Build a rocket boys

[OlberJ]

What did you build as a kid to keep you out of trouble?

I'm not talking about about a catalogue of porn.

More go karts, tree houses and the likes. Bonus points for having pics of them too.


Yours,
Intrigued.

[poing]

Mainly random creations from Lego and Meccano.

Was recently browsing and discovered you can make all sort of complicated things with them now but they seem to easy with far too many custom made parts, damn cheats! Although most of my creations were not so pretty, strong or useful.

When not doing that I was creating massive Scalextrics tracks.

[J4CKO]

Didnt have a catalogue of porn, the catalogue was the porn !

[Rickyy]

Sellotape bits of cardboard to my bike so it hit the spokes on the wheel and made a noise like a "motorbike"!

Trash hedges and bushes to make a den!

Makes booby traps inside then den.

[z4chris99]

go karts from pram wheels, my drive is massively steep too which makes things very fun, (not when the wheels fall off)

swords, rocket launchers, catapults,

potions? (put a bit of everything under the sink in a jam jar, see if it can eat the road outside)

fire, lots of fire.

[blueg33]

Before skateboards were really in the shops I dismantled a roller skate and nailed the trucks to a small plank

Made bombs out of the powder from nail gun cartridges

Dammed the local stream enough to create a flood big enough to float a home made raft for 2 people

[ManOpener]

I got really into model rocketry from about the age of 9 onwards. Nearly severely injured myself so many times with "custom" multi-engine designs built from Estes spare parts and always incorporating the largest motors I (or rather my dad, with plenty of persuading) could get my (his) hands on. Had about a 25% first-launch survival rate and out of perhaps 15 rockets I tried launching over a period of about 5 years, only 4 survived in any shape at all, 2 of those miraculously without being completely rebuilt at any point. Still got all the kit in the garage.

[SS2.]

The usual stuff (as was) - ridiculously impractical pushbikes with massively differing sized wheels; go-karts; a wicked treehouse; catapaults; etc - most with bits pilfered out of hours from the local scrap merchant's yard.. Also enjoyed blowing up a wide variety of objects.

Shame the kids of today are so preoccupied with Xboxes, PS3s and the like that they seem to be missing all the 'honest' [outdoor] fun we experienced when we were young..

Or am I being both nostalgic and critical in the same breath ?

[spud989]

I dug an enormous hole in the garden.

It was about 5ft deep and quite wide/long - enough for a couple of friends to be in at the same time.

Not entirely sure why. I liked digging. Might have wanted to reach Australia.

[blueg33]

SS2. said:

The usual stuff (as was) - ridiculously impractical pushbikes with massively differing sized wheels; go-karts; a wicked treehouse; catapaults; etc - most with bits pilfered out of hours from the local scrap merchant's yard.. Also enjoyed blowing up a wide variety of objects.

Shame the kids of today are so preoccupied with Xboxes, PS3s and the like that they seem to be missing all the 'honest' [outdoor] fun we experienced when we were young..

Or am I being both nostalgic and critical in the same breath ?

Not all kids.

My eldest and his mate, spend half their time designing and making potato cannons, various explosives and rockets. (Best potato cannon so far has a range of over 200m so they say. It uses much lighter fluid as propellant)

His mates patio bears the scars of the experiments in exploding stuff.

[SS2.]

blueg33 said:

My eldest and his mate, spend half their time designing and making potato cannons, various explosives and rockets. (Best potato cannon so far has a range of over 200m so they say. It uses much lighter fluid as propellant)

Good lads !

[matthias73]

I used to import fireworks over from germany in the boot of my mums car without her knowing, and then sell them on at ridiculous prices in school.

300 firecrackers cost 4 euro. I sold them at fifty pence each.

Still have some left, if people are interested?

[SWH]

blueg33 said:

It uses much lighter fluid as propellant

About half a baked bean tin of petrol down the pipe was about right I seem to recall, spuds went well, turnips exceptionally well, swedes were a bit too big - impressive explosion however!

[v8250]

compressed air tennis ball mortar-tube. no safety valves, no hse; just pump it up and open lever valve...tennis ball covered the length of the rugby pitch in 2-2.5secs. thinking back, it was bloody dangerous...but so much fun.

plus the usual fun with fireworks, interesting chemical experiments, conquers...could never get enough of these, exploding bonfire when naively poured on masses of petrol...lit with match...no time to stand back...ka-boom!

still love anything rocketry, kite-like, and explosive mixtures...and never forget dismantling first engine at the tender age of 15 yrs; an austin maxi 1750hl. it never did go back together properly, let alone work.

oh well, all good fun.

[majordad]

There is a person with whom I'm familiar used make copper bombs out of copper tube, amonium nitrate and sodium chlorate and carbon. Progressed onto tv tube and the same mix. Made some money blowing the heads off parking meters and picking up the sixpences. Went on to a successful Army ( Irish ) career of 25 years.

Carp diem !

[bucksmanuk]

14 years old and I was given 3 1950’s books off my uncle, “Time and its Reckoning”, “Engine Power” and “Rockets and Jets”. The last one had loads of instructions and diagrams on how to make your own rockets with all the chemical formula, mixing instructions, making your own fuses - the whole lot. Can you imagine that today?
Fool I, decided to take it into school to show my mates, including one who had loads of home chemistry stuff, and an endless supply of chemicals - he knew someone who worked for chemical distribution company.
Even after blowing the roof off his shed (luckily without any lasting harm) he continued to dabble. Then we started to dabble as well in making larger and larger rockets. Then we fastened them onto a Tonka toy and set it running off down the beach……
This story does continue but after my consulting my lawyer…..

[Steamer]

spud989 said:

I dug an enormous hole in the garden.

I used to like digging holes too. This also extended to holidays and digging big holes on the beach.. found some money once too.

Oh and BMX tracks too, which later progressed into skateboard ramps (usually in close proximity of a building site)

Edited by Steamer on Thursday 5th January 22:40

[MontyC]

A home made shotgun made using an old air rifle stock, pipe and held together with jubille clips it nearly blow my thumb off never again!!

[Eric Mc]

Plastic kits.

[Mobsta]

Blow pipe guns which were hideously accurate and surprisingly powerful, just like the Crossbow catapult. Swords and planes, gokarts and wooden forts constructed near building sites where wood was plentiful. Loads of boobytraps, quicksand type quagmires, plus a flood which saw people bringing their canoes and rubber dinghies out to enjoy. Built numerous bows and arrows, carved wooden casts and made metal arrow heads using the seeding iron to melt the metal into the wooden carving cast thingy. And ramps, mostly for bikes, sometimes for skateboards. And rockets, you could buy the engines at the shops