[mlocher]

On Thanksgiving day I amazed and impressed my 7-year old son when, in less than five minutes, I constructed a fully operational “cannon” using only a few empty green bean cans, a can opener and some duct tape. With a little naptha-based lighter fluid and one of his foam rubber balls, we were able to make quite a racket.

You are bring tears to my eyes! My brother and I used to make these cannons and shoot tennis balls at each other. Smashing up model cars was pretty fun too!

[WayneS]

In Jr. High School I duct-taped a “tennis ball cannon” to the plastic stock from an NJROTC drill rifle and made a quite effective and “aimable” weapon out of it.

In the days of straight-sided, steel soda cans with welded/soldered seams, the tennis ball just fit PERFECTLY.

Unfortunately it is very hard to find that type of can in the correct size any more. When you do find a straight-sided steel can, it is usually a bit larger (or smaller) in diameter than a tennis ball (that is why we had to use an odd-sized foam ball with the “bean can cannon”).