golf ball cannon

[FORE!!!!]

hey just haveing a stab at making my own cannon,,,she works good shoots about 150-200m ,i havent measured ,its only an estimate ( cant see beyound neighbours roof ...heres some pics.. [/img]

[FORE!!!!]

do u think its safe to use butane??? has any one got any ideas on how to improve it?

[spudtyrrant]

it is very dangerous to mount your ignitor in the screw cap. it is the weakest part of your cannon and by drilling a hole to mount the ignitor your making it even weaker. if your worried about a dwv spray and pray blowing up ,don't, that endcap would be the first to go. usually when you make a spray and pray out of dwv it's kind of a don't do it next time thing but i would seriously remove the ignition and properly mount it and replace the cap then i would say butane would be a viable fuel

[starman]

Your ignitor looks suspiciously like you connected (umm, shorted) the tip terminal directly to the "ground" terminal....I don't see a spark gap. Perhaps a clearer photo would clear up what you did there.

Also, do something else with your ignitor. I've seen many caps like that blow off the back. If your hand is there, you may be looking at injury.

[FORE!!!!]

appriciated spudtyrrant, in responce to starman ur exactly right in what u see its the only way i could get a visable spark ,with my brande new bbq ignion piezzo, it had the piezzo ignitor ,a piece insulated cooper wire and this other piece that looked like where the spark came from ,ill include a pic, once it was all connected i click the piezzo and nothing happend at the other end it still gave me a shock,but no spark

is it because the piezo needs to be grounded?,i had previously instaled it as per plan thats what that silver thing is on top of the reducer.. im not really good with electrics,but thats probly because im a plumber....

and would u have any ideas on an ignition source i can use, and where the safest place to mount it would be

[Hubb]

I'm digging this simply because it is a golf ball cannon and you named yourself FORE!!!!.

Other than that, I see many things that could be improved on it, all of which can be found searching the site and the wiki.

[FORE!!!!]

there is a spark gap ,it arc"s off the piezzo backing nut

[Cosmic Muffin]

nice gun mate.
you from Australia?
all those parts look like they can be found at bunnings, and only we seem to have the green glue.

[FORE!!!!]

lol yeah dude i got this stuff the other day from there ,and yeah the pressure glue is good,,,u dont know how to get that thing in the above pic working do u? it use to be mounted inside the reducer see the silver thing poking out, and it wont ark to the surrounding casing?

[Cosmic Muffin]

well you should use the gas collector and electrode they supplied the ignitor with.
and just make sure everything is connected up.
you could just put two screws in the chamber with about a 1mm gap, just drill the holes at the join , there there are 2 layers of pipe, makes it stronger.

[FORE!!!!]

have u got a link to the to screw method?? and yeah tryed just conecting it up with the gas collector"should i see a visable spark arc in the gas collector??? is it that faint i cant see it? cause it didnt seen to work??

[Cosmic Muffin]

you should be able to see it.
i dont know any links to the method. its not hard tho. just browse the combustion showcase and discussions. you should find everything you need.

[Gaderelguitarist]

How in the world do you comfortably fire this thing?

I'd be afraid for my hand to go near that cap when it fires. Cap blow offs are scary enough without your hand right there.

Still I have to say for a first cannon that air vent system is pretty smart.

[spudtyrrant]

to make your sparker have 2 leads do this http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6/addingwire.jpg make sure you strip the wire before screwing the locking nut over it and make sure the wire is touching the nut before adding hot glue

here is a side view of how the screw's should be mounted http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7648/screwmount.jpg make sure its about a 90 degree angle and the ends of the screws are about 2-3mm apart. mount the screws about 1/3 from the butt end of the launcher and make sure it is double walled(where the fitting slides over the pipe and when you attach the leads of the ignitor a spark should jump the gap

[FORE!!!!]

to make your sparker have 2 leads do this http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6/addingwire.jpg make sure you strip the wire before screwing the locking nut over it and make sure the wire is touching the nut before adding hot glue

here is a side view of how the screw's should be mounted http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7648/screwmount.jpg make sure its about a 90 degree angle and the ends of the screws are about 2-3mm apart. mount the screws about 1/3 from the butt end of the launcher and make sure it is double walled(where the fitting slides over the pipe and when you attach the leads of the ignitor a spark should jump the gap

spudtyrant ur a god send ive been looking all over on how to hook up the piezzo,now im one step closer,i take my hat off to you...


and to Gaderelguitarist fireing is alot easy now ive added the black handle ,funny u should say cause i wasa shitting myself having to put my hand there for the first shot,but i grew some balls and give it a go,since then ive wrapped the cap in strong fibre tape like the combustion chamber,for added safty ,theorie being if it does blow off it will stay in one piece and i wont have platic shards in my hands....and that vent wasnt really ment to be a vent but i left it there.
i figured i would be really hard for the cap to blow off with this vent at the exspence of power ,if i screww the little cap on the end of it id probly get another 40m distance out of my golfball fireing