So, you want to make a mortar? 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
Let's get one thingh straight-MOST of my friends are in-bread pyro hicks. Now that that's out of the way . . .
A few weeks ago, one my friends used the "Wonder Screen"(a.k.a. computer) to bring up a certain document thatr explained, in detail, how to make a mortar that can launch all sorts of things. He jumped on the opportunity and soon had a crudely fasioned mortar awaiting testing.
Everything was going fine up till he decided that a frozen orange was the perfect diameter for a successful launch(we had tried other objects such as a full can of coke, which oddly enough, just exploded.).
It took quite alot of force to push the orange down the 3 1/2" section of PVC piping. Yes, I know I should've said something to him about it, but I'm not the kind of person to pass up an opportunity like this. Anyways, upon the first trial, the orange didn't move. Let me mention the he had decided that he was going to use four diffrent painball gun CO2 cartridges as the propellant to push out the object. He had only fired one at this point. He went to the front of the mortar and after much deliberation, decided it was a faulty tank. Of course he checked the barrel and said "One more try". He was standing in front of it as he fired the second Co2 tank.
Massive blood loss, facial reconstructive surgery, a major concussion and a period of two weeks in a coma were the outcome of this. I later asked him what he was thinking at the moment he opened the valve to the second tank. He said "Well, if the first didn't fire, I don't see why the second one did".
I had earlier discovered that both tanks succesfully fired, and the pressure from the first was already behind the orange. Submitted on 05/11/2002
Submitted by:
Smitty
Reference:
Personal, April(ish), 2002
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