The Bang Snap Hammer

I sometimes come across a Technic piece I've never seen before. One such case is in the photo above of the x928cx1 Spring-Loaded Connector. If you twist an axle in the center opening then release, springs will snap the axle back to the center position. This could be useful for a steering mechanism to bring alignment back to center. Or it can be used to store energy, which is what I worked with to build a triggerable hammer. Why? To create a small explosion, of course. The explosion is made by whacking a toy noise maker, called bang snaps, pictured below of a brand called Pop-Its. Bang snaps work by a bit of silver fulminate detonated by rapid compression.

I made a hammer device, shown below, that can be triggered from a bent liftarm twisted against the springs of the spring-loaded connector. The hammer can be cocked and locked by inserting an axle into a hole of the liftarm. When this axle is removed, the device fires, as in the slow-motion video at the bottom of the page.