Ping-Pong Pistol
This device is similar in principle to the spud gun but it is much smaller, easier to build, and less powerful. You don't need any special tools and the materials are very common so you should be able to build one of these in a few minutes for only a couple of dollars.
danger level
- negligible
- moderate
- high
- do not do this
tools
- F. Knife
materials
- A. Paper towel tube
- B. Utility lighter
- C. Hair spray (aerosol)
- D. Duct tape
- E. Ping-pong ball
video
how-to
- Use a short piece of duct tape to seal one end of an empty paper towel tube.
- Cut a hole in the duct tape just large enough for the tip of the utility lighter to fit through.
- Release a quick spurt of hair spray into the open end of the tube. You will have to experiment to find the best amount — there must be enough oxygen in the tube for combustion. Only aerosol hair sprays will work (the type in a metal canister).
- Insert the ping-pong ball 1/3 of the way into the tube and then insert the tip of the lighter through the duct tape.
- Spark the lighter. The piezo igniter will ignite the propellants and the resulting pressure will quickly accelerate the ball out of the tube.
Jul 22, 2007 | 1:47 am
Anonymous wrote:
lol i did this as soon as i saw it lol do it its great fun
Jul 22, 2007 | 4:06 pm
Mac wrote:
wow this is soooo juiced
Jul 23, 2007 | 12:27 pm
dan white wrote:
I tried it but ther tube keeps lighting on fire and does anything aerosal work?
Jul 25, 2007 | 11:18 am
Me wrote:
thats great.
i will try it out :)
Jul 25, 2007 | 3:44 pm
whatRUSmoking wrote:
its the same thing as the spud gun, except in a smaller form.
Jul 29, 2007 | 8:28 am
Crazykid wrote:
Can you use a toilet roll holder thing instead? They are shorter, but will they just be a little less accurate?
Jul 29, 2007 | 9:29 am
questinair wrote:
wont the tube catch on fire?
Jul 30, 2007 | 7:59 am
Ethan wrote:
The tube should only cath on fire if you hold the lighter flame in long enough. or you put to much hairspray. al least thats what i think. i want to do this but my ping pong ball is to small or the roll is to big, it just keeps sliding down
Jul 30, 2007 | 3:10 pm
Anonymous wrote:
Hmmmm Maybe I’ll make one!
Jul 31, 2007 | 7:25 am
MB wrote:
How far can you shoot the ping pong?
Aug 4, 2007 | 5:48 pm
guilhugas wrote:
thats pretty cool. i made one and i shoot a lightbulb (lol) at about 15 meters. try to blow in the tube after putting the hairspray to make a better xplosion
Aug 10, 2007 | 10:14 am
mike wrote:
i thought it needed to be more powerful so i put a big flame throuer in it but it just was on fire and exploded.
Aug 14, 2007 | 6:22 am
Daneeeh wrote:
hahaha poor bear
HEADSHOT!
Aug 15, 2007 | 3:25 pm
flying cucumber wrote:
Can you use a toiolet paper roll instead?
Aug 17, 2007 | 12:11 pm
james wrote:
you can make a mean ping pong rifle by making a stok and using a 1 liter water bottle as a combustian chamber
lol
Aug 17, 2007 | 12:13 pm
someone wrote:
u can design a silencer by using plastic bottels
Aug 18, 2007 | 2:39 am
gonz wrote:
last christmas, something similar was all the craze in the philippines. you get a pcv pipe, attach a stove lighter thru a groove in the pipe, make sure one end of the pipe has a screw-on cap. we spray denatured alcohol (about 3 - 4 squirts), shake the pipe around a bit, squeeze the trigger on the lighter, and boom! louder than a large firecracker, but we never put any objects inside. it might be too dangerous. but why not try it?
Aug 21, 2007 | 1:12 am
mister clean wrote:
would’nt the tube catch on fire
Aug 22, 2007 | 10:59 pm
Bender wrote:
looks like a crazy way to play sting pong to me. how hard does that thing shoot? its rather impressive. im surprised it isn’t more like a spud gun…. then again they are ping pong balls, and the paper tube actually aids in pressure built up behind the ball. The squeeze is a nessesary thing. its been a while since i’ve been to the site, and i was really pleasantly surprised to see the new items. righteous!
Aug 26, 2007 | 2:22 am
Tails wrote:
Can you desighn a clip.
Sep 9, 2007 | 3:13 pm
cool wrote:
can you just a regular lighter to? i mean you can modify the tube to right?
Sep 10, 2007 | 5:14 am
—– wrote:
I wonder if anybody will end up with a flaming ping-pong ball. Many of them are still made with a flamable material called nitro celulose. [grin]
Sep 14, 2007 | 8:02 pm
Sparten 117 wrote:
hey you should put eggs in there
perfect prank;)
Sep 15, 2007 | 10:43 am
pyroman wrote:
this does work… not very powerful though…
Sep 17, 2007 | 1:45 pm
trav944 wrote:
would it shot a golf ball(can’t find ping-pong ball)
Sep 18, 2007 | 6:26 am
irolo! wrote:
buy a pingedy pongedy balls and shoot at bottles (or people dumbenough to walk on your front lawn)then experament with other things like golfedyer balls and soccerballs and bullets lol but you should try home made paper balls oh and my pingedy ponged balls blow up like granades it that normal???
Sep 19, 2007 | 2:19 pm
laker wrote:
Yea it works butt I up-sized it to a wallpaper roll and a coke can and in stead of hair-spray I used lysol it works better..Be carefull if you try it like I did wear ear plugs it is louder than a shotgun if you do it right..good luck
Sep 19, 2007 | 6:37 pm
Reaver wrote:
I did it a few mins ago…it worked the first time but it didn’t afterwords….waiting for the roll to dry out and trying again 2m…..i found old spice deodorant works better than hairspray and axe deodorant.
Sep 19, 2007 | 9:02 pm
pyroman wrote:
important-see the 6 holes at the tip of the lighter? well u need 2 have those holes out of the tube! it wont have enuf oxygen any other way
Sep 23, 2007 | 12:35 pm
You wrote:
A golf ball would probably be too heavy for one that small but I could be wrong.
Oct 2, 2007 | 3:44 pm
josejose61 wrote:
and my dad and I are going to do all the fun stuff like ice bomb and the ping-pong pistol
Oct 6, 2007 | 8:46 am
migi wrote:
use a small pvc pipe instead of the cardboard it will last longer
Oct 9, 2007 | 9:41 am
David wrote:
can it blow my hand off?? im kinda scared to do this
Oct 9, 2007 | 10:52 am
Riastlin wrote:
Does the type of the hair spray matters?
Will ANY hair spray work?
I tried deodorant and it didnt work (spray)
Oct 10, 2007 | 10:36 pm
insaneman wrote:
lol spudgun better =P but this is easier and safer than spud gun.
try using alcohol and pvc pipe that was big boom maybe use hidrogen you get from electrolysis . or the best way use trinitro gliserin thats better to make you dead >=)
Oct 14, 2007 | 3:15 pm
Anonymous wrote:
i tried a versoin of this except i added nitrogen gas instead of hair spray its much more powerful except the tube will explode if its not metal…
Oct 18, 2007 | 11:54 am
Uncle Jesse wrote:
this is nice, although, do not, may i repeat, do not eat the ball at the same time your trying to fire it.
Oct 19, 2007 | 4:10 pm
jeff wrote:
What else could you use like bug spray, or cleaner?
Oct 27, 2007 | 9:24 am
snoop-dorky-dork wrote:
I used a 1/2 inch pvc pipe and used lysol instead of airesol.it worked the first time but it didnt afterword.i guess u gotta wait for it to dry or something.the pvc pipe worked way better.i really reccomend it.
Oct 27, 2007 | 4:45 pm
los cubanos wrote:
i reccomend using pvc pipe.use a 1 1/2 inch pvc pipe. also out of stryofoam, make a seal.measure it perfectly so it can go in and out. Then through the hole were the lighter goes, spray lysol. then put the ping pong ball in and pfire with the lighter!!!!!the ping pong ball goes further and faster.
Nov 1, 2007 | 9:21 pm
Criptz_Cuz-510 wrote:
I made the same rifle, buta added a few modifications and turned it to a revolver! Just add old film holders and case to of them together. Next insert up to 71 ping pong balls!!! fill the rifle with rush liquid aerosol and flame up the lighter!!! It shoots an amazing 45 balls a minute!!! I tried it out on a few cans and shot down 47 of them. I had bad aim cuz I held the trigger. P.S. readers, buy a really big lighter for bigger results.
Nov 8, 2007 | 5:38 am
fillidor fun wrote:
it look funny but i don’t make it from my dad what must i say here is my email adres frankieudte@hotmail.com
Nov 9, 2007 | 4:04 pm
russ wrote:
PVC might be safer (less flamable), but also make sure the lighter is empty to negate any chance of it going off. It will still work for this purpose, the sparker at the end is all you need.
Nov 9, 2007 | 5:19 pm
hmmm wrote:
my brother is dowm stairs makeing one now!
sucker!
Nov 11, 2007 | 1:19 am
Anonymous wrote:
Gunpowder or anything that explodes with fire… pretty cool but you can make a real gun with it! :D just put small beads and metal gun looking thingy with smaller tube (enough to fit in beads.
Nov 19, 2007 | 9:32 am
beefcake wrote:
you guys are geekes spud gunes are cooler and more dangrous.
Nov 20, 2007 | 12:45 pm
Anonymous wrote:
Know that big old flash that comes out the end?
I made a flash excluder… now it is stealth!
Nov 21, 2007 | 1:58 pm
crazy wrote:
this worked and i killed a bird with i it from 10 meters
Dec 2, 2007 | 7:19 am
A Man Being Questioned By The Police wrote:
Poor Teddy!
Dec 14, 2007 | 11:59 am
“Cowboy Sr.” wrote:
I tried this, but I substituted everything with something else. They say I’ll be discharged from the hospital in about another two weeks or so. Great fun until one “pulls the trigger” so to speak.
Dec 15, 2007 | 9:03 pm
Max wrote:
Watch Out… if you touch the ping pong ball with fire it will burn!
Dec 18, 2007 | 2:56 am
Käil wrote:
So mamonas todos!! Como se os ocurre poner bombas y cosas así disparando a los pobres ositos de peluche??? Que ellos no os han hecho nada!! os voi a denunciar cabrones de mierda!!! por meteros con los osos, que cualquier día yo y mis hermanos osos os meteremos una paliza si os encontramos por la calle so hijos de la pùta!!!
Dec 19, 2007 | 12:11 am
cf wrote:
We used to do this but using 3 or 4 connected cans(without the bottom or top part and using food cans, not coca-cola cans), with a tennis ball and alcohol.
Bigger boom than this gun and it lasted more.
Dec 19, 2007 | 12:41 am
anonymous wrote:
DO MORE PLEASE!!!! =D
Your site is awesome
Dec 22, 2007 | 7:07 pm
Paul wrote:
Hehe Headshot!… poor little bear. how powerful can that get?
Dec 30, 2007 | 10:32 am
ballistic master wrote:
poor teddy bear… now use the spud gun against the teddy bear
Jan 4, 2008 | 1:46 pm
LOLOLOL wrote:
if u listen u can hear a funny sound when the bear gets hit lol
Jan 13, 2008 | 2:37 pm
tim wrote:
will it work with axe???
Jan 14, 2008 | 7:40 pm
i wrote:
how can u make it more powerful
Jan 16, 2008 | 6:11 pm
I tried it!!! wrote:
Dude, I tried this as soon as I saw it and it is sooooo fun! You have to get just the right amount of the spray though… It actually took me 2 tries to do it.(First time I did it, I added too much aerosol. :\
Jan 18, 2008 | 11:50 pm
Ninjamike wrote:
What about making a hole in the ping-pong ball, filling it with butane ( in your dear roll canon) place the tape on it like you did. But put the igniter in the ping pong, after beeing shoot, it gonna stunt in they air ;)
Jan 26, 2008 | 10:39 pm
the fascist anarchist wrote:
what if you coat the ping pong ball with the flammable spray instead of coating the tube.
or both, coat the ball AND the inside of the tube.
it might make a fireball!
Feb 2, 2008 | 11:35 am
Chris Brown wrote:
Wow dude that is so coooool I did that i shot about 25yds. It was surprising.
Feb 3, 2008 | 12:34 am
Ashley Tisdale wrote:
i was writing a new song for my album when my friend calls me and told me about this. i saw this and i thought it was awsome. i showed it to my ex-boyfriend (Zac Efron) and he just loved doing this. Its a really awsome thing but i just think its a bit dangerous. i even told it to the director of my music videos and he said he might use this idea in one of my music videos. and dont forget to watch the third movie of high school musical. yours truly Ashley Tisdale
Feb 7, 2008 | 1:17 pm
walferago wrote:
OW=[ shot it hit the wall in my bedroom then hit me in the face…=[
Feb 7, 2008 | 1:19 pm
walferago wrote:
also it is not very consistent. is there anything that you can help my with?
by the way if the ping pong ball is sliding up and down your tube with no resistance against the walls of the tube, tape a small round object to the outside of the tube to make the ping pong ball stop about half way down the tube
Feb 9, 2008 | 1:24 pm
joey the cat wrote:
my brother and i made one and tried it out it worked great. But u have to be careful because my brother shot me in the face with it. IT HURTS BE CAREFUL!!!
Feb 9, 2008 | 1:25 pm
joey the cat wrote:
I STILL HAVE A BLACK EYE ={
Feb 9, 2008 | 1:26 pm
joey the cat wrote:
like walferago said it HURTS
Feb 9, 2008 | 1:29 pm
joey the cat wrote:
kids under 5 should not try this.
[safety reasons]
Feb 9, 2008 | 1:31 pm
the him wrote:
i shot my brother with it and it gave him a black eye lol it was so funny!!
Feb 12, 2008 | 12:18 pm
intuitive wrote:
wrapping paper tube + one gallon milk jug = one hell of a boom
Feb 14, 2008 | 7:24 pm
bryan rdz wrote:
i stole my big brothers NOS tank modified it to shoot a golf ball{it broke the neibors window}[lol]50 yards away
Feb 14, 2008 | 7:30 pm
bryan mtz=drms wrote:
it works but it needs a little modification to shoot farther and harder
Feb 16, 2008 | 3:10 pm
T.S. Bassfisher wrote:
That looks kool i think im gonna make 1.I already hav a spud gun tht shoots full size potatoes
Feb 19, 2008 | 7:53 pm
Anonymous wrote:
this works but i tried it with a smaller tube and it ignited but the ball did not fly out
Feb 23, 2008 | 6:46 pm
The Old Tree wrote:
hey, i m trying but cant get anything but a crispy paper tube. does it matter if you use a tourch lighter or is it the hair spray? what did u use? please reply, someone.
Feb 26, 2008 | 7:26 pm
AEO wrote:
I took a spice jar (plastic) and drilled 2 holes in it about the size of a pen or sharpie and attached a paper towel roll on one end of it and filled the spice jar with hairspray and screwed on the cap and used a welding sparker and it is 10x louder than the normal ping pong pistol and shoots half a baseball feild away with a tinfoil ball
Mar 5, 2008 | 1:40 pm
justin mailman wrote:
i was thinking that u could probably make a double barreled one and that would be pretty sweet if you ask me you would just need another lighter
Mar 6, 2008 | 6:32 pm
Bob wrote:
Can you use a golf ball?
Mar 8, 2008 | 3:33 pm
Deadollie wrote:
If your tube is too thick and the ball just slides out (which is what i found) Use toilet paper as wadding to create a snug fit, you need to soak it in water, and put it in the inside of the tube, then allow it to dry, just using toilet roll by itself will create unwanted fire.
Mar 10, 2008 | 2:42 pm
lullee wrote:
hahah gret fun it works but not always
Mar 11, 2008 | 4:02 pm
me wrote:
i did this with a golf ball
and it works
its just rely heavy so it wont go that far
Mar 20, 2008 | 8:24 am
that guy wrote:
i tried this at my and it was awsome, you really can get some distance but my parents wern’t impressed, now i am going to make a teniss ball gun on the same principles
Mar 24, 2008 | 2:19 pm
dat Mimi chick wrote:
i hope you dont mind beacause i’m so gonna modify this for my school project
Mar 24, 2008 | 3:26 pm
Sjaak wrote:
Wow that is awesome.
I already have a spudgun, know i DO need this to. :D
Mar 29, 2008 | 4:18 pm
pingpong wrote:
hey where do u get the spud lighter?
Mar 30, 2008 | 2:54 pm
NevilleDaDevil wrote:
i designed a really cool version of these: it had a extra long barrel (i used a wrapping paper tube and cut a few inches off of it) and a stalk made out of cardboard. i made it look like a real gun sort of by tilting the lighter to look like a handle and i broke some binoculars in half to make a scope. i duct taped that on, spray painted it black, and i had myself a really cool looking gun. i even made a silencer out of card board, a 1 liter club soda bottle, and tin foil.
i tried to make a clip with a spring. it worked, but i never put it on my really cool sniper ping pong shooter. i made another that looked like a SMG by covering it with sheet metal and fiber glass to square it off then sprayed it black. it makes it shoot way faster.
Mar 30, 2008 | 3:00 pm
NevilleDaDevil wrote:
to make a clip, take another toilet paper roll or paper towel roll and close off 1 side. then get a metal slinkey that will fit inside the roll and stretch it out. cut off as much as u need, depending on the size of the clip. then fill it with ping pong balls. cut a hole in the barrel of your gun and duct tape your clip on under the hole. there. now u have a clip. it didnt work for me the 1st time i tried, though.
Mar 30, 2008 | 6:13 pm
NevilleDaDevil wrote:
i now realize i didnt tell you that if you put a clip on the gun, you have to fid a different way of getting the hair spray/WD40/Aersol into the barrel. i made a small hole in the barrel to fit a straw into it to spray hairspray into. if you dont do something like this, you wont be able to spray the stuff in there. a clip makes the gun soooo much cooler.
Mar 31, 2008 | 10:43 am
angus merrell wrote:
i like the look of the gun but what if you do not have a utility lighter can you use matches
Apr 5, 2008 | 1:27 pm
Chris wrote:
Hey, I’ve just finished making my third attempt at the ping pong ball gun and it works great!
The first one i made was out of plastic tube (quite short) but it fitted perfectly around the ball so it fired nicely, but only went about 2 foot!
The second one i made from a kitchen roll tube, that worked pretty good and i found out if you put the ball in first then spray the flammable stuff from the back end, it works a hell of a lot better. I managed to get about 10-15 metres from this one. Sadly it burnt up from the inside without me realising :(
The third one i have just made is a wrapping paper tube, with a pin stuck about 1/4 of the way down (for the ball to rest against) this works brilliantly as you can put the ball in before you spray the stuff in. my best distance with this is probably over 20+ metres, quite lethal close range :P.
I plan to add a milk carton to the back of it to have a nice big combustion chamber, should go eeeeeeeeven further!
Apr 5, 2008 | 4:41 pm
primoflip wrote:
Has anyone tryed it with a bunch of bb’s? I might.
Apr 11, 2008 | 8:37 pm
Ty wrote:
if yo spray the ping-pong ball with TONS of hair spray, it will be a fire ball. i tried making one of these out of a toilet paper roll and it only made a little tiny pop. the ball didn’t even shoot out. so no, a tp roll does NOT work
Apr 11, 2008 | 8:41 pm
Ty wrote:
you could probably make a nice little sniper rifle
with a clip(a tp roll with some sort of spring in it), and scope(just a tp roll), as long as you use a wrapping paper roll with a milk carton at the end
Apr 13, 2008 | 1:28 pm
2pac wrote:
dude pretty cool. but seriously queers, dont you have anything else better to do with your time instead of waste your time with gay crap that will never get you anywhere in life.get a girlfriend. you flaming homosexuals
Apr 15, 2008 | 3:48 pm
Replying to Ty wrote:
Well Ty if you don’t put the ping pong ball too hard in the tp roll then it will actually work pretty good. =D
Apr 15, 2008 | 5:41 pm
littlebitmoreaccelerant wrote:
i tried this with a metal tube, lighter up one end….pop rivet in middle of tube to stop marble rolling down towards lighter…..but it dont work..its all sealed and everything..i was expecting some kind of fun but just didnt happen
Apr 15, 2008 | 9:12 pm
littlebitmoreaccelerant wrote:
added a firing chamber(bottle), ignition going into bottle.which is on end of metal tube..does shoot marbles and whatnot….might add a 1L or 2L bottle to fit more fuel/air…the one i got now about 500ml and not really goin far….using “start ya bastard” for fuel which 25% ether starting fluid…..
Apr 18, 2008 | 7:22 am
Curtis Baker wrote:
Can you shoot your sister with it
Apr 18, 2008 | 9:36 pm
2beapyro wrote:
have you ever thought about poking a hole in the ping-pong ball and putting es in it? that would be friggin awesome! until youve done it 500 times and u dont care anymore
Apr 18, 2008 | 9:38 pm
2beapyro wrote:
another thing that may just work is get a gatorade bottle full of ping-pong balls that have been sprayed with hairspray and put the bottle neck on a hole in the tube so its rapid fire
Apr 19, 2008 | 1:23 pm
danm good wrote:
that was tottaly ausome mine got almoste 4 yard in a row
May 4, 2008 | 6:36 am
luke wrote:
that was wicked sick man!!!!!!!
i’ll definetly try and shoot my friends
muahahahahaha