YouTuber builds wrist-mounted launcher that shoots 5 CDs per second at 33 mph

CDs were, by far, the most dominant audio format during the late 1990s and the early 2000s, surpassing cassette tapes. Today, CDs hold little functional significance. So, what do you do with the CDs you have lying at home from your younger days? If you’re Aaed Musa, you could build yourself a wrist-mounted CD launcher and shoot some fruits and veggies at a staggering 33 mph. Well, you don’t want an animal or human in harm’s way!

Musa is not the first to try a CD launcher. Since they have become obsolete, CDs have been used to create furniture and blasted away in launchers such as the Discos Locos in Far Cry 6. Inspired by the Discos Locos and its version by Hacksmith, Musa has designed his own – but instead of a gun-like design, he has put the contraption on the wrist to shoot CDs out of his powerful, wearable CD launcher.

Designer: Aaed Musa

Creating a unique spin on otherwise tried designs would pose design challenges. This, Musa realized the hard way during the creation of this contraption. The entire physics and maths that’s gone into the building process has been meticulously detailed by Musa in the YouTube video, but if that’s not your thing, just read on to basically understand what he has achieved and how it is a lethal tool to behead vegetables and fruits in the garden for fun. What other practical purposes can a wearable CD shooter have for you to create, if you happen to follow Musa and build one for yourself?

Before that, let’s see how he has come about it. Aaed Musa got a box of mini-CDs (slightly smaller in size than traditionally used for audio) and he instantly thought of making a wrist-mounted launcher for them. He started out by designing a flywheel, which he refers to as the heart of the CD launcher. A flywheel spinning at really high speed allows a projectile to slide onto its path to be launched with great force. The flywheel is powered by a motor that can spin at up to 40,000 RPM. After perfecting the throw, Musa focused on increasing the speed at which the CD was launched. For this, he added a second flywheel, which scaled up the ejection speed to 33 mph.

An interesting thing that Musa has done is, he has angled flywheels in such a way that when launched, the CDs spin to give them the gyroscopic stability to hit the target with great precision. This wrist-mounted CD shooter can fire 5 discs per second for some serious fun. The mount, which holds the basic shooting mechanism, was initially 3D printed from plastic, which didn’t appear too cool, so the final variant is made using CNC-machined metal. Cool, isn’t it?

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