How-To: Make a pneumatic cannon with a 2" piston valve.

[MrCrowley]

Hmm weird, mine completely thread together.

[niglch]

Hmm weird, mine completely thread together.

I just bought some new parts to replace the ones I broke. The first is a 2" female adapter and the second is a 2" threaded plug. Both parts indicate that they are pressure rated & schedule-40 (NSF-PW). However, when I tighten them with my hands, the two parts only thread about halfway in before they lock up. Trying to force it in any more is what broke the last set of fittings I had. Is this ok or am I supposed to use some sort of lubricant when threading the parts together? I read online something about it being bad to over-torque PVC fittings so should I just leave it how it is?

Thanks.

[MrCrowley]

Yeah don't over-torque them.

The fittings I used were a female and male threaded adapter. They completely threaded together with ease.

[clide]

Fittings in the US shouldn't thread all the way together. The only ones I have seen that do have gaskets on them and aren't very common or are DWV parts.

PVC manufacturers typically recommend one to two turns past hand tight, and that seems to work for me usually.

[MrCrowley]

Yeah that's a good point Clide. I'm using metric fittings.

[DaGrimRaper]

wow thnks dude.

[tony48]

Where did you get your barrel? I'm looking for a golfball barrel and I think I might have to go to a plumbing store to get one.

[JDP12]

http://www.bcarms.com

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[THUNDERLORD]

Great How-To, Thanks MrCrowley.
Been thinking about piston design/ GB pistons and this will be very helpful.

Also with your system of having a seperate fill and exhaust pilot it looks like a way to add an auto-fill by leaving the fill attached.

I would like to design something similar with electric solenoids some time.
I read over the replies but didn't see any comments about that?

[MrCrowley]

Yes, sometimes I leave my compressor attached if i'm shooting in the garage or driveway. I should've put a breechloader on it, maybe even a manual hopper*. Don't think anyone brought up anything like that, any questions just ask.

I'm in the process of building a new 2" piston golfballer for a school assignment, should be done in a week or two. I learnt a lot from this cannon, so i've made a few advancements in my new one. I could make it more powerful then it would be, but i'm limited by my assignment unfortunately. So I don't have 100% freedom.


*As in manual I mean that you need to do something to make the next golfball drop down, otherwise half of them will get sucked out in one shot.

[drunkii]

how much did that cost you ?:p

[MrCrowley]

~$350NZD


Something like that

[jon_89]

I figured I ask this here instead of starting a new topic. I have read several topics of people using 1.25in caps and couplers as pistons. How well do these fit in 2in pipe?

[MrCrowley]

In NZ I tried using them, all the same brand, but they were a few mm off.

I hear different brands have different outside diameters, so i'd recommend taking a small piece of 2" pipe to Home Depot and trying some 1.25" couplers out.

[jmccalip]

Hmm weird, mine completely thread together.

I just bought some new parts to replace the ones I broke. The first is a 2" female adapter and the second is a 2" threaded plug. Both parts indicate that they are pressure rated & schedule-40 (NSF-PW). However, when I tighten them with my hands, the two parts only thread about halfway in before they lock up. Trying to force it in any more is what broke the last set of fittings I had. Is this ok or am I supposed to use some sort of lubricant when threading the parts together? I read online something about it being bad to over-torque PVC fittings so should I just leave it how it is?

Thanks.

Yeah, just thought I'd add that anytime you see "NPT" thread(nation pipe thread), it means it's tapered. Like this:



I'm not sure exactly why they taper the threads. At first I thought it might be easier to insure a leak proof fitting in case of tolerance errors in the the manufacturing process. But I work in a machine shop, and NPT threads tolerances for our parts are +-.0005 on how far the gauge threads.

Pretty much any plumbing/air supply pipe or fitting you buy in America is NPT. I guess we have to do things different from you NZ and AUS folk.