Old school tin-can cannon

[trae08]

thats nice. i built one like that about 2 years ago with 3 pringles cans, but i used that aluminum heater duct tape to wrap mine up. and even still the cannon got rather hot.

[covey12]

wow, thats cool, even though its basic, it looks better than my cannon lol

[Radiation]

(sorry for the late post, missed this one)
Wow this is your best work yet Starman! Totally owns the triple thunder networked/stungun/metered/burstgap setup Just kidding.

Question about the lighter fluid thing, is there a method of measuring it out before you put it in? Like a thimble full or something?

[jrrdw]

(sorry for the late post, missed this one)
Wow this is your best work yet Starman! Totally owns the triple thunder networked/stungun/metered/burstgap setup Just kidding.

Question about the lighter fluid thing, is there a method of measuring it out before you put it in? Like a thimble full or something?

I just wetted the inside of the cans. All ways worked well.

[starman]

(sorry for the late post, missed this one)
Wow this is your best work yet Starman! Totally owns the triple thunder networked/stungun/metered/burstgap setup Just kidding.

Question about the lighter fluid thing, is there a method of measuring it out before you put it in? Like a thimble full or something?

I just wetted the inside of the cans. All ways worked well.

Yeah, just a tiny squirt..only a few drops really. Over-fueling will just cause after flaming and one heated up cannon.

[The Engineer]

My dad told me about some crazy times in college with one of these. He said he built it out of the old coke cans though, the ones which didn't have ridges on the top or bottom. He duct taped them together and the rest was the same. Apparently you can actually get some pretty good power from it (he also said it had quite a bit of a kick, had to stabilize it with a brick like a mortar for any accuracy).

[starman]

Yeah, the original cannon back in the day was made from steel Pepsi cans. They had ridges around the rims like todays veggie cans and was slightly smaller diameter and fit a tennis ball better.

I shot mine a like a mortar as well...didn't hand hold it.

[Radiation]

I'm telling you Starman, that thing needs a meter, fan, and at least a bbq ignitor.

[PhotoKirk]

I remember the kids down the street built one one these many years ago. I was about 6 years old and I was fascinated. It would send a flaming tennis ball about 100 feet into the air.

[The Engineer]

Radiation:

All of those additions would defeat the purpose of it being 'old school'

[elad311]

Cool CANNON!
say, is it powerful?

[starman]

Cool CANNON!
say, is it powerful?

No, not really, compared to today's nice cannons.

Radiation:

All of those additions would defeat the purpose of it being 'old school'

Radiation was being highly facetious.

[psycix]

Radiation:

All of those additions would defeat the purpose of it being 'old school'

Disagree. It would still look old school on the outside if everything is constructed according to the international ghetto standards.
But just with a surprising firing performance...

[dewey-1]

Thats really oldschool for sure.
Next time, do it with beer cans, like the old story tells us.

Well actually back in those days, beer and soda cans were actually still made from steel and built very much like these veggie cans, so cutting the tops and bottoms on those would have been easy. It would be impossible to make a cannon like this out of today's drawn aluminum cans.

@THUNDERLORD Good points there. That's one reason I wanted to get this cannon out there, as sort-of a reference point and some semblance of documentation for future spudders.

Reviving old topic so some of you may get a chuckle!

The first combustion launcher that I had seen or had experience with.

It was a hot summer day in 1972 or 1973. Can not recollect for sure.
Bob, Bill and myself are sitting around after having a huge barbecue party and enjoying copious amounts of alcoholic beverages. All three of us had a preference for Budweiser or Michelob. As we were staring at the pile of cans accumulating, Bill just randomly comes out with "Hey have you ever seen a "Polish Cannon?"

What is ironic about the situation was that none of were locally raised. We were all from out of state, Chicago and Minneapolis. We all worked together at the same company and became friends. The town we all lived in is a predominantly a Polish community. The best Polish jokes come from the Polish people themselves! Any Polish readers this is not to be taken offensively. Several of our colleagues at work were Polish and they were alway coming up with some good jokes.

When Bill sad "Polish Cannon", I thought he was just joking so I asked about it and low and behold he explains it to me. We need beer cans, a can opener, Ronsonol lighter fluid some tape and some tennis balls. Well we start cutting the beer can tops off and all we were doing was crushing the cans. I asked Bill how aluminum cans are going to work for this? Of course he replies back that Budweiser cans were steel before.

So we are sitting there pondering and drinking more and more, and then I had a brainstorm. I stated, "There is only one brand of beer that still uses steel cans. That is Pabst Blue Ribbon" Being all avid Bud drinkers this did not go over to well. So in desperation I jump in my 1970 Cuda, (the one pictured in my Avatar) and being slightly intoxicated, I still drove to the local liquor store and purchased a 12 pack of Pabst. Well sure enough the cans are steel but we had to force those beers down to get those damn cans. So now at least we could proceed. We opened all the cans at both ends except for one where we just poke a small hole. Starting with the can with the small hole we attached more can together end for end and use tape to hold each adjoining can.

Well finally the thing was complete and Bill stuffed the tennis ball down almost to the end of of the can with small hole. He then proceeded to squirt some lighter fluid in the hole.

Now keep in mind that I had not seen this before, Bill holds the "Polish cannon" at about a 45 degree angle and tells me to light a match and put near the small hole in the can. So I did and "kapow", there goes that tennis ball.

The end result was I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. We must have done this a half dozen times with the same results. The tape started to let go from the stress or heat but it was fun until then.

We had to quit because the wives did not see any humor in this and thought that we would make the neighbors angry and have the local police over. It was an experience that I will never forget!

[psycix]

1970?! You must be very old...