DIY soda bottle launcher makes recycling more exciting
Looking for a new way to get your family interested in recycling? Don't just collect your empty soda bottles; shoot them into the recycling bin with a homemade soda bottle launcher. YouTuber NightHawkInLight has created a simple yet effective soda bottle launcher that utilizes a propane torch for fuel. Embellished with coiled tubing that lights up during each launch, this example of DIY know-how is the perfect weekend project.
According to Eric Limer for Popular Mechanics: "The launcher operates on basic potato-gun principles. A bottle at the end of a PVC barrel is filled with an air-propane mixture which when ignited sends the bottle flying off into the distance with a cloud of flame and a hell of a boom. What makes this particular application so great though is the flourish—the circular path the pilot flame takes, building up some tension before the big event."
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
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