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"  Listen to MSNBC host Tucker Carlson discuss his spud gun addiction on the Popular Mechanics Show (podcast): powered by ODEO You wouldn&amp;#039;t know it to look at him, but Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC&amp;#039;s Tucker, is a Right Guard man. It&amp;#039;s not the rugged scent that draws him in, though. It&amp;#039;s the butane propellant. Butane? In his deodorant? Well, yeah. How else is Carlson going to get the explosive power he needs to launch a potato from the barrel of his custom-built spud gun at over 300 mph? &amp;quot;I love the smell of Right Guard in the morning,&amp;quot; says Carlson, who was introduced to spud gunning in 2001 at a friend&amp;#039;s house in rural Maine. &amp;quot;He hit a birch-log deer lawn sculpture with a potato, and all four legs popped off. I thought, `You know what? This is my future.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Carlson has plenty of projectile-loving company. The humble potato has spawned a subculture of enthusiasts who trade construction tips and fuel ideas online (Static Guard! Air freshener!). Many are willing to invest hundreds of hours--and sometimes hundreds of dollars--in their quest for spud-gun supremacy. But, the thrill of launching an oblong lump of starch can be had for much less time and money. &amp;quot;People think the more they spend, the better it will work,&amp;quot; says Joel Suprise, impresario of the online store Spudtech.com. &amp;quot;But that&amp;#039;s not necessarily true. Even a basic model that you can put together for 25 bucks will give you a range of 200 to 300 yards.&amp;quot; For those who want more distance, Suprise sells hopped-up artillery with long, rifled barrels and larger combustion chambers. Some use pure propane for combustion. &amp;quot;You can get an easy 400 yards and 400 mph out of those,&amp;quot; he says. Safe Spud Gunning While launching potatoes into the stratosphere may seem like childish fun--actually, it is childish fun--the activity has produced its share of mishaps, including what Suprise calls &amp;quot;chemical-thermal removal of body hair.&amp;quot; Here are some tips for growing old with the sport. 1) Buy pressure-rated PVC. &amp;quot;Always use Schedule 40 or 80 PVC pipe,&amp;quot; Suprise says. &amp;quot;The cheap stuff has a cellular core that&amp;#039;s really just a piece of rigid foam. It&amp;#039;s incredibly dangerous.&amp;quot; 2) Wait before firing. &amp;quot;The solvent may dry in a few minutes, but it&amp;#039;s not cured until 24 hours have passed,&amp;quot; Suprise says. &amp;quot;When you glue PVC together, you&amp;#039;re actually solvent welding. And it takes a full day for that weld to set up.&amp;quot; 3) Take your spud gun seriously. &amp;quot;Do not point it at anything you don&amp;#039;t want to damage,&amp;quot; Suprise cautions. &amp;quot;These things can be extremely dangerous. Treat them with the same respect as a shotgun.&amp;quot; Materials: $30 Build it 1) Schedule 40 PVC is available from plumbing and home centers, as is PVC primer and cement. The cement takes 24 hours to cure. 2) This spud gun uses 1.5-in.-dia. pipe for the barrel. It is connected via a 1.5 x 4-in. bushing and a coupler to a 10-in. length of 4-in. pipe--the combustion chamber. That pipe is linked to a cleanout adapter and endcap (which is removed to add fuel). 3) A grill igniter is wired to a pair of machine screws that extend through the combustion-chamber wall. Hello, spark. Buh-bye, potato. Click here for spud-gun plans and video!   2-LITER ENGINE Rocket Car With all the fuss over flex-fuel cars, why not build your own? It will run on butane, hydrogen or alcohol vapor--and cost under $20. The safest plan, though, is to start with Right Guard, just as many spud gunners do. Spray some in and tighten on the cap--which you have predrilled to form a nozzle. Then, strike a spark. Zoom! The key is finding the best nozzle size for your fuel type, says Sam Barros (powerlabs.org), a fan of all things explosive. And, he advises, avoid fire alarms. &amp;quot;Because chances are good they&amp;#039;re gonna go off.&amp;quot;  Materials: $13   1) It&amp;#039;s said tre-buh-shay: Unlike a catapult, which depends on a torsion spring, a trebuchet works like an unbalanced seesaw. Big weight goes down; little weight goes flying. 2) It&amp;#039;s handy in a siege: &amp;quot;Once these machines got to a castle, that castle was done,&amp;quot; says trebuchet maker Kevin Geiselman, sounding gleeful. &amp;quot;Trebs can be terribly destructive.&amp;quot; 3) It&amp;#039;s simple, really: The model shown here--courtesy of Geiselman--can fling tennis balls across a yard. Scale it up to go punkin&amp;#039; chunkin&amp;#039;; scale it down to toss crumpled memos at co-workers. Don&amp;#039;t overthink it. &amp;quot;I didn&amp;#039;t even create plans for mine until after I&amp;#039;d built it,&amp;quot; Geiselman says. Materials: $12  MacGYVER SPYPLANE Kite Aerial Photography 1) USE CHEAP CAMERAS: Because they will break. Yes, they will. 2) USE SMALL KITES: &amp;quot;Big kites can get tricky,&amp;quot; says David Hunt, an avid kite aerial photographer. To stick with a manageable size, try to keep the weight of your camera rig under 10 ounces. 3) USE YOUR IMAGINATION: Find details of the system shown here at kaper.us. But don&amp;#039;t stop there--devising the contraption is half the fun. Materials: $20  THE WRIGHT STUFF Balsa glider Who needs an engine? Armed with balsa and glue, an amateur aeronautical engineer can experiment endlessly with the vagaries of flight. &amp;quot;My principle is to make rustic models and transform them until they crumble away,&amp;quot; says glider enthusiast Eric Brasseur. Here is Brasseur&amp;#039;s starter kit of advice: 1) Choose materials with care. The 1/16- or 3/32-in. balsa sheets and fuselage (ideally, balsa or pine rod) you use should be perfectly flat and straight. 2) Pick your glue. Use standard wood glue if you want wiggle room; go for fast-drying cyanoacrylate (aka Super) glue to avoid long intervals between steps. You can make small adjustments later by adding weight or shaving some material. 3) Tweak your wings, the keys to performance. Try rounding their leading edges with sandpaper, or tapering their trailing edges, or curving them by adding ribs to the underside, or angling them upward into a dihedral, or...well, you get the idea. Materials: $5 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a884/3890557/>