Safety, Sound, and Power

A place for general potato gun questions and discussions.
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sgort87
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Location: Lockport, Illinois

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Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:30 pm

Good, because I can't afford to miss the little sleep I get.

Your launcher should be fine then. A bad ratio will never cause a gun to rupture. It will just affect its power. The fact that your ratio is bigger than needed should actually boost performance. Bigger chambers help. (to a point)
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DR
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Fri Mar 30, 2007 8:26 pm

corrosion:

Simply cut 34" off of your 36" long barrel and solvent-weld a 2" coupling on the "stub". Then, you can solvent-weld 60" of 2" diameter pipe into the 2" coupling, giving you an approximate 1:1 ratio.

1.5:1 is most definitely NOT the "ideal" ratio, as that will always leave you with a barrel that is too short. Just because any given combustion with a 1.5:1 ratio will be LOUDER than a 1:1 ratio'd one, all that means is that you've just wasted a LOT of "potential" power.

Simply put, a 5 foot long barrel will definitely "out shoot" a 3 foot long barrel!
With the given spec's on your chamber, you could even go as long as 7 feet for your 2" diameter barrel length and still be above a 0.7:1 ratio.

5 feet is much is easier to work with though, as far as operating the launcher is concerned. - You'll be quite pleased with the distance that a properly sealed spud will travel, with this length barrel. - Hope this helps a little.
corrosion
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Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:48 pm

I finally got around to fixing my gun, and now it is much better. I cut off the old barrel and welded on a threaded male adapter, then bought a 5 foot piece of pipe and welded on a threaded female adapter. I gave it a new paint job and it looks great.

To not waste the old barrel, I am turning it into a 2 foot 'extension' that will fit in between the chamber and the 5 foot barrel. Thus, I can choose from a 5 foot barrel and a 7 foot barrel on the fly.

I tried shooting it around the neighborhood with a rag and wiffle golf balls, and it is pretty much silent. However, when I shot a potato again, it flew very quickly but the shot was still very loud. I haven't finished the extension yet, but maybe it will be quieter.

I will try to post come pictures soon, as I am proud of the paint job. It is a simple black to silver fade, but it looks real nice. The best compliments I have gotten is when the neighbors say it looks "store bought."
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frankrede
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Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:56 pm

Post pics!
I am anticipating to see it, It sounds fun.
Current project: Afghanistan deployment
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