Catastrophic failure

Boom! The classic potato gun harnesses the combustion of flammable vapor. Show us your combustion spud gun and discuss fuels, ratios, safety, ignition systems, tools, and more.
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jackssmirkingrevenge
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Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:51 am

I still would like to see someone do some testing on the subject.
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
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Technician1002
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Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:57 am

One other possiblity of a cause of failure. The joint could have become fatigued and cracked from being dropped or sat on. The collapse of one of the spacers in the reducer indicates the barrel was forced to the side at one time or another. An external barrel support to prevent flexing would have prevented the failure.
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Tue Oct 26, 2010 6:19 am

Technician1002 wrote:One other possiblity of a cause of failure. The joint could have become fatigued and cracked from being dropped or sat on. The collapse of one of the spacers in the reducer indicates the barrel was forced to the side at one time or another. An external barrel support to prevent flexing would have prevented the failure.
I posted a response to that already. As I stated above I physically tore the barrel off the cannon... after the failure. The failure originally was a split in the bushing that area had an orange brown scorch mark where it ruptured. I heard the the gas escaping from that split and saw the fault and tore the barrel off to more easily unstick the stuck projectile with my ramrod. The cannon had not been sat on, or otherwise damaged. I've glue more PVC than I care to think about. I've plumbed several houses in my day. Not to say I am infallible but I know what happened.

I appreciate the insight, but as I stated above the photos might be misleading because some of the damage is from me physically tearing the barrel off after the failure.

One more time: I tore the barrel off after the bushing failed.

... and yes I did get back on the flying potato and ride. I built and tested a 4" x 2" coaxial breach loader yesterday. Electric ignition and everything :twisted:

OMG the thing is at least twice as powerful as the 3 x 1.5 muzzle loader.

I think I am hooked on flying spuds.

Definitely looking at Propane for the first upgrade. Hair spray is a mess.

And for some reason I like making things to shoot out of it more than I like jamming taters in the breach.

Thanks for the info and support :)
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