Abstract. Shock waves have been used for medical, biological and industrial applications. In this paper design, frication and calibration of a low cost mini shock tube is presented. Commercial FEM software COMSOL multiphysics is used for analysis of shock tube flows. The hand operated mini shock tube is capable of generating shock Mach numbers up to 1.8, peak over pressures up to 8 bar. Experimental and theoretical values of pressure ratio jump primary and reflected shock closely agree with each other. The fabricated shock tube is used for free forming of metallic foils.