my 1st cannon

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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elad311
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Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:25 am

This is my first cannon, I haven't launched anything yet, because I wanna ask here if it will explode!
It made of:
*All the parts are screwing parts!
*I screwed them and glued with Akfix!
:D
barrel-
GREY 2" 90cm pvc pipe
combustion chamber-
3 way 2" black pvc pipe
3 way 3" black pvc pipe
2" metal cap
3" black pvc cap
3" to 1" black pvc adapter
1" 4.5cm GREY pvc pipe
1" black pvc cap
ignitor-
long lighter sparker
(with 2 screws)
*I'm not sure that the spark is strong enought to make the gas explode...
Answers?


What do you think? it will explode?
and what hairspray I need?

Here are some pics:

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*Look at the next pic from the side!
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*Look at the next pic from the side!
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Answers plz! :)
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starman
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Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:39 am

I've never heard of "akfix" before...I assume it's some sort of epoxy cement in which case you should be fine as long as you've tightened all the screw joints down very good.

Why couldn't you just build a standard PVC/cement chamber?

Just about any hair spray will work. You have a fairly small chamber there so not over-fueling is likely to be your biggest challenge. Others have used carb cleaner with great results.

Also, I would avoid shooting it like a bazooka as you show in your pic. If something were to blow off, you wouldn't want it to be anywhere close to your young face.... :wink:

Welcome to Spudfiles!
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FishBoy
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Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:42 am

ummm... How old are you? Ten?

Anyway, I'm not sure if I fully understand how you attached the parts, and that makes a big difference. The answer to the spark question is yes, it will work, the size of the spark isn't very important as long as there is a spark. And, i'm not sure what Akfix is, but i think you would be better with pvc cemment in the future.

btw, welcome to the forum lil dude!

edit
dammit starman! you posted while I was writing
"You polish a turd, it's still a turd"

Remember DYI!!!
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psycix
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Sat Oct 04, 2008 1:12 pm

Nice that youve got everything threaded. Very wise.

Your spark will be strong enough to ignite the mixture.
Basically, if you can see a spark, then its strong enough to ignite.
BTW, in combustion cannons, the fuel burns instead of explodes.

I strongly recommend placing a fan inside it.

GL with it!
Till the day I'm dieing, I'll keep them spuddies flying, 'cause I can!

Spudfiles steam group, join!
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starman
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Sat Oct 04, 2008 3:19 pm

BTW elad, your pictures are loading rather slowly....looks like they may be loaded on some corporate server in Italy????

Next time use Imageshack, or other public high speed access image provider. It's super easy and free to everyone, and it will serve images much faster.
FishBoy wrote: edit dammit starman! you posted while I was writing
I know, I hate it when that happens... :wink:
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Demon
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Sat Oct 04, 2008 3:33 pm

This is my first cannon, I haven't launched anything yet, because I wanna ask here if it will explode!


This might happen to you because you didn't use the right glue, but it might not!
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starman
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Sat Oct 04, 2008 3:52 pm

Demon wrote:
This is my first cannon, I haven't launched anything yet, because I wanna ask here if it will explode!


This might happen to you because you didn't use the right glue, but it might not!
The damage in that video has been concluded here on several occasions to be faked. Adding hairspray does not cause larger "explosions"...it simply misfires!! ...too much fuel...

That's not to say the gun didn't fail, it just didn't cause the large pile of PVC bits and the PVC shard as you see buried an inch into the tree.
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psycix
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Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:02 am

starman wrote:Next time use Imageshack, or other public high speed access image provider. It's super easy and free to everyone, and it will serve images much faster.
Imageshack is quite slow these days. I would not call it "high speed".


And yes, that damage HAS to be fake.
Hairspray does not rip pvc to parts like that. And such a shard sticking in a tree? Had to be at least an 8x acetylene hybrid to cause such thing.

When you keep adding fuel, the gun indeed just wont fire, and if you open up the cap and fire, it may give a big flame or just start a fire and melt it.
Till the day I'm dieing, I'll keep them spuddies flying, 'cause I can!

Spudfiles steam group, join!
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Pyro Ninja
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Wed Oct 08, 2008 7:22 am

It is made of Poly pipe, so it should be fine not to fail.
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