Marshmallow Shooters

We were bored one Saturday, so we totally ambushed our neighbor (who was the one kind enough to show us the Transit of Venus) with our family of marshmallow shooters.

Our desires for marshmallow shooters came around 5+ years ago when we thought it would be a fun family past time of Big J and his 4 brothers.  I believe we did buy one at Christmas ~$15 for one of the brothers, but 5 would have been above our poor young adult budget.

We were at Maker Faire last month (I know, I owe a run down on it, but I'm seriously in lock-down mode due to the end of the Refresh Grant) and found 2 shooters for sale for $20.

Big J took a picture of the box and decided to get material to make our own.

Per shooter (~$5 total)
~2.5-3 ft 1/2 inch PVC pipes
2 - 90 degree slip fit (not threaded)
2 - T slip fits (not threaded)
2 - slip fit caps (not threaded)

It would be helpful if you had a PVC pipe cutter (which we had from a previous project).  They are ~$10 (so not super cost effective if you only make 1, but better if you make a family of them).

These are the measurements from our shooter (based on small person (J and Mommy's) hands) - it's very customizable:

3 - 5" (two handles, 1 mouth piece)
2 - 2" (connectors between the handles)
1 - 3" (neck between the mouth piece and the barrel)
1 - 7.5" (barrel of the shooter)

We didn't glue the pieces, which made it super easy to take apart and retrieve lost marshmallows.

Here's what our family of shooters look like:

Minus one for this reason:

Here's how you use the marshmallow shooter:

Insert the marshmallow into the gun

Give a firm, quick blow

Repeat, over and over again.  Hopefully, you don't have this disaster:

If you do, feel free to still use them (or reuse already shot marshmallows).  Just make sure you and your kid(s) know not to eat those ones.  We had a no eating marshmallows rule once we started reusing.

If your marshmallow gets stuck

Take apart the gun and fix it.

We picked the wrong person to pick a fight with.  He had his own marshmallow shooter (~$15 store bought).  Luckily J took it hostage.  Good job J.

He didn't know how to use it, so he got assistance.

This activity has been a big highlight to our summer.

Don't shoot me, I'm just innocently taking pictures!

Hope you have fun with your shooters.

*Sorry for the premature post - I wasn't ready with pictures and hit publish instead of save.  Blogger doesn't have that 30 second undo option like Gmail.