The Air fired Popper

The air popper was a product you have seen in many presentations for all kinds of money.  My brother looked at this and decided that he could build this very quickly and inexpensively. I think the whole thing was only about $5.00 to build. (Minus the air compressor and hoses)  It really works nicely. Note: All pictures below are thumbnails. Just click to enlarge.

Project Parts List 1 - 2' section of 1" PVC 1 - 2 1/2' section 1/2" PVC 1 - 1" 90 deg PVC elbow 1 - 1" PVC cap 1/2" wood dowel 1 - 1" to 1/2" reducing bushing (male threaded) 1 - galvanized inside thread pipe fitting (female) 1 - air hose nipple (male thread) 1 - 18" Bungee cord 3 - 1" drywall screws 1 - 1" rubber sink stopper Enough air hose to go from the air compressor to you and back to the popper.

1.   Drill a 1/2" hole through the top of the 1" cap that will allow the 1/2" PVC to slide through.   (Use your Dremel tool and a barrel sander to slightly enlarge the hole.) 2.   Glue the 1" cap to the 1" PVC and allow to cure completely.   (You don't want the inner parts glued to the outer parts do you!) 3.   Cut a 2" length of the wood dowel and insert it into the 1/2" PVC.   (Use a hammer and tap it in if it's a bit tight) 4.   Remove the hardware from the sink stopper and grind the top flat with a sander or your             Dremel tool with the tube sander. 5.   Screw the stopper onto the end of the 1/2" PVC with the dowel in it.  Now grind the sides          of the stopper to fit inside the 1" PVC.  (Make sure to keep it round and not too loose.)   6.   Insert the 1/2" PVC section with the stopper to the bottom into the 1" PVC and through             the opening and glue the 90 deg. Elbow on to the 1" PVC. (Extend The 1/2" PVC all the            way out to avoid gluing the two parts together.) 7.   Now glue in the bushing using the same caution with the inner piston. (extend it out all the          way.  The last thing you want after all of this work is to have the inner piece stuck to the        outer piece.) (Pre-glue the 1/2" male threaded piece into the bushing.) 8.   Add the last two pieces.  (No gluing required)   9.   Screw one of the 1" drywall screw in to the 1" PVC to the side opposite of the air hose              nipple one inch above the end of the elbow.   10. Put the last screw about 1" above the top of the 1" PVC into the 1/2" PVC and attach the          bungee cord. 11.  Attach your air hoses and have a ball. NOTE:  You can eliminate the galvanized pipe filling by buying a PVC reducing bushing with a female thread inside.  This will allow you to put the air hose nipple directly onto the popper.

This is the look at the top section of the unit, and once again note the simple screw to hold the bungee cord.  We ran a long hose to the front of our haunt where we connected the feed hoses to a trigger control and back to the popper.  When anyone passed by we would just squeeze the trigger and out jumped a skull.

Here is the close up of the lower components.  Notice that a simple screw was used to hold the bungee cord in place.  All that is left is to build a simple frame to attach this to and connect the air compressor.

This is the whole shebang.  The skull was set up to pop up about 20" when activated.