Potato cannons and such
- Thread starter jsp98m3
- Start date
Here's one for ya. It's been posted somewhere around here I think
http://www.chaffinchshoelace.com/view/2690/
http://www.chaffinchshoelace.com/view/2690/
While deployed overseas for Operation Enduring Freedom somebody got confused on the unit of issue for meatballs. Instead of 1800 lbs they ordered 1800 10 lb boxes. We had meatballs about every way you could have them and for each meal. The engineers built a frozen meatball cannon...lol
You'd probably be interested in this as well: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=1107178&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
That's what I want to build one of these days
That's what I want to build one of these days
Cowled_Wolfe
New member
Potato guns... 
Never built a hairspray/combustible one... But I have a pair of pneumatic ones. I like to fire a 1" diameter lug nut, stuffed with lead in the nose, out of a 10' barrel of 1" PVC... Slow enough to watch, but powerful enough to make me giggle like a kindergartener.
Little tip, if you build a compressed ait launcher (pneumatic), use PVC... ABS WILL NOT SURVIVE... ABS is supposed to be ok for hairspray/lighter fluid type launchers, but I've never messed with those so I wouldn't know. Btw, on PVC, make sure to use primer AND glue... I forgot the primer on my first build. Pain ensued.
Did I mention that pneumatics are more powerful, *probably* air rifles by law, and really really fun?
-- +1 for spudtech.com That place is great. They have RIFLED PVC pipe... O.O!!!
Oh, and whatever you do... This thread wasn't responsible. Any damage (intentional or otherwise) are your own fault.
(PS... On the canteloupe subject... You just need a really well controlled valve. The key is constant acceleration through a long barrel at the highest pressure you can manage without breaking the fruit...)
Wolfe... (Launcher of random stuff.)
Never built a hairspray/combustible one... But I have a pair of pneumatic ones. I like to fire a 1" diameter lug nut, stuffed with lead in the nose, out of a 10' barrel of 1" PVC... Slow enough to watch, but powerful enough to make me giggle like a kindergartener.
Little tip, if you build a compressed ait launcher (pneumatic), use PVC... ABS WILL NOT SURVIVE... ABS is supposed to be ok for hairspray/lighter fluid type launchers, but I've never messed with those so I wouldn't know. Btw, on PVC, make sure to use primer AND glue... I forgot the primer on my first build. Pain ensued.
Did I mention that pneumatics are more powerful, *probably* air rifles by law, and really really fun?
-- +1 for spudtech.com That place is great. They have RIFLED PVC pipe... O.O!!!
Oh, and whatever you do... This thread wasn't responsible. Any damage (intentional or otherwise) are your own fault.
(PS... On the canteloupe subject... You just need a really well controlled valve. The key is constant acceleration through a long barrel at the highest pressure you can manage without breaking the fruit...)
Wolfe... (Launcher of random stuff.)
I'm not lost when it comes to technology, crafts, tools, workshop-type-stuff... but the section for building your own potato gun on spudtech.com left me a little bewildered. I didn't read all of the instructions, but just the fact that they show a kind of esoteric list of parts to obtain, and no pictures of the construction process OR the parts, left me thinking that I'd have to go elsewhere to find out how to make my own.
-blackmind
-blackmind
Cowled_Wolfe
New member
"In the UK, pneumatic spud guns with projectile energy greater than 4 joules (3 ft·lbf) are classified as section 1 firearms and require a license."
"All spud guns have been classified as illegal in Western Australia."
"All combustion spud guns are considered firearms in Germany."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun
Why don't they just ban fun outright? :-\
Wolfe.
Edit: Blackmind, check out http://www.spudfiles.com/Main/how_to.php The page gives info more on specific ideas (breech loading mechanism, home-made valves, etc.) but you might find the PVC welding part useful if you don't know what you're doing. Also, browse around the site. You'll get more info there than you will at spudtech...
If you want help with a pneumatic, I'll answer any questions you've got in more detail via PM or Email... For a combustion, I can't help (sorry).
Cheers.
"All spud guns have been classified as illegal in Western Australia."
"All combustion spud guns are considered firearms in Germany."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun
Why don't they just ban fun outright? :-\
Wolfe.
Edit: Blackmind, check out http://www.spudfiles.com/Main/how_to.php The page gives info more on specific ideas (breech loading mechanism, home-made valves, etc.) but you might find the PVC welding part useful if you don't know what you're doing. Also, browse around the site. You'll get more info there than you will at spudtech...
If you want help with a pneumatic, I'll answer any questions you've got in more detail via PM or Email... For a combustion, I can't help (sorry).
Cheers.
Muzzle loading? BBQ igniters? I see the ATF is still in the spudgun stone age...
First, it's not a tater cannon. It's an orange cannon (well, if you live on an orange grove, it is).
Second, breech loading is better for oranges. You get one that's just a little too big to stuff in the hole manually. The explosion will force it in and seal the edges nicely.
Third, BBQ IGNITERS ARE NOT SAFE!!! I have caused a few of them to fail in various ways. You do not want to use them for too long, especially for high-pressure orange launching. For ignition, drill a hole in the combustion chamber, run a couple of thick wires an inch inside, and seal around the wires with Marine Tex or similar. Secure the other ends of the wires to the outside of the combustion chamber w/a tie wrap, so that the stripped ends are about 1.5" apart. Touch a tazer to those ends, and a spark will jump across the exposed ends inside the combustion chamber.
OOPS! brand carb cleaner makes an outstanding propellant.
dave_in_delaware
New member
and you thought your library was boring....
I was just researching "Ballistics" on my library's online searchable catalog, when I came across this title:
"Backyard ballistics : build potato cannons, paper match rockets, Cincinnati fire kites, tennis ball mortars, and more dynamite devices" by William Gurstelle.
In my library, it's at call number 531.5507 G (nonfiction). You might want to go to your library and see if they have a copy. I just remembered this thread, and thought I'd mention it. I never saw the book, but I might hit my library after work and check it out. Also, for anyone interested, most "shooting" books are between call numbers 799.2 and 799.312, at least so far. FYI.
I was just researching "Ballistics" on my library's online searchable catalog, when I came across this title:
"Backyard ballistics : build potato cannons, paper match rockets, Cincinnati fire kites, tennis ball mortars, and more dynamite devices" by William Gurstelle.
In my library, it's at call number 531.5507 G (nonfiction). You might want to go to your library and see if they have a copy. I just remembered this thread, and thought I'd mention it. I never saw the book, but I might hit my library after work and check it out. Also, for anyone interested, most "shooting" books are between call numbers 799.2 and 799.312, at least so far. FYI.
OneInchGroup
New member
Spud Guns for Dummies
Guess I'm gonna be the old grump in the group on this one. Had the wrong end of a spud gun adventure last year. New neiighbors from some odd place (Wisconsin? Minnesota? one of those) have two teenage thuggies who have been a terror since day one, typical Gen-x twerps with the attitude......"My Dad has tons of money, so I can do anything I want, being better than all you people." Typical parental treatment of the thugs; the older one, "Thug1", crashed his Firebird driving drunk a while ago, so poppa and momma went out and bought a faster, newer Camaro for him because losing the Firebird had "made him depressed"
Long story short, the cops have been called roughly once a week since the "Haves" moved in, over stuff like shooting at cats and dogs with pellet guns, having bonfire parties at 2 AM on weekends, suspected drug trafficking at preppie parties, etc. etc.
Getting to the Spud Gun Adventure, picture an otherwise ordinary weekend afternoon, yours truly out back working on repairing a wood chipper. (Head and shoulders inside, clearing a chunk wedged in the chopper housing)
Meanwhile, 50 feet away, blocked from view by my yard shed, Thugs 1 and 2 have quietly set up a 12 foot long 6" diameter propane powered spudgun that daddy bought for them to play with.
In their typical thoughtful approach to life, without any warnig, and likely figuring it would be fun to see me jump, the thugs detonate this thing behind me, producing about the same level of report you would expect from a 20mm cannon, and no doubt shortening my life by a week or two.
Once I climbed out of the chipper, checked myself for shrapnel wounds, etc. and discovered the source of the gunfire, a spirited discussion ensued between me and the thugs, centered around the possible use of that spud gun as a suppository for one or both of them.
Where it gets interesting, this being one of my first encounters with this kind of kid, was not that they were stupid enough to fire one of these within 50 feet of my house, but that their side of the dicussion was not in the least concerned about having an angry adult yelling at them. The argument continued awhile, their view being "we're on our property, it's our gun, and none of your f.......ing business, etc. etc."
Left me wondering who raised these creeps, until poppa came out from his hide behind his garage to get in the discussion, basically agreeing with the kids. Now I'm dealing with two teenaged thugs with a cannon, and their poppa, a mid-thrties yuppie siding with them.
Happily, none of them had a response to my comment that, first we do not live in Beirut, so weapons that size are not acceptable. Second if they insisted on using it, the cannon was not going to be used around me without my responding forcefully. I remember saying that people from my generation, when fired upon, WILL FIRE BACK.
The absolute final solution came when thug 1 actually threatened to kick my ass for me if I kept on bothering them. Good suburban citizen that I am, I pulled the ultimate weapon, a cell phone, and hit the 911 speed dial, to get a second opinion, fast. Our local PD, having already worn a trail in the route to the thugs' house over the past year, had an officer arrive within 2 minutes, while the chat was still in progress.
Bottom line on propane spud guns in our County is that the local authorities, citing a report of a death caused by one of them, (some genius having fired one that was improperly braced, causing it to fall on ignition and the projectile, a full soup can, hitting and killing a bystander), have classified the fuel powered guns as illegal fireworks, and/or destructive devices, which are banned.
All of which is to say, these toys are probably OK and good fun when used by sensible people in a location away from homes, but like anything else in our considerable range of choices, something like this in the hands of an unthinking moron, progeny of a previous generation of similarly oriented unthinking morons, can be a major hazard to the rest of us.
Also makes it hard to suppress the fears of anti-gun folks all around me when the cops have to come out and 'splain to these people that cannons are not supposed to be part of the suburban experience. (We're talking $500,00.00 plus homes, most on 1/2 to 1 1/2 acre lots, so houses can be as close as 50-75 feet apart. Not ideal firing range territory.)
By the way, the spud gun in question was confiscated as an on the spot settlement that once again kept these creeps from being arrested and fined, so the local PD are likely now using it to fire Krispy Kremes across their parking lot, and the charmers next door are of course still plotting their vengeance on me for being an unreasonable SOB.
I'm on the lookout for the probable meteor shower of flaming tennis balls that is in my future, unless the thugs next door find another target, or perhaps others of their ilk will decide to chuck them in a chipper someplace else in the neighborhood. (Obviously I'm rooting for them to step up their activities, hoping they find some unstable dynamite to play with in the basement soon........)
Guess I'm gonna be the old grump in the group on this one. Had the wrong end of a spud gun adventure last year. New neiighbors from some odd place (Wisconsin? Minnesota? one of those) have two teenage thuggies who have been a terror since day one, typical Gen-x twerps with the attitude......"My Dad has tons of money, so I can do anything I want, being better than all you people." Typical parental treatment of the thugs; the older one, "Thug1", crashed his Firebird driving drunk a while ago, so poppa and momma went out and bought a faster, newer Camaro for him because losing the Firebird had "made him depressed"
Long story short, the cops have been called roughly once a week since the "Haves" moved in, over stuff like shooting at cats and dogs with pellet guns, having bonfire parties at 2 AM on weekends, suspected drug trafficking at preppie parties, etc. etc.
Getting to the Spud Gun Adventure, picture an otherwise ordinary weekend afternoon, yours truly out back working on repairing a wood chipper. (Head and shoulders inside, clearing a chunk wedged in the chopper housing)
Meanwhile, 50 feet away, blocked from view by my yard shed, Thugs 1 and 2 have quietly set up a 12 foot long 6" diameter propane powered spudgun that daddy bought for them to play with.
In their typical thoughtful approach to life, without any warnig, and likely figuring it would be fun to see me jump, the thugs detonate this thing behind me, producing about the same level of report you would expect from a 20mm cannon, and no doubt shortening my life by a week or two.
Once I climbed out of the chipper, checked myself for shrapnel wounds, etc. and discovered the source of the gunfire, a spirited discussion ensued between me and the thugs, centered around the possible use of that spud gun as a suppository for one or both of them.
Where it gets interesting, this being one of my first encounters with this kind of kid, was not that they were stupid enough to fire one of these within 50 feet of my house, but that their side of the dicussion was not in the least concerned about having an angry adult yelling at them. The argument continued awhile, their view being "we're on our property, it's our gun, and none of your f.......ing business, etc. etc."
Left me wondering who raised these creeps, until poppa came out from his hide behind his garage to get in the discussion, basically agreeing with the kids. Now I'm dealing with two teenaged thugs with a cannon, and their poppa, a mid-thrties yuppie siding with them.
Happily, none of them had a response to my comment that, first we do not live in Beirut, so weapons that size are not acceptable. Second if they insisted on using it, the cannon was not going to be used around me without my responding forcefully. I remember saying that people from my generation, when fired upon, WILL FIRE BACK.
The absolute final solution came when thug 1 actually threatened to kick my ass for me if I kept on bothering them. Good suburban citizen that I am, I pulled the ultimate weapon, a cell phone, and hit the 911 speed dial, to get a second opinion, fast. Our local PD, having already worn a trail in the route to the thugs' house over the past year, had an officer arrive within 2 minutes, while the chat was still in progress.
Bottom line on propane spud guns in our County is that the local authorities, citing a report of a death caused by one of them, (some genius having fired one that was improperly braced, causing it to fall on ignition and the projectile, a full soup can, hitting and killing a bystander), have classified the fuel powered guns as illegal fireworks, and/or destructive devices, which are banned.
All of which is to say, these toys are probably OK and good fun when used by sensible people in a location away from homes, but like anything else in our considerable range of choices, something like this in the hands of an unthinking moron, progeny of a previous generation of similarly oriented unthinking morons, can be a major hazard to the rest of us.
Also makes it hard to suppress the fears of anti-gun folks all around me when the cops have to come out and 'splain to these people that cannons are not supposed to be part of the suburban experience. (We're talking $500,00.00 plus homes, most on 1/2 to 1 1/2 acre lots, so houses can be as close as 50-75 feet apart. Not ideal firing range territory.)
By the way, the spud gun in question was confiscated as an on the spot settlement that once again kept these creeps from being arrested and fined, so the local PD are likely now using it to fire Krispy Kremes across their parking lot, and the charmers next door are of course still plotting their vengeance on me for being an unreasonable SOB.
I'm on the lookout for the probable meteor shower of flaming tennis balls that is in my future, unless the thugs next door find another target, or perhaps others of their ilk will decide to chuck them in a chipper someplace else in the neighborhood. (Obviously I'm rooting for them to step up their activities, hoping they find some unstable dynamite to play with in the basement soon........)
Last edited:
See movie "Fargo" for chipper instructions
OneInchGroup--
Kudos on keeping under control. It probably was a temptation to not process one or both through the chipper once it was cleared.
Fear not, the State will get the privilege of housing them for a few years in one of their correctional facilities. That's the usual outcome this kind of upbringing. The question is when and how much damage will be done first?
Since it appeared that a threat of violence was offered in your direction, consider getting a Restraining Order. Should it be violated it may help accelerate the process of putting one or more away.
OneInchGroup--
Kudos on keeping under control. It probably was a temptation to not process one or both through the chipper once it was cleared.
Fear not, the State will get the privilege of housing them for a few years in one of their correctional facilities. That's the usual outcome this kind of upbringing. The question is when and how much damage will be done first?
Since it appeared that a threat of violence was offered in your direction, consider getting a Restraining Order. Should it be violated it may help accelerate the process of putting one or more away.
progunner1957
Moderator
The word in LE circles is, the U.S. Marshall service is forming an ultrasecret SQUASH team to deal with the proliferation of vegetable firing assault weapons. They will be equipped with the latest high-tech potato-proof body armor.