A Stunning Ray Gun Built From Junk

If ever there was a quintessential weapon of science fiction, it would have to be the ray gun. [lonesoulsurfer] built this one-of-a-kind stunner from his impressive collection of junk. It’s centered around a vintage Bakelite soldering gun, a vacuum tube, and a portable stove burner, all of which contribute to the fantastic mid-century look.

Inside is a slightly modified version of a ray gun sound effects circuit from MAKE: that squeezes square waves from a lo-fi synth builder’s favorite IC, the 40106 hex inverting Schmitt trigger. [lonesoulsurfer] was able to reuse the soldering gun’s trigger to start the pew-pew-pew, and he can adjust the death ray’s output with potentiometers. The gun is powered by an old cell phone battery and a combo Li-ion charger/step-up module from the world’s largest virtual auction house. Blast past the break to watch the build video.

If one little green LED isn’t enough for you, maybe you’d prefer this light painting gun.

11 thoughts on “A Stunning Ray Gun Built From Junk

    1. I’ve had a few of those! Classics.

      For another actual tool that was clearly designed to have that “ray gun look” do an image search for a “Robinair Model 14470” It was a refrigerant Leak detector for servicing AC and refrigeration systems. You don’t even have to mod these to use them as a ray gun prop!

      one on ebay here:

      https://www.ebay.com/p/1739808712

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