holds pencil graphite. My invention is something entirely different. My PSFM is simply something that my creative mind conjured during boring classes in school. But its so cool, I just have to share it. RECOMMENDED AGES 13+
The materials needed to build your own PSFM are incredibly easy to obtain. It is very simple to put together, and in the end it is a very discreet staple-shooter. Oh, and you'll pretty much never run out of ammo. What could be better than small pieces of metal flying undetected across a classroom until they make an annoying snapping noise at the far wall? (However, every shooter of staples must be responsible in the use of his tool
.) MATERIALS:
To make your own staple launcher, you must gather the materials shown above.
- You will need a stapler. A mini-stapler like the one shown above is highly recommended. The stapler must be able to fold out to form a straight angle (this is a common feature in all staplers). Mini-staplers are discreet enough for the job and are sold at most (if not all) office supply stores.
- You will need staples. There are different kinds of staples with different properties, believe it or not. You will see which kinds you like best -- the kinds that are soft and that are not adhered together very tightly so they come out of the stapler with little force, or the inverse. Staples are sold at all office supply stores, of course.
- You will need dental rubber bands. Not regular rubber bands, but the ones used in braces. In order to obtain these special rubber bands, you can simply ask someone who has braces for a spare bag (that's what I had to do), or use the ones you have yourself if you already have braces. There is a great variety among dental rubber bands, so I'll give you what's printed on the front of my bag of rubber bands, which seem to produce optimal performance in the PSFM launcher:
AE-36-2 --- 5/16" --- 2 Oz.
(BROWN) ---- 100 PRE PACK
--appco
- You will need any regular wooden pencil. Easy to obtain. Use one with softer wood, if possible. It will make construction easier.
Anyone who is reading this probably plays/has played with LEGO Bricks. That building experience will help you in this procedure. It's even better if you presently play with LEGO Bricks. I don't really play with LEGO Bricks at my age, naturally, but I can still get the job done.
If you play with LEGO Bricks, you're most likely used to pinching yourself accidently and developing a kind of caluss while working on a Lego project. Similar thing here, only with staples. Just be careful. I've never had a staple injury, but because the construction of the PSFM involves handling small, wiry metal objects, I feel that I should give a word of caution.
Okay, the procedure:
Your objective in this step is to shove a staple into the far end of the pencil right next to the metal eraser holder. For the safety of your fingers, do not do this in mid-air but on a table. Hold the pencil in place while you use the stapler to push a staple about halfway into the wood of the pencil.
Darn! Sometimes this happens. Even if it does, you still have the holes in the pencil wood.
Just pop out one of these bad boys...
...push it in with your fingers (at least position it in there, then press it against something to move it in deeper -- it might mess it up again as shown above, though), and you should get this result:
- Your job in step two is to stick a rubber band under the staple you just put in the pencil. Carefully yank one end of the staple out of the pencil like this.
Now you can put the rubber band in:
IMAGE
Push the loose end of the staple back in:
- This step completes the launching mechanism itself. Pull the rubber band down the length of the pencil as seen above so that it is fairly taut, determining where you will place the second staple in the pencil. Don't make the band insanely tight. Just use your judgement -- remember, this thing is gonna fire staples.
Use a procedure similar to steps one and two...
IMAGE
...to get this result:
Notice how I somewhat bent the staples inwards so that the rubber band stays apart from the pencil surface. If the rubber band is touching the pencil, it's not gonna work.
Finished product
Squeeze some staples out of the stapler. You need to pinch the staples in such a way that one end is hooked while the other is folded in.
This allows you to hook them onto the rubber band, pull back, and launch!
Don't forget to sharpen!
It's just an innocent-looking pencil...
COMMENTS:
I'm very proud of this invention. I love the little sound the rubber band makes when you launch off a staple, I love the way you can shoot a staple at an obscure part of the room to make a disturbing noise during class, and I love the way it just looks like an ordinary pencil. Use it responsibly. As LEGO puts it,
That said,
[url=http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=59&showentry=5522][img=http://www.majhost.com/gallery/DihydrogenMonoxide/RatherRandomStuff/psfm_sig.gif][/url]
*Hopes no one notices that "pencil" is spelled wrong in the first sig*
UPDATE: New sig!
[url=http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=59&showentry=5522][img=http://www.majhost.com/gallery/DihydrogenMonoxide/RatherRandomStuff/psfm_sig_2.gif][/url]
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