Building the Cannon

Materials. 18 inches of tape. Pencils, pens, markers, etc. Scissors. Ruler. We used a protractor, but it isn’t in this picture. And two tennis ball cans. Sorry that one it cut in half, we started cutting before it occurred that we should probably get a picture of the materials.

Preliminary sketches. We chose the first one, since it had a more stable base than the other design. The chosen one used a cut off part of one tennis ball can to prop up the one used as a barrel as opposed to a whole other can for the barrel to rest on.

First cut. We have the barrel, base and angle arranged, although an adjustment was made later on the base.

Now the addition of an adjustable fulcrum so we could modify the angle at the last moment if need be. Also it was a little bit for show since they look like wheels.

Basic assembly, put all the parts together, etc. Compared to the “blueprint” I think we followed our design pretty well.

It’s hard to see, but right under the “v” made in the tape, there’s a hole. It’s the fuse hole, where we set the gas on fire from with a burning stick.

Final Product. It has been dubbed “The Terminator”. I originally thought “The Annihilator”, but then I wanted to name it after a movie and we all agreed. With a leftover two inches of tape, I think this was a successful assembly. Stay tuned for the actual firing of the cannon. Fingers crossed that it works!