SpudFiles

Hello -

My name is Ed Lewis and I wanted to let you all know about a contest that's currently running on instructables.com, the Launch It! Contest. Entries can be about anything launching anything and, well, you guys seem to be pretty far advanced in that field.

Entries in the contest need to provide detailed instructions with photos of how to build whatever the device is. The other requirement is that there must be a video of the launch itself AND we need to see that people are being safe in that video. So wear some goggles at least.

The top prize is a custom-engraved Leatherman Juice and t-shirts for second prizes. The contest ends at 11:59pm PDT Sunday, 16 September, 2007.

You can find the whole contest description here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/E9NGQ48F4T2PFUC/

In addition to the prizes themselves you get a new place to show off the work that you've done. You are more than welcome to provide links back to your home pages or your page here. Instructables has over 2 million unique visitors a month and projects are often picked up by other sites such as lifehacker.com, gizmodo.com, digg.com, and makezine.com.

I've seen some insanely impressive projects on here and know that some of the deep talent for making stuff can be translated into teaching others to make cool stuff as well.

Cheers,

Ed

Made into a global announcement, FYI this is the real deal guys so have fun!

Saweet! Except they just had to do it at the time that I have the least money I've had in years. What gayness. Every contest falls on a time when I have little to no oney, what's up with that?

Sounds alright...but I don't really want to write up how a hybrid works, and then get 100's of injured noobs cause they used cellcore pipe.

Why not? You'd be helping out the gene pool

Here is part of the email I received...

So long story short, I was wondering if you would be OK with me
approaching people on the site about the contest and if you know of
any people who have written good tutorials on the subject. It's a
risky area and we want to emphasize safety. One requirement is a video
showing the launch were we can see the participants wearing safety
goggles.

So full safety measures and a video will be required.

so are they looking for just a launch straight into the air? or for some damage?

trae08 wrote:so are they looking for just a launch straight into the air? or for some damage?

Any version of a launch is fine. Straight up, angled, and directly in front of you all work. So far we have a couple rockets, a few catapults, and even some paper airplanes entered. It's a pretty wide open competition.

Awesome!

rmich732 wrote:Sounds alright...but I don't really want to write up how a hybrid works, and then get 100's of injured noobs cause they used cellcore pipe.

I feel that the more good information there is out there the better.

But you're right, a hybrid would be a risky first project.

is this about one good individual launch
or just a cool launcher with a cool insructable
maybe i should get my self together and make a decent how to on deus ex machina

iknowmy3tables wrote:is this about one good individual launch
or just a cool launcher with a cool insructable
maybe i should get my self together and make a decent how to on deus ex machina

It's about all three, really, since they're all a part of it. To really do it right, you would have some cool project with a construction process that's well documented both with text and pictures. The video is the final piece that shows how well it works.

A couple of people have used the video as an extra documentation to show how everything goes together, but that's not necessary.

As for the video, four things are needed.
- a sign saying that this is an entry in the launch it contest
- the participants showing off their safety gear
- participants acting responsibly
- a kickass launch

Here's one of the videos that's been submitted that has all of the pieces in place for some paper airplanes.

[youtube][/youtube]

And here's a small rocket launch, but the safety gear is hard to see.


[youtube][/youtube]

Does that help?

Entries in the contest need to provide detailed instructions with photos of how to build whatever the device is.

This is the interesting part which makes this nothing like the previous spudfiles contest, as it seems to eliminate the more complex launchers which are practically impossible to detail in a how-to, the winning entry will be something simple using standard parts - it will be a sten, not a thompson.

Hey, Welcome to SF.

Two Questions:

1) If you've already made a video like mine below, can that be entered? I don't have the wooden furniture thing I shot anymore. The only thing is it doesn't show my gun shooting, just shows the golfball going through the wood.

Damage Video Compilation:
[youtube][/youtube]

2) Can anyone, of any age, of any country enter?


Thanks.

JSR wrote:

Entries in the contest need to provide detailed instructions with photos of how to build whatever the device is.

This is the interesting part which makes this nothing like the previous spudfiles contest, as it seems to eliminate the more complex launchers which are practically impossible to detail in a how-to, the winning entry will be something simple using standard parts.

That is because this is not a SpudFiles specific contest, it is a contest being offered by instructables.com that would interest many of you.


PCGUY I just edited your post to add JSR's quote so it's not confused with my post.

MrCrowley