This article describes my original, jenga pistol 1 which I built back in 1994.
I have since built a more refined pistol:
Jenga pistol 2
The Jenga Pistol
One christmas holiday back at my folks in northern ontario, we all started playing
this game called 'Jenga' a lot. Jenga consists of a large number of blocks with
aspect ratio of roughly 2x3x9. These blocks are stacked in a solid stack, three
blocks horizontal to a level. The players take turns removing blocks from part of the
stack, but not the top, and placing them on top of the stack. Whoever knocks over
the stack loses. You are not allowed to move other blocks. These may not be the
official rules, but that's how we played it.
Playing this game a bit, I thought a mechanical aid would come in very handy.
So I went into the shop, and less than an hour later emerged with my 'jenga pistol',
with the glue barely dry enough to use it.
This pistol is a very simple design. The 'bolt' of it is permanently in the
crossbow like frame. When the trigger is pulled, the rubber bands hurl the
bolt forward. The front of the bolt is a piece of wood that goes through a hole
in the 'bow', and pokes out about 1.5 cm from the front of the pistol. The impact
of the bolt on the piece imparts enough momnentum on it to hurl it straight
across the room. Very fun to use!
Although it looks very neat and efficient, the device actually turned out to be
remarkably ineffective. The thing is, if you start pulling a piece slowly by hand,
you know if its load bearing or not. This pistol removes the piece, wether it is
as supporting piece or not. If it was a supporting piece, you know by the fact that
the pile came crashing down.
See also: Jenga pistol 2
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