Potato Guns

Considering you're basically creating an explosion in an improvised chamber maybe safety glasses and/or some other kind of PPE might be appropriate, at least for the first test firing. However, by all means do it.
 
Spud guns are fun! Just treat them with respect like anything else that fires projectiles. PVC will be fine, a piezo igniter is a good addition (the last one I used had an igniter), as Nate notes, seal any voids to avoid backfire.

As for bottle rockets, some really great ones can be made from Estes model rocket engines and M80s. Or so I've heard.
 
catmandu said:
Bestest undergrad course ever was T.C. Scott's lab for Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers.
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But do you still remember who sang 'Leader of the Pack?'

Nauga,
and the Shangri-Las
 
if you had one that was ready to fire, would it be a 'loaded potato gun'?

if you had a really nice one, would it be a 'sweet potato gun'?
 
ktup-flyer said:
They’re hairspray/deodorant powered, not propane
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Non-chlorinated brake cleaner makes a good bang, too. Sends a spud a long way.

One must remember to blow all the exhaust fumes out of the thing before reloading. A lack of oxygen spoils the fun.
 
I just thought of something. What about putting a schraeder valve on the combustion chamber. After spaying it full of hairspray, give it a couple of seconds of compressed air before ignition. Forced induction stupidity, lol.
 
be shure to allow time for the solvents in the pvc cement to evaporate and disperse before
testing the ignitor
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Yeah, by “that dad”, I meant taking over the project. I’ll be there when he builds it, just out of curiousity.

Pinewood Derby I had to make a dad’s car, just so I would keep my hands off of his car making hot rodding improvements, paint perfection, etc. Year 1 I helped a lot, by Year 5, he did all of the work himself.

Safety-wise, he’s “one of those kids” who I trusted with a.410 at age 9 without supervision (after a lot of training and supervision years prior). Still a teen though...and in some ways needs MORE guidance now than when he was 9; He’s more creative with dangerous ways, lol (or not-lol).
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your lucky, i grew up outside of detroit. my pinewood derby cars had to compete with kids who's cars were built at the GM tech center and tested in the wind tunnel...........
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
I just thought of something. What about putting a schraeder valve on the combustion chamber. After spaying it full of hairspray, give it a couple of seconds of compressed air before ignition. Forced induction stupidity, lol.
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In all the ones I've seen, the "head of the cylinder" is the potato or the tennis ball.
I believe compressed air would ignominiously fart it out.
 
We built tennis ball cannons from soup cans for a high school physics class. Cheap hair spray for the propellant. 4 cans made a barrel length good enough for launching tennis balls across the parking lot.

We also made a steerable manned hovercraft out of a couple of gas-powered leaf blowers, some plywood, and vinyl pool liner.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
My 17 year old son said he wanted to build a potato gun and gave me a parts list last week. I brought home the parts after running out to get some plumbing supplies for a furnace vent project today.

The hardest thing will be waiting for him to build it and not pester him to get started or help him improve it. Kinda like the discipline it took to not be THAT dad in Pinewood Derby.

Your pics and/or stories of shenanigans follow below - please begin:
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Be careful. Yeah, they are fun, but they pack a lot of punch. First heard about them from a co-worker. Sounded cool so I built one. Got him and a few other friends over to check it out. Set it up with a piece of plywood as the ‘target.’ The spud blew a hole clean through.
 
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Ventucky Red said:
Got a cup of Joe in hand and feet up on the desk, care to regal us with you tales of yesteryear? :D
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I joined a fraternity that was full of ROTC guys (I started out as one). Suffice it to say I’m glad they’re on our side. ;)
 
fun thread.... I did a lot of those things growing up. from what I've seen with my kids anyway, I think folks today are much more "sheltered" than even I was. I think it's a shame at least in one way.... doing those things that might seem risky to some, but paying attention while doing them, help to teach us and form our personalities. Kids today get these experiences through youtube.

I also get a kick out of the pinewood derby thing.... it is so very hard to stay out of it....but still trying to maintain the father/son project side of it. I couldn't help but using it as an opportunity to teach my son some physics and engineering. Even found this video put out by a physicist.
http://www.pinewoodphysics.com/
his first year I pretty much let him direct the whole thing.
The following couple years I really steered the design way to much.... I tried not to, but still....champion cars but he did learn some concepts so that was good.
His last year I really tried hard, intending to only get involved if he asked. I did fairly good....I only did a bit polishing the axles and maybe a bit with the balance or something....but in the end I still feel like I did too much. His car's performance far out classed the amount of work he put into it so I regretted doing what I did.
I personally wish that we would have done the derby more of a build during a meeting, then race during the following meeting. Too many kits, dad built cars, etc...
 
I was only 8 years old in pinewood derby days, so I don't remember all the details of how much dad helped (though I remember doing lots of sanding and painting), but.... I do recall that when the car was finished we weighed it on a postal scale, then drilled a couple of holes in the bottom. Dad melted down some lead fishing sinkers to pour into the holes and we brought that sucker up to an RCH of the weight limit. I don't know whether that was legal or not, but I didn't get DQ'd and that car was fast. Ran away with first place.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
I just thought of something. What about putting a schraeder valve on the combustion chamber. After spaying it full of hairspray, give it a couple of seconds of compressed air before ignition. Forced induction stupidity, lol.
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Just now read through the thread and saw that the talk about spud spud guns was all about explosives. The one I built used compressed air. You load with the air on. It’s when you cut off the air is when it fires. I’m googling it but don’t find anything. It works like the emergency system on trucks with air brakes. If the air pump fails it instantaneously releases air under pressure stored in a tank to lock the brakes. The spud gun is built with a 1” PVC barrel that is inside a 4” one. The space between them is where the air under pressure is stored. There is rubber diaphragm that closes off the barrel and directs the air pressure into the space between the big and little pipes. When you cut off the air, the pressure inside pushes the diaphragm back and let’s it all out through the ‘breech.’ Mine was about 4 feet long. It launched the piece of potatoe about a hundred yards
 
My brother and I built some awesome, and occasionally deadly, potato guns. ( We accidentally killed a pigeon with a golf ball.)
My kids and I have built some awesome, and occasionally deadly, potato guns. (We hit a squirrel with a potato.)
My grand kids and I have built some awesome, and occasionally deadly, potato guns. (We killed a pink lawn Flamingo with an orange. I'm not completely sure it was an accident.)
Everybody should build a potato gun.
 
flhrci said:
I always suspected you to be dangerous. :D
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LOL yup that’s me. Mr Dangerous! LOL

I’ve been a klutz all my life. I tend to inflict self-harm at an above average rate. Heck, flying was one area I actually never felt klutzy.

I’m probably safer in an airplane than on my own staircase. :) I’ve grown lots of safety habits around being klutzy over my half century of falling down. LOL.
 
Shepherd said:
My brother and I built some awesome, and occasionally deadly, potato guns. ( We accidentally killed a pigeon with a golf ball.)
My kids and I have built some awesome, and occasionally deadly, potato guns. (We hit a squirrel with a potato.)
My grand kids and I have built some awesome, and occasionally deadly, potato guns. (We killed a pink lawn Flamingo with an orange. I'm not completely sure it was an accident.)
Everybody should build a potato gun.
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So was the pigeon airborne?
 
eman1200 said:
if you had one that was ready to fire, would it be a 'loaded potato gun'?

if you had a really nice one, would it be a 'sweet potato gun'?
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If it has a spot to hang a pocket knife on it, ASSAULT potato gun!

Banned!!!!

LOL. Sorry. Had to say it! :)
 
luvflyin said:
Just now read through the thread and saw that the talk about spud spud guns was all about explosives. The one I built used compressed air. You load with the air on. It’s when you cut off the air is when it fires. I’m googling it but don’t find anything. It works like the emergency system on trucks with air brakes. If the air pump fails it instantaneously releases air under pressure stored in a tank to lock the brakes. The spud gun is built with a 1” PVC barrel that is inside a 4” one. The space between them is where the air under pressure is stored. There is rubber diaphragm that closes off the barrel and directs the air pressure into the space between the big and little pipes. When you cut off the air, the pressure inside pushes the diaphragm back and let’s it all out through the ‘breech.’ Mine was about 4 feet long. It launched the piece of potatoe about a hundred yards
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That's a quick-release valve, used on trucks to let the brakes release quickly once the pressure starts to fall. Most often used on the emergency brakes, which have a big spring held back by air pressure until the driver wants to park the truck, or punches the control valve in an emergency when the primary system has failed.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Book-Boys-Conn-Iggulden/dp/0062208977/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3PI02ESF1WTD3&dchild=1&keywords=the+dangerous+book+for+boys&qid=1587577801&s=books&sprefix=the+dangerous+book,aps,392&sr=1-1

51b1pvMTlvL._SX383_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


This book's sales took off about 15 years ago. So many boys were raised as bubble-wrap kids and had never started a campfire or built a go-kart or skipped stones across a pond. They wanted to know how to do this stuff, now they'd grown up. From the Amazon summary:

In this digital age, there is still a place for knots, skimming stones and stories of incredible courage. This book recaptures Sunday afternoons, stimulates curiosity, and makes for great father-son activities. The brothers Conn and Hal have put together a wonderful collection of all things that make being young or young at heart fun—building go-carts and electromagnets, identifying insects and spiders, and flying the world's best paper airplanes.

Skills covered include:

  • The Greatest Paper Airplane in the World
  • The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
  • The Five Knots Every Boy Should Know
  • Stickball
  • Slingshots
  • Fossils
  • Building a Treehouse*
  • Making a Bow and Arrow
  • Fishing (revised with US Fish)
  • Timers and Tripwires
  • Baseball's "Most Valuable Players"
  • Famous Battles-Including Lexington and Concord, The Alamo, and Gettysburg
  • Spies-Codes and Ciphers
  • Making a Go-Cart
  • Navajo Code Talkers' Dictionary
  • Girls
  • Cloud Formations
  • The States of the U.S.
  • Mountains of the U.S.
  • Navigation
  • The Declaration of Independence
  • Skimming Stones
  • Making a Periscope
  • The Ten Commandments
  • Common US Trees
  • Timeline of American History
There's a Canadian version as well as versions for other countries. It's sad that we need a book to make guys out of men (see Dave Barry's Guide to Guys to understand that. Hilarious, too).

Well, shoot. Just go here for a laugh or two: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/b...e-to-guys-by-dave-barry/9780449910269/excerpt
 
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In college a came outside the dorm and there were a few students with a pneumatic cannon (I had never seen one before) they were just finishing charging it with an air compressor. They then dumped about 1 quart of water into it and a water balloon. They then launched the water balloon what I recall to be well over 100 yards into the park where there was a softball game in progress and they made perfect shot of dropping the water balloon on the unsuspecting pitcher.

Brian
 
Chunknology_010_0867215b25ae8be000926c861f057564(3).jpg Of course the spud gun's natural evolution leads to punkin' chunkin'. A guy down the street is a Delmarva champion. His rig has a barrel 14' long or so and shoots a 10 pound pumpkin a little over 4000 ft. No explosives allowed, so it's all compressed air.
Your basic pneumatic cannon.

Of course now it's useless, not was ever useful, since two fatalities in two years pretty much shut competition down. Now he hauls it out a couple times a year for fun, but his farm is only 200 acres, so to keep the flying gourd on his property he has to dial it way back.
 
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luvflyin said:
So was the pigeon airborne?
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Yes it was! And it was only 15 yards down range when the golf ball hit it. It made a heck of a mess, and earned us quite the whipping from Mom, as the gore from explodo-pigeon splattered all over one of our neighbors.
Totally worth it, just for the bragging rights.
The squirrel was probably sitting on the ground. Felt bad about that.
I'm pretty sure my granddaughter aimed at the Flamingo, but I wasn't looking at her, so....
 
I built one out of abs. We used a bbq igniter built into a plastic trigger housing. It’s powered by propane or mav gas. BBQ valve controls the gas flow into the chamber. Range is 350-400 yards with a red potato. Good times for sure!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Btw abs can withstand a bit more pressure than pvc


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Chip Sylverne said:
View attachment 85008 Of course the spud gun's natural evolution leads to punkin' chunkin'. A guy down the street is a Delmarva champion. His rig has a barrel 14' long or so and shoots a 10 pound pumpkin a little over 4000 ft. No explosives allowed, so it's all compressed air.
Your basic pneumatic cannon.

Of course now it's useless, not was ever useful, since two fatalities in two years pretty much shut competition down. Now he hauls it out a couple times a year for fun, but his farm is only 200 acres, so to keep the flying gourd on his property he has to dial it way back.
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I don't recall fatalities, at least at the 'home' Bridgeville site, but I know they first shut down due to a lawsuit from a volunteer who was hurt running a quad runner into a ditch, then they came back (I think working with a different landowner) but an air cannon explosion seriously injured a TV producer, and they never came back from that, at least in Delaware. It's a shame (even the injured producer later said she wanted Punkin Chunkin to continue) as it was quite a spectacle. I only made it to one, the last big one before the legal problems started.
 
GaryM said:
I don't recall fatalities, at least at the 'home' Bridgeville site, but I know they first shut down due to a lawsuit from a volunteer who was hurt running a quad runner into a ditch, then they came back (I think working with a different landowner) but an air cannon explosion seriously injured a TV producer, and they never came back from that, at least in Delaware. It's a shame (even the injured producer later said she wanted Punkin Chunkin to continue) as it was quite a spectacle. I only made it to one, the last big one before the legal problems started.
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Thomas' wife rides horses with us. I think it was she who said fatality, but I couldn't swear it's true. In any event, it was as you say, quite a spectacle.
 
Chip Sylverne said:
View attachment 85008 Of course the spud gun's natural evolution leads to punkin' chunkin'. A guy down the street is a Delmarva champion. His rig has a barrel 14' long or so and shoots a 10 pound pumpkin a little over 4000 ft. No explosives allowed, so it's all compressed air.
Your basic pneumatic cannon.

Of course now it's useless, not was ever useful, since two fatalities in two years pretty much shut competition down. Now he hauls it out a couple times a year for fun, but his farm is only 200 acres, so to keep the flying gourd on his property he has to dial it way back.
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Where did these alleged fatalities occur? There is no record of them occurring on the internet.
 
SoonerAviator said:
...
We also made a steerable manned hovercraft out of a couple of gas-powered leaf blowers, some plywood, and vinyl pool liner.
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I've ALWAYS wanted to do that. I was the kid who always drooled over the hovercraft/"Bartlett Flying Saucer" plans in the back of comic books. A Jr. High school friend of mine, Seth, actually built one back in the day, but got as far as the wood/plywood stuff. When we found out how expensive the prop was, we gave up.
 
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