Fountain O’ Sparks

I found a fun activity – making a fountain of sparks in your home office. It’s fun and easy. Here are step-by-step instructions:

Tools Needed:

• New battery for APC BackUPS 1250
• crescent wrench
• pliers

Procedure:

1. With the old battery taken out of the UPS, connect the negative cable to the negative terminal of the new battery, finger-tight.
2. Tap the positive cable to the positive terminal a few times.  It will spark slightly once or twice.
3. When no more sparking occurs, tighten down the screw and nut on the positive terminal, finger-tight.
4. Adjust the crescent wrench to the size of the nut and hold the nut in place with the wrench.
5. With the pliers, grab the head of the screw and begin to tighten it
6. This is where the fun begins: keeping the wrench on the nut on the positive terminal, rotate toward the negative terminal until the side of the wrench just touches.
7. Pull your hand quickly away as soon as the sparks start to fly.  If you do it right, the wrench will stick, lodged in between the two terminals as sparks shoot out like a fountain.
8. When you’ve had enough of a show, take the pliers and smack the wrench to dislodge it.  This may take more than one blow.
9. There will be flames in a couple spots on the plastic of the battery casing.  Blow them out.
10. Turn the fan on in the room before your wife comes home to clear out the burning plastic smell.

That’s it!  Your own Fountain O’ Sparks in 10 easy steps!  Inspect the wrench to see that the steel has melted and burned the sliding portion of the wrench.  Inspect the negative terminal to ensure that the nut has been welded to the screw.

*Disclaimer: don’t ever do this. Ever.