For as long as YouTube engineers have been around the unique breed of builder has sought to make an IRL version of Thor’s legendary hammer, Mjölnir. Allen Pan, for example, made a flying version of the hammer in 2017, which tests one’s worthiness to wield it. Now, engineer and ‘Tuber, Jake Laser, has made a—huge—Mjölnir that actually blasts out bolts of lightning. And it is shockingly intimidating.
Laser recently posted the above Mjölnir build video to his YouTube channel, JLaservideo. For those unfamiliar, Laser, like Pan (and the Hacksmith et al.) is an engineer focused on bringing objects from comic book worlds into reality. In the past Laser’s tackled everything from an Iron Man briefcase suit to Doc Ock’s tentacle arms. Although this hammer may be his best build yet.
JLaservideo
In the video Laser shows how he built the exceedingly complicated hammer. In essence, the engineer used a tesla coil to produce the bolts of electricity. That is, the device Nikola Tesla invented in the hopes of delivering wireless electricity. You may recognize the arc-shooting device from science fairs or perhaps backyard covers of “Africa” by Toto.
JLaservideo
As Laser explains, he had to use a very specific type of Tesla coil: a quasi-continuous wave double resonance solid state tesla coil. Or QCWDRSS. Laser goes into deep detail into how the coil works about six-and-a-half minutes in, although the device is essentially a scaled down Tesla coil that’s able to deliver outsized, high-voltage bolts of electricity. (In general, a Tesla coil delivers these bolts by taking electrical current from a source like a battery, and running it through a pair of coils that jack up the voltage. I.e. if you think of electricity as water, the Tesla coil applies “pressure” to it to make it shoot out this way and that in long arcs.)
JLaservideo
Electrical engineering aside, Laser’s hammer delivers in spades on its promise of being a lightning bringer. He shows off the build at the 15-minute mark, but the real taste of power comes closer to the end. Right around the time who but Allen Pan shows up to show off yet another one of his Mjölnir builds. Because his can do things Laser’s can’t and vice versa. Hopefully they’ll soon team up for something really slammin’.
Feature image: JLaservideo
