Krevulator: was Exploding VCR
jakdedert wrote:
Mike McGinn wrote:
jakdedert wrote:
Ken wrote:
A 'must have' from Iran. Ken
As a teenie in the 60's, one of my friends (read: nerds) and I were
the 'go to' guys at my hs for simple electronic repairs. A girl who
had just dumped my brother--and spread some pretty damaging
rumors--about me took her record player to my friend for needle
replacement. He told me, so while we had it, we rigged up all four
sides of a flashcube to the power switch and placed it under the
turntable. The suspension left a gap that probably made it a pretty
spectacular display the first time she flipped it on.
I hope she wet her pants.
Another time, the same friend literally 'did' make a girl wet hers.
The two of us built a prop for the school play, involving a device (a
'crevulator' AIRC) which was supposed to 'blow up' on command. The
incendiary charge was a quantity of black rifle powder deposited in a
shallow glass ash tray, and triggered by a small-gauge wire which
vaporized when momentarily connected to 120v. This blew the front of
the 'important looking' black box open (restrained by safety chains
from flying completely off).
I was acting in the play. Before the dress rehearsal, I loaded it.
While I was on stage, he loaded it, again...then someone else
apparently loaded it with even more powder (I know, pyro regs and all
that...this was 1971 and we were teenagers). Needless to say, the
effect was much more, eh...'pronounced' than what we had experienced
in tech rehearsals. Apparently the photog was in on the joke, as
there is a picture of the exact moment in my yearbook. I'll scan it
when I can find it.
Anyway--no damage, no injuries--but lots of smoke, a fairly loud
boom; and one of the actresses left the stage suddenly for a wardrobe
adjustment....
jak
Pretty good.
When I was a tech with Philps T&M we had a rather annoying technician
working in the department. He had the odd habit of leaving the 'scope
CRTs he changed out on the side of the bench. I got to work early one
morning and using the anode supply of a scope I very carefully charged
up all the CRTs on his bench. His reaction as he "discovered" this was
well worth getting to work an hour early.
Whoo! How many of them did he pick up before he got wise?
jak
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