The Man Who Sells Homemade Laser Guns and Flamethrowers from His Living Room

When Patrick Priebes, a 31-year-old who lives in Wuppertal, Germany, lost his job, he decided to focus on his true passion: Building and selling working laser guns. He's now amassed a strong following—his YouTube channel has over 83,000 followers, and his pieces sell for hundreds of dollars. See, Patrick makes a certain kind of geek dream come true, by exporting his unique custom- and homemade pieces to clients around the world.

He was formerly a chemical lab technician, but after he had an accident while playing roller hockey, he lost his job and decided to turn his DIY hobby into a full time gig. Since then, Patrick has been building sophisticated laser guns, machine guns, Spider Man webbing harpoons, and plasma cutters with motor-powered energy cells, to name a few.

Starting at around $330, he can build you pretty much whatever you want. I talked to Patrick about his designs, what the police think about his gun workshop, and that one time he set his curtains on fire with a flamethrower glove.

He also sent me some pictures of his latest laser guns.

Motherboard: Hi Patrick. So why do you build guns?

Patrick Priebe: I want to prove to myself and to people on Youtube what's possible: that you can actually build these things at home all by yourself with some patience and practice.

I used to love building things with Legos when I was a kid, but I never actually 'played' with them. And today I would never strap on my gauntlet and go put on a show at the Gamescom or anything like that. I don't like dressing up. It's really just all about the challenge of creating something very technical.

Do you have a large gun collection at home then?

When something is finished, I almost instantly lose all my enthusiasm in the project. I put the gun away in my closet and move on to something else. My favorite project is always the most recent one. That's why I don't mind building custom guns for clients and shipping them at all over the world.

Why do you constantly keep building new stuff?

The attraction for me is in the planning and construction. My head spits these ideas out all the time. Sometimes I even have trouble falling asleep when I put my mind to a new project. I never build replicas, only my own designs, which can be inspired by characters such as Spider Man or Iron Man or something like that.

It serves a very selfish purpose as well—advertising. Because whenever I build something that looks a bit like it came out of a movie or game, I get more hits on Youtube and new clients.

So you don't have any blueprints or plans?

Nah, guns in movies only shoot with visual effects. Sure, I'm a huge sci-fi fan and when District 9 was released with all its gadgets I asked myself "How the fuck do you do that?"

All kinds of practical problems arise when you try to actually build them. For example, a lot of the guns you see in games and movies are not made for human hands. My goal is to make everything work. So I have to convert the measurements by estimation to make sure people can hold the stuff.

If you don't use blueprints, how do you know how to do all this stuff?

I never learned metal work as such, but I did have a little bit of experience with soldering material. The rest is just practice.

Okay, but isn't it dangerous sometimes? You upload these videos in which you melt glass boards, shoot laser gatling guns or cut wood with laser-rays.

I'm really careful, I mean I never look into the lasers of course. I almost shot myself with the Gauss Rifle though. A projectile got stuck and suddenly it released from the barrel. There was a ricochet, the bullet ricocheted off three walls and still left a fucking big dent in my workbench. I would never sell these kind of guns. A couple of times I also tested my weapons in the kitchen and burned some holes into the wallpaper and the sofa. Or there was this one time I set the curtains on fire with my flamethrower glove…

Could you build anything, theoretically?

I think I could; I never give up on a project, at least. Last year I spent two weeks in summer looking for a single defect. The predecessor to my 4-stage Gauss Rifle just wouldn't shoot. And it drove me nuts. By now I could build real guns too—but I don't want to.

The high-voltage in some of these gadgets alone could easily kill someone. I don't sell the really dangerous guns, because I couldn't have them circulating in good conscience. I just keep them for myself.

What's the judicial situation in Germany?

It's cool because I don't go outside with it. I was reported once, probably by a worried father of a kid who showed him my videos. But the cop who came to my house was an immediate fan. He looked at the Dead Space Plasma Cutter and thought it was pretty great.

How do you build the guns? What parts of them are automated?

None of them. I don't use any CAD programs or CNC systems or anything like that. It's really all handiwork and experience. Each project is a long process of trial and error. What kind of paint works, which screws do I need and how does this fucking hatch open? But I do have an engine lathe, a Dremel and some good saws. And sometimes my dad helps out or gets me things from the hardware store.

I invest the money I earn in new equipment and tools. And that's the nicest part, that I can turn what I want to do into my profession. Otherwise I could just sell the structural designs for four bucks a piece and be set for a whole year. But other people are frustrated by reverse engineering and I don't have templates either. What I rather do is encourage people to try things out themselves.

By the way, you're pretty active on YouTube and have a giant following. Taking care of your fans must demand a lot of your time.

Yeah, some people really deify me on YouTube, which I don't really like. I spend a lot of time answering comments and people always ask the same things, like, 'Can you make me one?' And, 'How does it work? Obviously I understand why people are so immensely fascinated by these things – I am too.

When I was a kid I was obsessed with Battlestar Galactica, so I've been engaged in lasers since I was small. So of course I don't get mad that people want to talk about them. But it's still a little annoying sometimes that people always ask the same questions.

You forge custom-made guns for clients worldwide. What are these people like?

To date I have exported to the US, Japan, India, Malaysia and a lot to Brazil. I realized that Americans seem to like the bigger, somewhat ostentatious guns that don't really do a lot. In the end, they could buy deadly firearms at the next Walmart.

My Japanese clients love them flashy and colorful. They often ask me to incorporate more elements that light up. I had a client once that had to pick up his laser rifle from Japanese customs, which wasn't a problem at all. Some people want their names engraved on them. And I do that too, of course.

I will gladly alter any details, from the finish to the color of the LEDs. I just don't like building the same gun twice, but most people get that. And I can only take on a few requests each month, otherwise I would be in over my head.

So you seem to be a star in this scene out there.

Some people only buy a gun to actually own something that I made. What's really nice though, is that some of my pieces are on display in glass vitrines in master workshops, in the studios of the series Warehouse 13 for example. I didn't even know about it, I just happened to see it on TV.

Sometimes crazy things happen. A colleague of mine spent his voluntary social year in India and became the star of the school where he taught because he knew me.

I end up in the daily newspapers in Brazil a lot when I make something new. But the local press in Wuppertal has never reported on me. I guess they haven't picked up on any of it. But I haven't shouted it out from the rooftops. I don't want to be the Miley Cyrus of the laser world.