Silly String Remote

They say it isn't possible to bottle up happiness, but you can definitely can it. Or rather un-can it. Via Silly String from a distance. The Silly String Remote is your key to making it back down to the bottom of the pecking order in your group of friends or family, as you can now annoy from a safe and comfortable distance.

This is also a great simple project to introduce students/kids/adults to pneumatics and hydraulics, inspired by every goofy contraption that Wile E. Coyote ever built. :)

• What: Silly String Remote
• Why: Valid point.
• No, WHY!?!? I was wearing a new jacket: Sorry.
• Time: ~ 10 minutes
• Concepts: pneumatics, hydraulics, pressure, machines
• Cost: ~ $3
• Materials:
  • 2 x syringes with no needle (any size 10mL is good)
  • 1 x Syringe plastic tubing (often comes with)
  • 1 x Silly String can
  • 2 x Craft Sticks
  • 2 x Craft Cubes (can be subbed for other sturdy things)
• Tools:
  • Hot Glue gun and hot glue

Let's get silly!

Simply take a craft cube and glue it to the end of your wide craft stick. Repeat for the other to get two of these regally magnificent supports.

Glue up your craft sticks, and hold them to your Silly String can. You want the sticks to be approximately the same height above the can. Give enough space so that the plunger of the syringe can rest not making contact with the button, but will hit it when extended.

Also, please minimize sinister giggling at this point. It will give too much away.

Oh you're so close to becoming your mom's least favorite kid!

Throw some glue on the top of your craft cubes, and hold the wings of the syringe on so that it is suspended upside-down with the plunger top facing the Silly String button.

Check it out to make sure the motion of the syringe can make contact with your silly string button. Add a load of glue around the syringe wings to keep it nice and secure.

Connect the tips of your two syringes with the tubing, and you have yourself a pneumatic system! Who PNEU it would be so easy? PNEU-body, that's who.*

Simply start with your trigger syringe pulled back with a pocket of air, and your detonating syringe ready to be filled with gas. The longer the tube the merrier, or at least the more anonymous or hidden you can be. Since you'll be hidden, you may find you want a support on the end of the can to keep it upright. That will change depending on your hiding place. Get creative!

You're so close. You might as well start fleeing now.

*I'm so sorry for this joke.

Hide, wait for friends or family, push the plunger, and just wait for the compliments and affirmations to start flying in as Silly String starts to fly out. Do avoid mouths and eyeballs and Silly String curmudgeons, but don't avoid spraying people. It's kind of what Silly String is supposed to do. :)

If you want to go further, check out the field of pneumatics or you can convert your system to hydraulics simply by adding water to the trigger syringe. It will make the button pushing even faster.

Have fun, keep exploring, and I'd love to see your uses and adaptations.