Silverdooty's Last Combustion

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.
bluerussetboy
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:29 pm

On 11/16/07 a man I knew as Big Graham Rogers passed away. Spudfiles knew him as Silverdooty. In these parts he was known simply as Big or the "cranky old silver-haired shit".

Big was born 11/15/07, when he rested his eyes for the very last time he was just over 70 yrs old. Big had been battling cancer for the last twenty years. Big had first battled prostate and testicular cancer in the 1980's, then several bouts of skin cancer and finally it was an inoperable brain tumor that stole his last breath from him.

I have known Big since I was 15 and over the last 25 years I have helped Big run his ranch and several of his construction businesses. We have hunted, skied, fished, and drank many a tequila and IPA together. Over the last year arthritis and cancer had taken it's toll on Big. He was no longer strong enough to handle any actual firearms so he turned his attention to launchers. Many of his launchers weren't perfect and most were made into other forms of 'art'. Most of our friends have recieved a simple combustion from Big over the last year and all seem to love to get together and plant 'taters. Big was just amazingly good at getting people interested in just about anything he was doing.

Big was 6'11" 280lbs. when he passed away.

Just a couple of Big's cannons

Ridge Ruckus
Big used this cannon to piss off a neighbor who lived on the other side of the ridge from him. He never really fired anything at her house, but he would tell her he had been planting potatoes in her yard.

4" ID chamber
5' 1.5" ID barrel
camera flash ignition
metered propane
chamber fan

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Big's grandson with the Ridge Ruckus
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BlueFoam Piston
I'm not sure how many shots this piston has left in it. He would usually get about 120-150 shots per piston. He didn't leave any spare pistons around before he left.
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Big had several large combustions in progress and a 4" piston. Many of his projects we don't even know what they were going to be. Valves and PVC all over his shop.

RIP Big Graham "Silverdooty" Rogers
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jackssmirkingrevenge
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:44 pm

sad news indeed, may his unfinished projects be completed that his legacy may live on.
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
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SpudUke5
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:45 pm

Thats too bad.
His cannons will live in his legacy. Thats a pretty old age to be making cannons, but i say your never too old to make a cannon. Well i wish the best to his famalies, relatives and close friends.

those cannons are pretty nice :)

EDIT: JSR you beat me too it, now it looks like i copied the word legacy from you only to know that we were typing at the same time :roll:
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MrCrowley
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 4:50 pm

Sad stuff, I have to say he made really clean and awesome cannons for a 70 year old, well done to him.
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 5:49 pm

Rest in peace old mate, the members of spudfiles will remember your fine craftsmenship and wry sense of humor.
Gods got a new spudding mate :)
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MrCrowley
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 5:51 pm

Novacastrian wrote:Rest in peace old mate, the members of spudfiles will remember your fine craftsmenship and wry sense of humor.
Gods got a new spudding mate :)
So does Chewy(Bill Vogt) for that matter.


If you don't know what i'm talking about
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/rip-che ... -t674.html
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Ragnarok
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:00 pm

That's sad news.

It's probably not the time to mention that the U-joint... *tact cuts in* ... makes the cannon look pretty neat.

I had a relative who died of cancer. The doctors gave them three months to live and... it was 25 years before it finally caught up. That's a clean hundred times longer than predicted.

It's nice to hear about the weird sense of humour he had.
Does that thing kinda look like a big cat to you?
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Fnord
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:45 pm

Wow, I didn't see that coming...

I didn't know him that well, but I assume he was a long time spudtech member as well? He seems to have quite a reputation.

Maybe this should be stickied as a memorial...
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Maniac
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:48 pm

im sorry to hear about this he seemed like a nice old dude wish i could have talked to him
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TwitchTheAussie
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:00 pm

May Big n Chewy, two spudding greats eternally Spud In Peace.
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spudgunning is like sex, once you've tasted, you can't wait til next time.
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rna_duelers
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Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:12 pm

He's in spudding utopia now.

12 gun salute in his memory from me.
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jackssmirkingrevenge
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Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:09 am

_Fnord wrote:I didn't know him that well, but I assume he was a long time spudtech member as well? He seems to have quite a reputation.
Only for four months or so, but he made quality work, in spite of his ailments - I certainly hope that I'd be doing the same at his age.
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
Killjoy
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Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:39 am

Wow man I'm sorry to hear silver died, but at least i sounds like he was happy till almost the very end.
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origin unknown
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Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:36 pm

I feel sorry for you and his family that he died. Let him rest in peace with spuds always.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 - What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
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