Spud Cannons?

[Duluth Diesel]

I am desiring to make myself a homemade produce accelerator, or potato launcher. Does anyone have any knowledge, plans, or recommendations? For now I'm thinking hairspray (etc. ) fueled, not propane.

 

[SRadke]

Google search. You'll find more than you can read in an hour.

 

[JR2]

ahh the old produce accelerator... I have a nice small spud launcher. I made it out of schedule 40 black ABS pipe that I purchased from the local Home Depot. You can find all you need to know on the web. I will say that a striker from a coleman lanter in the cool way to shoot the cannon, unless you want to build a spark plug firing system.....





I would suggest that you consider one of the cool spud air cannons, I really dig those.

 

[DennyDay]

Hey All - -- I think you will find the propellant in hairspray is un-odorized propane.



Denny

 

[DBogo]

the thing with hairspray the cheaper it is the more flammable it is, hairspray contains butane and alcohol and maybe even propane, my spud gun has a grill ignitor for a ignitor

 

[rockjeep73]

go with a push button bbq ignitor and use denatured alcohol in a squirt bottle for the fuel, it seems to work the best.

 

[ACoyle]

This guy has all you need.



http://www.spudtech.com/

 

[CTDMtnGoat]

potato cannons

Oo. ive built a bunch, they are alot of fun. i've used the T and Y joints because its a solid piece,and you can mount your ignitor in the clean out cap, the best ones are the push button grill ignitors(as already mentioned) that spark between to points, i've used two screws through the cap and bent together at a distance that they'll throw a pretty good spark. ; and the y and t joints allow plenty of room for plenty of good cheep hairspray to linger in there. what ever you use clean your joints good , use plenty of glue, give it plenty of time to dry ( they WILL blow apart if its not good and dry, I didnt do it but i know someone who did :-laf ) and leave the ends open while glue is drying, they will throw a good flame on just vapors. be shure and get the SCHEDULE 40 pipe. and when you done put a edge on the end of the barrel, helps to cut the potatos. another favorite trick of mine if you are low on potatos is to wrap a couple layers of duct or packing tape over the end , its pretty loud!

have fun!

clayton

pictures of a few of my cannons

 

[TowPro]

Years ago I want to a 4th of July party where some guy had a cannon like a spud gun. He used some kind of Artillery shell that was around 18" high and 5" across. Inside this he stuck about 10' of 5" HD plastic pipe and had a nice stand to hold it all up so the muzzle pointed around 45deg. The shell was drilled and taped with a spark plug in it. He had a car coil and battery to fire it.



He had about a gallon of water in the shell. He could not get to work so before he went inside for another beer he said "go ahead, play with it".



We threw a handful if these crystals (carbide crystals for a mining lamp) into the end of the barrel, then stuffed a deflated kids ball into the pipe as far as we could. We could not get it to work, so we throw in some more carbide crystals and keep trying. Once we had put around a quarts worth of crystals in it we finally got it to work



When this thing went off it had a flame out the end around 30 yards long! We never found the ball. It cracked a window in the garage next to where we set it off. It was amazing what this thing did, in fact it scared the heck out of me, I expected the police to arrive any minute :-laf



Not sure I want to build one that big.

 

[Alphacowboy]

here is my works of art... . :-laf



Yup, I built not one, but two PVC-Rifles. Kinda fun to play with. One has a 4" Cumbustion Chamber w/ a 2" Barrel. It uses 1 1/4" Slip Cap and other fittings for the Ammunition, fitted with a O-Ring. The smaller one is a 3" Cumbustion Chamber w/ a 1 1/4" Barrel. This one uses 3/4" PVC parts for the Ammo also fitted with an O-Ring. Propane is the accelerant. I used electricians lubrication (clear water based liquid that is non-flammable) for the barrel lubrication. (basicly, its KY-Jelly in a commercial use bottle) I used push button grill ignitors for the trigger and a spark plug for the spark.



Here are a few pics.



The Guns

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The Ammo

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(the larger ones I filled with the "jelly stuff" for extra weight and a little punch. I glued a 3/4" cal inside the end of the fittings to hold the stuff in there)



Ignitor setup



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(i bent the end of the plug open more, so that I got a larger spark. )



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WARNING!!!!!!



If you build one of these, nor I or Pavementsucks is liable for any thing that may happen to you or any one that you may or may not hurt using one of these. Use this info at your own risk... PERIOD!



-Matt





oh, they are pretty accurate too! And the larger one, with a paper towel wad, it with launch a golf ball almost out of sight!

 

[MLimpert]

I made a pneumatic one out of pvc. I used 1. 5" for the tank and a tire valve for filling. I used a 1" lawn sprinkler solenoid valve from Lowe's for a quick "release. " I trip the solenoid with a 30v specialty battery that is about the size of 2 9V batteries stacked. I bushed it back up to 1. 5" pipe for the barrel. It works really great! My favorite item to shoot is a foam squeeze ball. It fits the barrel well and will easily travel 200-300 feet in a mostly harmless manner.



I also made an attachment with a small platform. It works well as a pneumatic squirrel launcher. A small amount of birdseed on the platform draws the squirrels in like a champ. While they sit there enjoying a snack, I fire the launcher with a long wire. It tosses them up about 5 feet and they run away confused!



Peta Note:

No squirrels were harmed with this messing around :-laf

 

[WDixon27]

i want some of his rifled pvc, i built my combustion gun with a threaded snout on the front of the chamber and 4 different sized barrels from 1-2" so i can fire all kinds or crap, the 1" will put a good sealing projectile almost out of sight

This guy has all you need.



http://www.spudtech.com/

 

[Duluth Diesel]

Yeah, I like that rifled barrel that spudtech is making. I'm going to hit Menards this weekend with my son and get the parts together and build it. I'll I'm thinking a 4 inch diameter combustion chamber with 1. 5 inch barrel. I'll pick up a grill ingiter, and do the hairspray thing. Once I learn from this first one, I want to make a larger, propane fueled one. There are some good ideas there on spudtech, thanks for the link!



DD

 

[WDixon27]

i've had better success with a flint lantern lighter then a bbq lighter, i built a multi point bbq push button and was dissapointed, the huge spark given off of the flint is less picky about mixture and bits of tater stuck to it

 

[Signal73]

We did something similar during a slow day at the firehouse. . Made a Pneumatic (duh) blowgun. We used 1" I. D PVC pipe I think it was like schedule 80 or something overkill. And for darts we had some 8" Tapcon (cement screws) hanging around and made kinda like a party hat shaped cone thingy out of magizine covers taped to them to catch the introduced air. It started off setting up a piece of plywood as a target and blowing through it with your mouth to propel the dart, But you know like our trucks, some things are better off not left alone. Next thing you know 4500 PSI scott air bottles were sending the darts through the sheetmetal of a junk car we had in the lot for extrication training from 25' away. :-laf Good way to kill a slow sunday afternoon

 

[C. Harlan]

From personal experience, including but not limited to singed eyebrows, arm hair, and such, I have found that 3M Brake cleaner works awesome, and leaves no residue like hair spray does. My cannon consists of a 20-24 inch section of 4" Sch 40 combustion chamber, with a large cap on the back end, with a 45° cleanout arm with cap in front of it. This is where the accelerant gets sprayed in. For the ignition system, I took 2 drywall screws and drilled them directly into the 4" Chamber. . I am also working on a multi ignition system for a cleaner, more violent burn. From the 4" Chamber it is sleeved down to a 2" pipe which is almost 3 feet long. Very accurate, and powerful! When I dry fire it with the brake cleaner (2 second charge of spray), it will blow a flame about 18 inches out of the end of the barrel. Pretty neat stuff, but I have toyed with the idea of using acetyline and a remote controlled ignition system. . I have used ether, but it does not work. Have any of y'all experimented with acetyline or propane? I hope I am not the only sick minded person thinking of using super flammable propellants... chime in and let me know some more ideas!!



-Chris-

 

[WDixon27]

spudtech talks about using propane and metering it with a length of hose between two valves, been thinking about bombing my gun with propane

I have used ether, but it does not work. Have any of y'all experimented with acetyline or propane? I hope I am not the only sick minded person thinking of using super flammable propellants... chime in and let me know some more ideas!!



-Chris-

 

[KBennett]

Good reading!



Here is another post where we discussed this:

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/search.php?searchid=1011934