This pen missile launching system fits in my pocket (and fires real missiles!)

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Hi, I don't know what I'm doing and this is a secret agent style weapon system that launches a pen missile out of an Altoid spin using a modified children's Batman watch. I've identified four key engineering challenges we'll have to overcome in order to get our launch system working. One, somehow I'm going to have to fit a 10-in launch pad inside of a 3 and 1/2 in Altoids tin. Two, I need to find a way to build an ignition system that's powerful enough to fire the igniter while also fitting inside the Altoids tin that can be remotely triggered. Three, I need to retrofit my Batman watch with the guts of a remote for the ignition system. Four, I need seamless integration between all these parts and pieces so that we have a reliable launch system. I considered trying to 3D print some kind of folding or telescoping compact launch pad that would fit in the Altoid tin. But in the end, I don't think I can get close to the density or strength of something like these antennas. So, I'm just going to 3D print an articulating bracket that holds two of them side by side. I'm going to use these micro connectors to plug in my igniter and hold it in place.

[00:00:59]So, I'm building a connector housing into the design.

[00:01:03]So, I'm pretty proud of this base design and eventually it'll get attached to the inside of the Altoids tin with epoxy, but I didn't think that would be stable enough. So, I created this magnetic arm support. A neodymium magnet is glued into place and will magnetize to the bottom of the Altoids tin to create an articulating support that will stabilize the lawn [ __ ] at any angle it's set to.

[00:01:21]Because each of the different segments in the antennas have some give, they separate at the end, which allows the rocket to fall through.

[00:01:29]Through some trial and error and using a star clip, I ended up creating something that looks like the septum piercing of your favorite barista, but holds the antenna at the right distance apart at the end to stabilize everything. This shape also allows the rocket fin to pass through without interfering.

[00:01:45]I found this key fob and receiver setup on Amazon, and it's a remote onoff circuit that you can program to three different settings. It's got latched on, timed on, and momentary on.

[00:01:56]The receiver chip is tiny, so it's not going to take up a lot of space in my Altoids tin. We'll deal with fitting this into the watch when we get there.

[00:02:02]One thing at a time, the receiver chip doesn't pass along enough current on its own to directly power the igniter, so I'm going to use it instead to power a relay. This will allow power from the battery to be directly applied to the igniter through the relay, which is basically just an on andoff switch. So, because the igniter is a direct short, I can't use the same battery to power the receiver chip and the igniter. Because of this, I'll need to find a way to fit two batteries into the ever more cramped space of the Altoids tin. Okay, it's kind of the moment of truth. Let's see if our remote controlled circuit has enough juice to power our igniter. Here goes nothing.

[00:02:40]Nice.

[00:02:43]All right.

[00:02:52]My grandfather, I do know, wore this watch in World War II, and it's been passed down for generations before that.

[00:02:58]As much as it pains me to take apart a family heirloom, I'm going to try to honor it by keeping these really cool lights on the front working.

[00:03:14]There's a lot going on in this watch and not a lot of room unless I get rid of some of these components. Luckily, the little circuit that controls the lights is pretty small.

[00:03:25]Somehow I'm going to have to reduce the size of this key fob circuit board to get it to fit in the watch.

[00:03:31]As best I can tell, this is just the antenna for the remote. So, if we cut this chip down, I should be able to jumper it out with a piece of wire and maintain function. The second button on the fob is the off button. But since I just need the momentary on function, I can get rid of it. I'm going to hook up a battery to the leads to make sure it still works after being hacked apart.

[00:03:53]Pressing the top of the Batman watch closes this button switch and activates the lights. I want to modify this to also send the signal to the launch circuitry in the Altoids tin. I'm jumping out the on button on the remote.

[00:04:05]So when the Batman watch face is pressed, the light circuit sends power to the remote which will power on instantly sending the signal to launch to the ignition circuit in the Altoid St. So, now that everything works, I've been thinking a lot about what to call this.

[00:04:28]I mean, it's a pen missile launched out of an Altoids tin triggered remotely by a Batman watch. So, a functional title feels appropriate. I've decided to call it the propulsion enabled non-detectable incapacitating system or Pennis for short. I like that name cuz it has the word pen in it. So, now that we have a name, let's put this all together and go launch some missiles.

[00:05:10]This setup makes me feel like some kind of secret agent. It's discreet. It's compact. and hopefully it's powerful.

[00:05:16]So, now that everything is put together, let's go see what trouble we can get into with these pen missiles.

[00:05:24]In the last video, I created and perfected this missile, which is made from a couple of pens, an Altoids tin, and a graphite nozzle. If you haven't seen the full pen missile origin story and want to check it out, it's on my channel. Now, with the force that the missile generates in mind, I added some extra magnets into the launchpad to help it stick to metal surfaces so it doesn't move during launch. Now, I'm looking for three key pieces of data from this first launch, which is does the whole thing work? How fast does it go? And how far does it go? I've not typically had good luck in the past with finding the missiles after I launch them. So, I'm hoping the drone that I have flying in the air will help me locate it so we can get a distance reading after this. All right, we're ready to launch. Let's not forget I've got this bad boy on already.

[00:06:03]Launching in three, two, one.

[00:06:16]Okay. Well, using the drone footage, I was able to follow the exhaust arc a little bit. I have a general idea of where it might be, which I've actually never had in the past during these launches. So, I'm going to go to where I think it is and I'm going to wander around for a while. See if I can find it.

[00:06:31]>> There it is right there. Still got two fins on it. We're going to use this launch for our speed and distance data.

[00:06:38]Now, the good news is that the system does work. It was able to successfully ignite all nine missile engines and launch them, just not straight by any measure that you could come up with. So, at the end of the day, we got 250 yards out of this launch. So, now let's take a look at our speed data. So, if we play this footage frame by frame, we can see that we lose trajectory so badly by the 3ft mark that I can't really tell where we're at. But we can tell that it takes five frames to travel 1 ft early on in the launch. This was filmed at 240 frames per second. So if we plug all this into AI because I don't need to use my brain anymore, we get a speed of about 33 mph. Now given that the missile weighs about 31 1/2 g, AI also tells me that this gives us about 3.4 jewels of energy on impact with something, which frankly sounds kind of lame to me.

[00:07:27]However, I still think we should launch it into stuff cuz that sounds fun. We can't do that out of the Altoids tin though because I wouldn't be able to hit anything. But I have an idea for that.

[00:08:02]One thing I hate is finding out there's an easier way to do something after I've already done it. If I had known how easy, affordable, and fast JustWay services were when I started this project, I could have been launching my pen missiles off of this beautifully machined aluminum launchpad instead of this 3D printed block that melted more and more with each launch. Just is an online service for all of your machining needs. They're able to do vacuum forming, 3D printing, sheet metal fabrication, and everything in between.

[00:08:29]In all honesty, the thought of using a service like this in the past was always a little intimidating to me, but after the amazing experience I had with JustWeight to make these parts, I know they're going to be a huge part of future builds on this channel, so be sure to go check them out. So, I made this frame to keep the missile on trajectory for 10 ft. From what I could tell in those initial launches, that should be enough time for the missile to build up to full speed or something very close to it. So, now we can just point this frame at what we want to shoot.

[00:08:54]Fire off a missile, and we'll see what kind of damage these things can do.

[00:08:59]Okay. Kind of nervous. Here we go.

[00:09:02]Launching in three, two, one.

[00:09:11]Oh my god.

[00:09:22]Okay. Well, this went so well. I think we should try something more interesting. Dang. It >> isn't working.

[00:09:30]>> Let me see.

[00:09:32]>> Did you take your >> What?

[00:09:52]Okay, come here. Come over here closer.

[00:09:55]I could not have aimed that any better.

[00:09:57]That went right in the ear.

[00:10:00]Now, no blood, but I think we're going to try that again and see if we can get it to pierce the actual skull itself.

[00:10:07]Okay, in three, two, one.

[00:10:27]Okay. So, I'm going to pull this thing out in a minute, but I'm just looking. I don't know if you can see this, but there is a crack in the skull. Like, it fractured the skull like right along in there. See where it's opening up? So that's actually bone fragments stuck in the tip of our pen missile. So we actually gouged a piece of his bone out of his head, out of the skull. So would have definitely done some damage. So I spent a lot of time thinking about like a nice action oneliner for this last launch. And what I came up with, frankly, it sucks. So I need you guys to leave comments with better oneliners that I should have used so I can see what I missed out on. But here's what I came up with. You know, my high school debate coach always told me the only way to defeat a straw man is with a pen missile launched out of an Altoids tin with a with a Batman watch.

[00:11:17]That's He said that. That's a It's a real quote. He actually he actually said that.

[00:11:26]Seriously, he's dowsted with gasoline. He's supposed to light on fire.

[00:11:36]This was supposed to be a thing. I'm gonna go get a lighter. Oh [ __ ]