How To Build a Detonating Pen

Tired of people taking pens from your desk? Make sure the next time will be their last!

Supplies:

1 Champagne party popper with pull-string trigger

1 plastic ballpoint pen 

Safety glasses

Glue

Scissors

Pushpin

Earplugs

1. Remove all streamers from the popper. Put on your goggles and remove the tape around the neck where the trigger string hangs out. Cut out a side section of the popper from the front. Slowly slide out the explosive charge. Don’t yank it!

2. Disassemble a pen, but don’t remove the rear-end cap. Slide the party-popper trigger through the tip from the back, replacing the ink cartridge. Glue it in place if the tip doesn’t screw back on. 

3. Run the string through the end of the pen cap, making a hole with a pushpin if it doesn’t have one. Cap the pen, cut off excess string, and then leave your desk and wait for the explosion in the pen tip (and the thief’s shorts).

From Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2 by John Austin

Photos by Chris Philpot | Licensed to Alpha Media Group 2013