Comments on: Xyloexplosive Devices

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

When I read “Xyloexplosive Devices” I was picturing one of those dynamite-rigged xylophones that were commonplace in old Warner Bros. cartoons. You know, the kind that would always backfire when the intended victim played off key and the bomber would finally get frustrated and step in to play the song correctly…

By: Chrs

Chrs — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That’s incredible! At least four times better than dominoes.

By: dwdyer

dwdyer — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Let instructables show you the basics:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Popsicle-Stick-Bomb/

I inevitably make some of these when I find myself around such sticks. It can be done with long flat coffee stirrers, but you need more of them to build up any significant tension and friction.

By: Xopher

Xopher — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks. That seems like it would stay together…now I have to try it and see how it goes off.

By: efergus3

efergus3 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bring me a roll of primacord and we’ll have some REAL fun.

By: Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Z.
O.
M.
F.
G.

By: t3hmadhatter

t3hmadhatter — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reminds me of the jenga catapults me and my friend used to design at camp. We would have little ground wars with the other campers. Even set off the smoke alarm once, nearly knocked it off the ceiling.

By: Blinde Schildpad

Blinde Schildpad — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dagnabbit, I just came a little. In my pants.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Cool blog, William, and thanks for the compliments, everybody! BTW, I really enjoyed the gig at Leonardo’s Basement.

Yes, this is a bona fide 2.250 kilostick Reticulated Xyloexplosive Ordinance Assemblage. Or you can just call it a stick bomb. They’re 2,250 tongue depressors (I buys ‘em by the case) colored with watered-down acrylic paint and woven together in an over-and-under basket weave design.

The tension is caused by the warping of the sticks caused by the weaving. When a single stick is pulled out, it makes the forces unbalanced, and a shock wave goes through causing the tension to suddenly be released, shooting the sticks in the air. The shock wave in this particular design is about 50′ or 15 m per second.

I did most of the cells in this design in the Double Cross pattern where each cell is two Xs. The cells at the end were in the standard Orthogonal design based around the square-bomb cell. I’ve been experimenting lately with stick-bomb arrays or fields and my current project has a giant monster face made out of colored sticks.

Anyhoo, keep up the great work on the blog!

By: neurolux

neurolux — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That was so amazing that I don’t think I can enjoy record domino falls ever again.

By: oheso

oheso — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

OK, all that energy had to go into the system at some point.

OK, from the instructibles link I see that the sticks are tensioned. Naruhodo.

By: BSD

BSD — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I sometimes make similar, but much smaller scale, chain reactions of self-tensioned paperclips.

By: Xopher

Xopher — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I do not understand how these are set up…or set off. I can’t quite figure it out.

By: LeFunk

LeFunk — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I was expecting something like macgyverian pine cone landmines or someone with logs tied around his waist.

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I want to know how many hours of effort went into setting up this demonstration. It takes me over half a minute to build just one cell.