The Buckfield duo known for creating Vegas-style fountains of Diet Coke and Mentos has created a new book to share some of their other experiments, from building and arming wooden launchers for paper airplanes to creating pistols and cannons to shoot focused blasts of air.

The book is titled “How to Build a Hovercraft.”

And yes, the book does give instructions on the construction of a hovercraft out of things you might already have in your garage. (Hint: It includes a leaf-blower.)

“What we enjoy most is seeing how everyday objects can do these extraordinary things,” said Fritz Grobe, who wrote the book with EepyBird partner Stephen Voltz.

It also gives people a peek inside the EepyLab. That’s the Buckfield studio where the lab-coated guys have concocted their most popular experiments, from the soda-and-candy-powered fountains and rocket cars to waterfalls made with sticky notes.

“It’s sort of letting people see all the different things we do,” Voltz said. “It’s not just Coke and Mentos.”

It’s what made them famous, though.

Beginning in 2006, their videos made them popular guests on TV shows, including “Late Show with David Letterman,” helped them line up performances around the world and made them experts on what makes and Internet videos go viral.

Last year, they published their first book, “The Viral Video Manifesto,” a thoughtful look at what captures big online audiences.

Their new book, published by Chronicle Books of San Francisco, is less of a manifesto and more of a manual, explicitly made for browsing and tinkering.

The softcover edition (there’s also a digital version) has a rugged cover with a fold-out dust jacket that resembles lined graph paper.

“This book is built to be out in the garage, into the kitchen,” Voltz said. “Get some stains on it. (It’ll) take some use and abuse as you’re making your way through experiments.”

The 190-page book includes more than two dozen experiments along with photos, diagrams and segments titled “How does it work?” and “The science.”

Grobe and Voltz said the idea built upon books they had as children.

“They would either have a bunch of cool experiments and no science or lots of cool science and boring experiments,” Grobe said. “In a lot of ways, we wrote it for people like ourselves, whatever age they are.”

They hope to encourage children and adults to follow some of their experiments and, hopefully, improve upon them.

“We’re trying to put the tools in the audience’s hands and say, ‘See what you can do,'” Voltz said. “This book is for people who want to get their hands dirty and build their own experiments.”

Some projects can take minutes to create. Others could take hours or days. All are created with common items.

“It’s not just, ‘What can you do if you have lots of resources?'” Voltz said. “It’s that mindset of, ‘Maybe I can do something with this. Let’s do something cool and get out a wrench, a hammer and a saw.'”

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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