SpudFiles

I was playing around today with some ring shaped neodymium magnets and a wooden rod ( shooting em off by pushing opposing poles together...) and a thought came to my mind. You could use them as a spring in a semi-auto application, or maybe even a bumper for a small piston. What do you guys think? I'll try and use this idea in the next marble gun I'm making which will be semi-auto.

Just don't let them hit together to hard otherwise you will have some shattered magnets,they chip easily.

Why not make a magnet powered potato gun?!

I'll probably put a strip of neoprene on the magnets just to make sure.

Why not make a magnet powered potato gun?!

Lol I made a magnet powered bb gun a while ago, it was a tube with a bb at the bottom and I drug the magnet along it really fast and an outward motion away from the rube, launched only a foot tho.

Hahaha a foot is a starting point and I don't really know any kind of ferrous potato. . .

One could make a mold and cast an iron potato.

Edit: Its 12:45am here so I'm heading to bed, I'll check this after I come back from school...

That's a very good idea for a piston spring really. Even a weaker magenet would slow down the pison considerably.

I have a better idea. Make a railgun, the most godly of all cannons. [/url]

lol, do you even know how railguns work, they generate mangnetic fields but have nothing to do with magnets

Neat idea, but I don't know how well it work. The forces generated by a venting 1 piston at 100 psi is 314 pounds. Very strong magnets can produce a force of 50-100 pounds, so if a 50 -100 pound pressure spring works in your gun, the magnet should work too.

"they generate mangnetic fields but have nothing to do with magnets"-quote

I think somebody needs to go back to physics 101

Since electromagnets just so happen to emit magnetic fields that makes them magnets. Even if they do have the curious and helpful ability to turn on and off.

If you an electro magnet on a piston gun that was serviceable you could adjust the turns on the coil to get the optimal force exerted on the piston.

Compared to a foam bumper or even a simple spring I wouldn't think it was worthwhile to put magnets in.

Incidentally I've just had an idea about a permanent magnet propulsion system...

It just requires a break from of a straight barrel plus some spherical ferrous projectiles.

A spinning wheel at high rpm with perm magnets on the edge, a tubular barrel mounted around it but not connected or touching, an ammo feed in one end of the tube and a short length of straight barrel at the other.

Insert steel BB, the travelling magnetic fields accelerate it round the tube and it pops out the other end rather faster than it went in.

Further loops in the tube and acceleration wheels could be added too.

Of course if you wanted to appear a smartarse you could use an AC electrical system to make a solid state accelerator which switches coils on and off in a travelling wave pattern to replace the magnets.

AC motors do that to turn their rotors which are nothing but solid slotted mild steel and if you take out the rotor, switch the motor on and drop a steel ball in, it will race round the inside, following the magnetic fields turning on and off at the AC frequency.

*sigh*

Now I really want to do that

yes goathunter i was very bland in my responce, i ment that railguns do not use permenate magnets in the firing process of the gun, but you are quite right

To Sandman:
I figured that's what you meant, but I couldn't resist making a smart remark.


So hotwired, let me see if I got you right.You're making a centrifugal/magnetic acceleration wheel.Slinging plus the boost of a magnetic field?

I think there is no benifet with magnets, springs are stronger and lighter and have better potential for length

now this thread is just going to coil and rail guns now.