(muhammed shaheer raza, karachi)
When you hear the word coilgun, you might imagine a futuristic weapon that shoots electricity. But these still experimental devices actually use electromagnets to launch projectiles. Steps steps 1 Make a coil with the copper wire around one of the two openings of the PVC pipe (wind the copper wire around said opening a hundred or two hundred times). Make the coil start on the border and end 2-3 inches from it (the coil would be 2-3 inches long). If it doesn't stay still, use glue to glue it in place while you coil it. Make it thick (half an inch is quite enough, but the larger the coil, the more powerful the projectile will be when fired). Be sure to leave the two copper wire ends of the coil easy to use and not insulated (while the rest of the coil should be insulated). 2 Cut the PVC pipe on the opposite ends to make it about 6 inches thick. Turn the coil on by hooking it up to a battery. Cut a piece of the steel wire. Put the steel next to the coil and see how far it can be while still attracting. Cut the PVC pipe at that distance. 3 Make a ring out of the steel wire by twisting it with pliers and cutting it. It should fit well inside the pvc pipe, but not too squeezed. 4 Dismantle the camera. Take out the flash circuit. IMPORTANT: There is a battery in this circuit. Take it out and don't touch any metal parts (especially the two ends of the capacitor). Then, touch the two ends of the capacitor with a screwdriver to discharge it. if there is a spark, then it was charged but now safe to touch, if not then it wasn't charged. This is to avoid getting shocked. When this has been done, find the capacitor, which would be a cylindrical thing, larger than most of the components in the circuit. Cut two more copper wires. Insulate the ends and attach them to each wire protruding from the capacitor. Attach the other end of one of these wires to one end of the coil's wires. The other two wires (the other capacitor wire and the other coil wire) will be connected whenever you turn on the coilgun. 5 With the plywood, make a cast to fake the body design. then put the coil and the pvc and put a tube larger than it in. put the foam filler in the body cast and your set. 6 Bend the metal and make a body out of that. then put the foam filler in so that the electrical parts won't touch the metal so that you won't get shocked and you're all set 7 You're ready to try it. Put the battery you took out in the previous step back where it was. Find a sort of button in the middle of the flash circuit. Press it and wait a minute. After that, load your projectile (the steel ring) and connect the two wires left unconnected. There should be a spark, and the projectile should get shot. When you're done, take out the battery and touch any metal endings (especially those of the capacitor) with a screwdriver.