Student project: Bolt-action coil gun
Badassery.
(Credit: TechEBlog)I had a fairly good shop program in high school (what's up, Tumwater T-Birds!). Instead of making rickety chairs for our mothers to injure themselves on, or fire-prone wooden ashtrays, our class concentrated on technology. That's where I got to play with my first industrial laser, built my first robotic arm, and designed my first circuit board. It was pretty great.
But not as great as the work of this kid, who, as a side project, built a six-round, bolt-action, high-powered coil gun. For those who don't play video games, a coil gun is an electronic weapon that uses a series of magnetic coils to accelerate a magnetic projectile--like a bullet--to a fast, destructive speed.
We're not sure what school this kid goes to, but that's not important. What we'd like to know is: which teacher signed off on the project that was likely titled "Making a magnetic silent death device"?
You can see a video of the thing in action at TechEBlog.
With more than 15 years experience testing hardware (and being obsessed with it), Crave freelance writer Matt Hickey can tell the good gadgets from the great. He also has a keen eye for future technology trends. Matt has blogged for publications including TechCrunch, CrunchGear, and most recently, Gizmodo. E-mail Matt. 
- by centaur101 June 21, 2009 11:06 PM PDT
- This is nothing new. If you go to "www.instructables.com" and type in "Coil gun" you can find out that someone has built not one but two; the first one was a pistol (slightly larger) and the second one was a rifle design.
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