thought it would be an interesting thread

I have a spud gun I built a few years ago..... they are a blast. It was funny, te first night after I built it I shot it out into our back yard and hit the fence at the back of the yard ..... was really really loud. So I shut the door, kill the lights, etc. Well the people in the house behind ours come out ... turn on the outside lights, looking all over for what's making the noise, etc. Meanwhile I'm inside laughing like crazy. So any how ... about 3 days later, I notice they're having these two really big dead trees in their side yard taken out .... I think they thought it was one of the trees cracking that made the noise.


Rich

me those things are so much fun to play with. i find if you take a little bit of gas and put it into a spay bottle and spray it up in the chamber it goes a lot further. hairspray works well but after a little while it starts to get all sticky in the chamber. had one the had a 6in by 24in long chamber and the barrel was about 6 foot long with 2 in diameter. fun as hell to get a hard packed snowball in there and shot it.

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long days and short term memory don't go togther very well

[This message has been edited by heavyRfoot (edited 12-29-2007).]

http://science.howstuffworks.com/spud-gun.htm

I like the ones that use compressed air.

Made a propane powered 6" dia. 5.5 foot long spud cannon that would shoot a softball (wrapped in a sabot) about 1000 feet.

I live in iowa, you know at some point i have made a potato gun...

Still have it in my attic in the garage actualy. I had a few buddies over quite a while back (few years ago) and we where messin around with it when one of my buddies decided to jump on my Bombardier (4-wheeler) and take off. He ended up with a HUGE bruise between his shoulder blades! It was pretty damn funny and he laughed after he could breathe again. Then we decided to wait until it got dark and just shoot fireballs and such. That night ended with a 6 person roman candle and bottle rocket fight.

We made one out of metal one time at a buddies house. Used some angle iron fo rthe "bipod" and then on ald leaf spring off a small truck for the back leg (which i guess made it a TRIpod) then used the oxy/acetaline instead of hair spray. the barrel was threaded so we could screw in different sized barrels, 4" was the biggest and something like 1" or sp (golf ball fit snuggly) was the smallest. THAT was a bad as spud gun!!!

We used Patato guns a lot out here. Of course we shot them into (junkyard) cars and caused dents broken glass and a LOT of noise... the funny part was I got hungry from the smell of the Patatos-- they smelled liked baked Patatos. LOL

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1988 Fiero Formula T-tops
CJB 143 of 1252 "factory T-top cars"

My friend and I built one to launch small potatoes and specifically golfballs. We launched one almost 1/2 mile

quote Originally posted by UCFieroCharger: My friend and I built one to launch small potatoes and specifically golfballs. We launched one almost 1/2 mile

thats one I'm working on right now, since I have most of the stuff laying around now.

quote Originally posted by heavyRfoot: me those things are so much fun to play with. i find if you take a little bit of gas and put it into a spay bottle and spray it up in the chamber it goes a lot further. hairspray works well but after a little while it starts to get all sticky in the chamber. had one the had a 6in by 24in long chamber and the barrel was about 6 foot long with 2 in diameter. fun as hell to get a hard packed snowball in there and shot it.

Keep in mind if you use flammable propellents the BATF considers that a large bore firearm and is subject to a whole slew of laws/restrictions. Not that *I* care and wont cast stones, but you might want to be careful who you tell or where you fire it at.

quote Originally posted by User00013170: Keep in mind if you use flammable propellents the BATF considers that a large bore firearm and is subject to a whole slew of laws/restrictions. Not that *I* care and wont cast stones, but you might want to be careful who you tell or where you fire it at.

Exactly why compressed air is better.

I have two. Chambers are 4" diameter and 1 foot long, barrel is 2" diameter and about 5' long. Spark is supplied by grill ignitor, wired thru two points in the gun to make 2 sparks in the chamber...one near the front and one near the back. I prefer to use static guard, it gives significantly more kick than most other aerosols I've tried (aquanet hairspray, carb cleaner, bug repellant). If you want to do some damage go on mcmastercarr.com and order some 2" neoprene rod. It's very hard, but you can also get poly rod if you're really crazy. I cut them into 2" sections. One layer of duct tape around the bullet and it fits nicely in the gun with the barrel oiled. I have shot one thru the bottom of a metal wheelbarrel. We were actually using the wheelbarrel as a backdrop to stop the bullet, but to our surprise it blew right thru it. Very dangerous, very fun . I also had an old crappy 92 grand am and we shot holes thru both front metal fenders....using bullets made out of PVC pipe and duct tape. Now that was unbelievable. All of this is on video if anyone wants a copy

What I'd really like to do is put it on a place like Utube, but I don't know the first thing about doing that. The world needs to know

[This message has been edited by ditch (edited 12-30-2007).]

From the article

The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms does not classify spud guns as firearms when they are used appropriately -- that is recreationally, and without intent to harm people or damage property.

[This message has been edited by Richjk21 (edited 12-30-2007).]

me and a friend tryed to make one, i had the idea to put a grill igniter inside the gun, worked ok but we could not get a good seal out of the stuff we where useing.

quote Originally posted by slinger: me and a friend tryed to make one, i had the idea to put a grill igniter inside the gun, worked ok but we could not get a good seal out of the stuff we where useing.

best thing to do is drill two small holes in the chamber, about 3 inches apart. The first straight in and the other at about a 40 degree angle towards the other hole. Run a wood screw in both and as you screw them the tips get closer to each other. The screws perfectly seal the holes you drilled for them so no leaks. Wire the grill igniter to the two screws and adjust the gap between them by turning them. I did this in two places on the chamber and wired it all to one igniter for a dual spark ignition.

Hahahaha, glad someone brought this topic up! I love spud guns, and have some really great stories to go along with all my experiments. For me, the best ignition system seems to be (and only if it is a pvc gun) screwing two drywall screws in the combustion chamber side by side and use a taser on the ends of them so they arc inside the chamber. pretty much fail proof to ignite, and gets pretty funny after a few drinks and "someone" doesn't keep his hands clear of the drywall screws. hahahaha

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ROOSTER \m/

Thats what I did, two drywall screws and a grill igniter for an adjustable ignition source.

Made it all out of PVC, main chamber was 24" x 4" with a threaded coupler at the top. I had (have somewhere) three interchangeable barrels, 2.5" 1.5" and 1\2" (or close to those sizes). The bottom was made from a threaded clean out plug for adding propellant

I wrapped the chamber with duct tape to contain shrapnel should something go wrong, then wrapped that tightly in a small gauge steel cable (maybe 1\16th" braided) for strength, then wrapped that in duct tape again.

Hell, I just stick one of those long-nosed lighters through a hole in the breech plug and click until THWACK happens. Four seconds of hair spray in the combustion chamber. Not a problem. I have an occasional misfire that way but that's all right.

I made mine out of largely scavenged materials, too. There was a bunch of new home construction going on so I took the Fiero for a little spin one morning and did a little dumpster diving. I had to buy a few transition pieces at the hardware store but the whole gun didn't cost more than $20 and it's a LOT of fun to fool around with.

Ed

I am currently making a VERY large compressed air cannon. It is 20 ft. long, 6 inches in diameter, with a 4 inch diameter barrel. It is a coaxial piston valve design. i will post a pic of it later today. ;-)

quote Originally posted by MordacP: I am currently making a VERY large compressed air cannon. It is 20 ft. long, 6 inches in diameter, with a 4 inch diameter barrel. It is a coaxial piston valve design. i will post a pic of it later today. ;-)

sounds cool

anyone have any pics?

I'm just finishing up mine.. I'll get some pics after I paint it!

I used about a half inch pipe and then welded a propane tank, the 16oz kind on the end. Installed a ball valve. (Yes, I cleaned the tank, and aired it out before welding it.) But, I installed a pressure gauge and valve stem also on it. I used my air compressor to charge it to 100psi, and I had a smaller compressor and had it to around 200psi. If I want higher pressure I would heat the tank a little and watch the pressure gauge rise.

For a projectile I at first fired a small hole punch, and then used a large spike with some string for stabilization. Even at 100psi its crazy powerful, and at 200psi it has recoil. For fun I was loading it with BBs, around 30-40 and launching them into the woods.

That was about two years ago, and since have not really played with it, but they are fun.