Scrap metal madness: Plumber creates DIY ‘firework rocket launcher’ to blow his socks off (VIDEO)

A DIY inventor from the UK has created a makeshift rocket launcher that not only shoots fireworks many feet into the sky, but can literally blow his own socks off.

In an experiment that most definitely should not be tried at home, Colin Furze built the bizarre device from odd bits of piping that he found in his garden shed. 

In an online webisode, he explains how he got the idea for the makeshift launcher while playing a computer game.

Scarily, the weapon can be built out of basic materials like metal piping and gas cylinders that can easily be obtained at your local hardware store.

After shooting at fixed targets, including a tent and a jeep, he ties a firework to his socks and shoots them off of his feet into the distance. Crazy!

The Lincolnshire whizz is something of a Doc Brown character from the Back to the Future films and has posted a series of online videos to show off his outlandish creations.

Furze is actually a plumber by trade, but has been featured on the British television series Gadget Geeks. Thousands of people have subscribed to his YouTube channel, where he posts videos of his whacky machines in action.

“The things I make are made with tools that proper engineers would laugh at, but I’m proof you don’t need an expensive lathe and huge welder to create something amazing,” he writes on his website.  

Last year, he built a jet powered go-kart capable of rocketing at speeds of up to 60 mph (95 km/h). 

Testing it on out at a local airstrip, Furze was filmed racing down the track with flames bursting from the back of the kart’s huge exhausts.

He also managed to adapt a mobility scooter so that it could zip along at 70 mph (110 km/h) in the snow.