The Pwnager

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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Skywalker
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Sun Aug 05, 2007 8:19 pm

This is my ghetto shoulder-fired combustion launcher. The name is a reference to the onager, a kind of wild mule that is said to give a vicious kick. (It has a kick alright, but you don't notice it too much unless you shoot it from the hip.) It's also a throwback to the 'onager' catapult in Age of Empires, and of course a pun on the term "pwn."

It's got about 4.5' of 1.5" sch40 for the barrel, and 1.5' of 4" for the chamber. This ratio works really well: it's loud, but I get high velocity. And it's also as tall as I am (~6ft). Ignition is via BBQ ignitor and a homemade spark plug of threaded lamp rod, HV wire, and rubber tube.

I've got a propane meter for it, but I haven't mounted it yet. Problem is, the meter is longer than my chamber is! I had a chamber fan at one point, but since I only used one 9V battery it was slow and didn't do much good. Besides, I don't like having more expendables on the gun.

The blue rag on the barrel is the ghetto shoulder rest. I wanted to use some pipe insulation foam, but I could find any that big.

my friend modeling the Pwnager

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another angle:
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myself with a side view of the gun:

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Hawkeye
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Sun Aug 05, 2007 10:53 pm

An Onager is type of Donkey not a mule.
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FeLeX
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Sun Aug 05, 2007 10:54 pm

Heh not bad. I always wanted to make a gun in that style. Is the cloth for shoulder rest?
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f.c
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Mon Aug 06, 2007 2:58 am

nice and big. sadly ive always been a fan of smaller guns. but oh well.
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Skywalker
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Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:02 am

Oops, good catch, Hawkeye.

[quote=Skywalker]The blue rag on the barrel is the ghetto shoulder rest.[/quote]

Yeah, it's pretty big. I like it that way though: I don't own a compressor so my pneumatics are generally pretty small. This gun is how I get my kicks when I feel like I need a power trip. :twisted: It's always a huge hit at parties, too.
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