Awesome Cannons

How Ridiculous continues to build its arsenal of destructive playthings with a cannon that fires harpoons. The cannon uses an explosive charge to launch a sharpened metal projectile with enough energy to shoot straight through a refrigerator. Other targets included ballistic gel, fire extinguishers, and propane tanks. Be sure to watch the final launch for a big boom.

Drones can be used to capture aerial images or deliver packages, but they can also be weaponized. Mark Rober explores some of the technology being developed to take down dangerous drones. Then, he teamed up with fellow makers to build backyard drone defense tech, including a mega-turret, an electrified stream of liquid, and a powerful vortex cannon.

The guys from How Ridiculous braved winter conditions in Montana to play with a pair of air cannons with their friends from BealsScience. This time, they loaded up their barrels with soda cans, bowling balls, spray paint, and a pair of glass spheres for an explosive grand finale.

After nearly destroying a bowling ball cannon, How Ridiculous asked BealsScience to make a pair of air-powered cannons. To maximize their destructive power, they pointed them at each other and then fired them to collide basketballs, LEGO cannonballs, and watermelons in mid-air. It took a lot of trial and error to get them to sync up.

Give your gas fireplace or fire pit a fresh look with these ceramic cannonballs from The Cozy Hearth. They’re handmade using molds of real cannonballs using the same high-temperature ceramics NASA uses to test rockets. They come in 3.5″ to 9″ sizes in natural, light grey, dark grey, and black. A flat bottom keeps them from rolling.

Cannons are generally designed to fire iron cannonballs. Ballistic High-Speed shows us there’s no good reason they can’t fire bowling balls too. In this satisfying slow-motion video, you’ll see what happens when a bowling ball meets various objects at speeds over 300 feet per second. You definitely would not want to be on the business end of this thing.

The most powerful pool breaks rarely exceed 30 mph. At least, that’s the case with human players. But The Slow Mo Guys tend to do things with a bit more impact. So they got their hands on a special canon that’s exactly the right size to launch a pool ball. Once they dialed in their aim, they recorded the carnage at 80,000 FPS.

With the help of his gigantic 3D printer, maker Ivan Miranda built a ridiculously overpowered toy weapon. It uses a pair of powerful motors and belts to quickly load balls into its hopper, then blows them out the front using a ducted fan like the ones used in leaf blowers.

After Jimmy Kimmel told Mark Rober about his dream of having the most powerful t-shirt cannon in the world, the Mark wanted to oblige his friend. He had a little extra help from wunderkind Anthony Hartman to design and engineer the big gun. Sadly, the stadium’s lawyers put the kibosh on firing the most powerful version.

Machines that fire tennis balls are as common. But we’ve never seen one that uses human power. Creative Machines’ ball cannon launches tennis balls up to 200 feet. Each time its handle is pushed, it raises a weight. When it reaches the top, it falls and becomes a piston, flinging balls into the sky using compressed air.

The kinds of weapons used by modern militaries pack a wallop, but the cannons installed on ships hundreds of years ago weren’t exactly gentle. The Smithsonian Channel’s World of Weapons: War at Sea demonstrates a working replica of a 17th century cannon as it blasts a 9-pound metal cannonball into a ship’s hull.

Kuma Films sends off Christmas with a bang, shattering ornaments, gingerbread men, gift boxes, and other holiday items with a tiny desktop cannon, and capturing the carnage in glorious slow-motion.

“Caution! Do not try it in the house.” The warning message from YouTuber The S is quite the understatement, as he shows us just what happens when you build a cannon entirely out of matches, fill its chamber with thousands of match heads, then light its fuse.

Like many other makers, NightHawkInLight created a powerful air cannon. But he added a fun and unique accessory at its business end – interchangeable slicing blades which make quick work out of fruit and vegetables used as projectiles.