Old Danish Tradition Inspires Pneumatic Cinnamon Launcher

Every country has its unorthodox traditions, and Denmark is no exception. If you're a Dane that has turned 25 and have not gotten married, it is customary to douse you with tremendous amounts of cinnamon.

Kasper Mortensen has an unmarried friend who was turning the fateful age, so he decided to catch him off-guard and build a pneumatic cinnamon launcher disguised as a birthday gift. Open the box, and suddenly you're enveloped in a cloud of spice.

The fact that this contraption had to be mobile provided most of the design constraints for this build. Having a full pneumatic control system without a compressed air line proved to be a challenge, but one that Mortensen overcame. He creatively decided to use off the shelf CO2 cartridges to provide the machine with pressurized air, and controlled the release of the air using a solenoid valve. The air tank is made from scratch to accommodate the exact amount of pressure provided from a cartridge.

When testing, Mortensen ran into a few issues. He found that the battery pack he was using didn't have enough power to toggle the solenoid valve, so he had to upgrade to a larger pack with more cells. The valve he was using also had too small of an orifice, meaning that the air didn't exit in a sudden, explosive manner, but in more of a slow and sad hiss. After a replacement valve was installed, the pressurized air evacuated much faster.

Mortensen also added light sensors and a priming sequence to the contraption so that it would fire automatically when the box was opened. The end result is fantastic; the launcher properly doused his friend and captured some great footage to boot.

To see the full build, check out Mortensen's video below!