Customs - need a cover story.

[MrCrowley]

Well i'm headin' back to NZ tomorrow, leaving San Fran airport, and when I arrive in NZ we have to get all our luggage X-Rayed, that includes our suitcases, so i'm 100% sure they are going to ask why a 16yo has two suitcases full of irrigation and plumbing supplies.

I have come up with only one good excuse..

"I am using the the plumbing pipes to replicate a cars brakeing system, demonstrating how most liquids can not be compressed and the pressure is the same on all sides, I will be replacing the force of someone's foot on a brake pedal with compressed air which will be controlled by the solenoid valves, the small diameter pipe will house the small piston, and the bends and corners and short nipples will house the liquid which will connect to the larger diameter galvanized pipe which will house the larger piston.

I then plan to use this theory and make an air compressed door lock, by putting a bolt or something similar on the other end of the large piston, which when a few PSI of air is pumped into the front, putting pressure on the smaller piston, the larger piston will move forward pushing it's bolt into a hole which will lock a door until the air pressure is released by solenoid valve."

Any tips, comments or ideas?

[ALIHISGREAT]

lol i think they may be suspicious.

[Hotwired]

It's part of a fluid control demo rig that you're building for a college project and you can't get those parts back home.

Say the project is basically about controlling pneumatic/hydraulic circuits.

[MrCrowley]

lol i think they may be suspicious.

No sh|t, I kinda figured that out, hence this topic

jk

@Hotwired

Yeah that sounds good enough, I can just say my dad used to own a hardware store(which he did) and he knew the prices and the fittings I needed and knew it would be cheaper to buy them while we were in the US.

[Fnord]

Well, start off by just saying you have a science project involving hydaulics. Then, if you get questioned further, explain the details you made up to them.


Just make sure you practice your little speech/explaination so you don't end up fumbling and sounding suspicious.

Only answer the questions they ask. Don't explain anything they don't want to know.

[paaiyan]

I kinda like the little speech you had prepared. A good thing to do would be to throw in some big words like hydrodynamics. Heck, they don't even have to be real if you can make them convincing.

EDIT: If you make up words, you should probably make up a definition too...

[Hubb]

When they begin to question you, start yelling gibberish, then run away.

[paaiyan]

When they begin to question you, start yelling gibberish, then run away.

Yea... Probably not the best idea. Foreign accent, unintelligible speech, metal piping? TERRORIST!!!

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Foreign accent

Do you *really* thins Bin Laden would sound as threatening if he had an Aussie accent

[paaiyan]

That's not the point. The point is that he ahs a foreign accent, some people really don't care what kind of accent it is, mainly because they don't know. I couldn't tell you how many Americans couldn't tell the difference between a Brit, Aussie, Irishman, and New Zealander.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

lol i know what you mean, but you have to admit that "Allah hu akhbar!!!" is more likely to freak out security than "G'day mate!"

apologies for the national stereotyping

[paaiyan]

Nonono, I was talking about where hub said start yelling gibberish and run away.

[Hubb]

Nonono, I was talking about where hub said start yelling gibberish and run away.

The gibberish I was reffering to was

"Allah hu akhbar!!!"

Please note that I am in no way being racist so, mods, please don't hurt me.

[paaiyan]

Nonono, I was talking about where hub said start yelling gibberish and run away.

The gibberish I was reffering to was

"Allah hu akhbar!!!"

Please note that I am in no way being racist so, mods, please don't hurt me.

Yea, that's definitely going to get you at least a tazer.

[Hubb]

Seriously though, the best way to go about this is to tell them, in a round about way, the truth (i.e. you are doing some type of pneumatic experiment, much like you have it worded in your original post).