Customer Reviews

Whoosh Boom Splat: The Garage Warrior's Guide to Building Projectile Shooters

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just bought this, based on experience of Gurstelle's other books ("Art of the Catapult" and "Backyard Ballistics").

I wasn't disappointed at the content, though anybody who has spent time on the internet (especially sites like Instructables or Howtoons) will have seen versions of most of the projects before. The only project that was wholly-new to me was the Mechanical Toe.

What did disappoint was the quality of the book - nice shiny covers enclose dull, yellowing pages. The paper used does not promise long life, and I do not think it would survive if I kept it with the rest of my Making library (in my shed).

So, buy it if you like Gurstelle's style, or if you don't want to spend some time filtering the dross from the Web, but don't buy it if you plan to keep it for several years.

I just received this book in the mail and was so excited that I did a quick scan to see what I could "put together" NOW! There were so many fun things to do in this book. Very inventive. I love the way Gurstelle gives praise to the past by creating a steam cannon designed by DaVinci (which was inspired by Archimedes). I can't wait to build even more!

Fantastic little book! Full of historical little tidbits and notes, mixed in with common sense instructions about a lot of fun "guy" projects that even girls could have fun doing! Loved it. Bought one for a grandson, then bought one for a friend. Might buy another one, too.

This book is very informative and has a lot of fun projects. We are doing these projects with our children and with the youth of our church. These are, for the most part, simple projects that just about anyone can have fun with.

I've also read Gurstelle's books "Absinthe & Flamethrowers" & "Adventures from the Technology Underground," both of which are relatively worthless.

"Whoosh-BOOM-Splat," however, is not only a more interesting read than the other two titles, it actually has worthwhile instructions on how to build the various devices under discussion.

It doesn't differ materially from those other two titles in the nature of its content, just in being more accessible and having a more interesting group of devices for the reader to assemble & with which to experiment.

NB: on the potato cannon [more commonly & colloquially known as a "spud gun"], I don't see the value to the end user of utilizing an expensive stun gun when a simple & cheaper piezoelectric BBQ lighter can be substituted. So even with this book, it's better to use a little of your own creativity when building the experimental device contained therein.

But it's still a MUCH better book than either of the other two titles mentioned!

This book had some fun projects and some good information in it. If you weren't careful you might learn something while having fun!

While I'm not handy with my hands, my sister-in-laws husband is, and they have a son that I got this for. It has a lot of really good projects that can be done with things like PVC pipe, and that boys will love to play with afterward.