Where I live, it’s officially leaf season, and the leaves are everywhere. They cover driveways, pile up along sidewalks, and even blow into my garage, where they stick to people’s shoes and get tracked through the house. It’s beautiful in that golden-autumn way, but it also means hours of cleanup, and if you’ve ever spent a weekend wrestling with a cord or a gas engine, you know the appeal of a good battery-powered blower. This year, we decided to settle the debate once and for all and exhaustively tested all the major battery-powered leaf blowers on both fabric leaves and concrete blocks, because that’s the kind of obsessive testing that helps you make a real decision. The winner was the Ego Power+ 880 CFM, a machine that somehow delivered gaslike power while also being the quietest model we tried. It was so strong that it knocked over a 5-pound brick paver without even needing turbo mode, and it was the only blower in the entire test that could do that. As if that weren’t enough, it’s on sale at Lowe’s this week, and the deal includes an extra backup battery, so you never have to worry about running out of juice halfway through the yard. That backup battery alone is worth a lot, because there’s nothing worse than getting into a cleanup rhythm and having your blower die on you. But as practical as this tool is, there’s also a far less practical purpose that WIRED contributing reviewer and leaf blower expert Sal Vaglica is happy to demonstrate, and it’s perfect for Halloween: you can turn this powerful leaf blower into a DIY toilet paper cannon. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s also fantastic, and the sale ends November 4, so if you want to build one for yourself, now is the time to grab the blower.
The idea of a toilet paper cannon powered by a leaf blower might seem like a silly party trick, but it’s actually a brilliant little physics experiment disguised as outdoor entertainment. With just a few hardware-store parts, some of which you may already have at home, you can transform a battery-powered leaf blower into a machine that unrolls a single- or double-ply roll of toilet paper in seconds. Once it’s assembled, you can use it to decorate a house, wrap a porch in streamers, or unleash it on unsuspecting kids and neighbors. The secret is in the airflow, which is usually measured in cubic feet per minute, or cfm, and miles per hour, or mph. When the blower pushes air out of the nozzle at high speed, that fast-moving air creates a lower-pressure stream, and the still air around the toilet paper roll pushes it toward that stream. As the air follows the curve of the roll, it helps lift the roll off the roller, and friction carries the paper along with the airstream. Bernoulli’s principle is part of the trick, along with something called curved-surface lift and the simple fact that the airflow pulls the paper forward. It’s the same kind of physics that helps airplanes fly, except instead of lifting a wing, it’s launching toilet paper across a yard. That’s why the blower’s power and nozzle design matter so much, and why some machines will work better than others for this kind of project.
To get the placement right, we spoke with Saffron Wyse, an associate principal at the international engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti, where she specializes in fluid dynamics. She explains that positioning the toilet paper roll underneath the nozzle is slightly better than putting it above, because then you’re pulling the paper upward into the airstream, and you want it to go upward because that stream is going to do the bulk of the work for you. That’s the kind of expert insight you don’t expect when you’re building a Halloween contraption, but it makes a real difference. Most leaf blowers come with a tapered round tube, but some, including the Ego model Sal used, also come with a wide, flat attachment. According to Wyse, the tapered round tube is the most stable solution because it gives you a tall, wide airstream that’s easier to catch the paper with. But if you’re building this for speed, the flat attachment is the better choice. Wyse says that having a thin nozzle arrangement that tries to flatten the airstream probably gives you more force and more velocity, so the paper is likely to go further. If your leaf blower didn’t come with a flat attachment, you can replicate one with duct tape and cardboard, which is very much in the spirit of this project. You don’t need a perfect engineering setup; you just need to understand the basic principle and then experiment a little.
Now let’s get into the actual build, because the fun part is making it work. Start with a mini paint roller made for standard nap rollers, and avoid models designed for foam rollers because they are too narrow and won’t hold a toilet paper roll properly. Slide the toilet paper roll onto the cage of the paint roller. If it fits loosely, wrap the cage first in painter’s tape, then in duct tape, adding layers until the roll grips securely. The painter’s tape matters because it ensures you’ll be able to use the roller for painting later; duct tape alone can leave a sticky residue that’s hard to remove. This is one of those small details that shows someone has actually done the project before, because it’s easy to ruin a perfectly good paint roller in the name of a Halloween gag. You want the toilet paper roll to spin freely enough to unroll, but not so freely that it slides off the roller or gets caught. The roller acts as a stable axle, keeping the roll centered and pointed in the right direction. If you’re going to be doing a lot of toilet paper launches, you might want to dedicate one roller to this project and keep it taped up permanently, but if you use the painter’s tape trick, you can still use it for its original purpose later.
Once you have the toilet paper loaded on the roller, it’s time to attach it to the leaf blower. Position the loaded roller beneath the leaf blower’s nozzle, about 3 to 4 inches from the tip, and make sure it is centered in the airstream. This positioning is critical because if the roll is too far away, the air won’t catch the paper; if it’s too close, the airflow might push the roll away before the paper can unroll. You can use 12-inch strips of duct tape to secure the roller handle to the blower first, then measure again to make sure everything is aligned, and then add more tape to lock it in place. It’s a good idea to protect the nozzle from adhesive residue by applying painter’s tape to it before adding the duct tape, especially if you want to use the blower for normal yard work afterward. Duct tape residue is stubborn and can be annoying to clean off, so a simple layer of painter’s tape is worth the extra few seconds. Once everything is aligned and secure, pull the first few sheets free from the roll, squeeze the trigger, and let the paper fly. It will unroll with surprising speed and shoot out in a long streamer that can wrap around trees, porch rails, or unsuspecting friends. You may need to experiment a little with the angle and the distance between the roll and the nozzle, but that’s half the fun.
In the end, this project is the perfect way to celebrate both leaf season and Halloween at the same time. You already have a leaf blower out and ready to go, so why not turn it into a toilet paper cannon for a few minutes of ridiculous entertainment? The Ego Power+ 880 CFM is an excellent leaf blower on its own, but now it has a second life as a party machine, and with the extra battery included in the Lowe’s sale, you can keep the toilet paper flying long after the leaves are gone. This is one of those projects that is simple enough for beginners, cheap enough to make on a whim, and impressive enough to make your neighbors stop and ask what you’re doing. If you want to see Sal Vaglica demonstrate the whole setup and watch the toilet paper cannon in action, and if you want to get the details before the November 4 sale ends, it’s worth checking out the original story and video. And if you’re not already a WIRED subscriber, this is a great time to power up with unlimited access to their best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. So go ahead, grab a paint roller, find a roll of toilet paper, and turn your leaf blower into the best Halloween prank you’ve ever built. Happy leaf season, and may your paper fly true.
