20mm Pneumatic Cannon

Show us your pneumatic spud gun! Discuss pneumatic (compressed gas) powered potato guns and related accessories. Valve types, actuation, pipe, materials, fittings, compressors, safety, gas choices, and more.
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HunterT
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Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:00 pm

Finished my cannon. It's been a long time coming, but that's due to the lack of parts around here. I'm planning to modify my sprinkler valve when I can find a blowgun. It has a light recoil when I fire 40 cents in pennies at 50psi out of it.
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jhalek90
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Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:44 pm

EDIT:

The one large issue that i see with this cannon is that you used a DWV (Drain Waste Vent) clean out cap for the back end of your chamber.

DWV parts are not pressure rated, and for your own safety i recommend you change it out with a proper cap.

When buying PVC always look for a pressure rating. If any part says DWV on it... it probably is not safe for use with pressure.

Other than that. the cannon looks like a good first cannon.... you will notice alot more power when you mod the sprinkler valve.

Good luck!
Last edited by jhalek90 on Sun Oct 17, 2010 10:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:I wonder... if you put flammable vapours inside a lady... could you get her to diesel?
POLAND_SPUD wrote:Anything is possible with the proper 3-way valve.
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MrCrowley
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Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:46 pm

Looks nice but I am worried by a few things:

1: What's with the duct tape on the joints?
2: Is that ABS pipe for the chamber? Does it say if it is pressure rated, solid core or cellular core?
3: You have a clean out cap on the chamber by the looks. You wont need access to the chamber for a pneumatic so you should use a normal end cap that isn't threaded. I believe the type of clean out cap you have used is not pressure-rated and they can be prone to blowing off due to the shallow threads.

This page will explain how to tell if your PVC is pressure rated or not:
http://www.spudfiles.com/spud_wiki/inde ... sure_rated
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HunterT
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Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:38 pm

MrCrowley wrote:Looks nice but I am worried by a few things:

1: What's with the duct tape on the joints?
2: Is that ABS pipe for the chamber? Does it say if it is pressure rated, solid core or cellular core?
3: You have a clean out cap on the chamber by the looks. You wont need access to the chamber for a pneumatic so you should use a normal end cap that isn't threaded. I believe the type of clean out cap you have used is not pressure-rated and they can be prone to blowing off due to the shallow threads.
1: Don't worry about the duct tape. I use proper pipe cement. The duct tape is merely holding my battery on while I look for a blow gun. It is not being used to hold the pipes together.

2: Yep that's ABS. I got a new chamber in the works. I believe it's cellular core. I could be wrong. That chamber was built before I learned about the different types of ABS pipe. I should have done more research beforehand.

3: That is a clean out cap. It will get replaced along with the new chamber.

I made sure all of my PVC was pressure rated because PVC bursts tend to fling shrapnel. I wasn't so worried about the ABS.

EDIT: Could I use a regular black 2" ABS endcap with my new PVC chamber?
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Ragnarok
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 9:09 am

HunterT wrote:EDIT: Could I use a regular black 2" ABS endcap with my new PVC chamber?
You need to use a special cement to glue ABS to PVC, and I really don't know how strong the join is. In an ideal world, you'd use only one material.
Does that thing kinda look like a big cat to you?
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HunterT
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 3:24 pm

Ragnarok wrote:
HunterT wrote:EDIT: Could I use a regular black 2" ABS endcap with my new PVC chamber?
You need to use a special cement to glue ABS to PVC, and I really don't know how strong the join is. In an ideal world, you'd use only one material.
I actually am using a PVC/ABS cement. I don't know about the availability of large PVC fittings here. I'll have to check it out.
BFC
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 4:10 pm

You should prolly be using PVC cement on the PVC parts and the the ABS/PVC cement should be used when you are solvent welding ABS to PVC but I really really dont think that you should use PVC/ABS cement on a pneumatic cannon. On my Adv. Combustion I used PVC and ABS and where those joints came together I had to add 4 supporting bolts. But I really dont think thats a good idea on a Pneumatic, so id say definitely go for all NSF-PW pressure rated PVC pipe.
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HunterT
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Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:45 pm

BFC wrote:You should prolly be using PVC cement on the PVC parts and the the ABS/PVC cement should be used when you are solvent welding ABS to PVC but I really really dont think that you should use PVC/ABS cement on a pneumatic cannon.
Okay, I'll stop using the multi-purpose cement. You probably know more about it than I.
BFC wrote: so id say definitely go for all NSF-PW pressure rated PVC pipe.
I always go for pressure rated PVC. I've seen some non pressure rated PVC.
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