>>I was an industrial arts teacher in the late 1970's.
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>>And I almost flunked wood shop because I broke some equipment :)
>
>We built really cool cannons in metal shop. That got stopped after someone unnamed fired a 1/2 inch ball bearing through a fire door into a concrete wall.

Kid in my high school shop class built a beautiful sleek crossbow. Try that today and you end up in a ward somewhere.