bowlingball/basketball pneumatic cannon anybody try it?

[audioman81]

I have searched quite a bit and found a couple people try it and give up on the idea with no reasons as to why. I have made quite a few combustion type potato canons, and have just lately come across the pnuematic type via some videos as well as some searching and this site and have to try my hand at it.
I am planning on making a universal interchangable barrel pneumatic gun for shooting golf balls, tennis balls and potatoes, and was pondering the idea of also making a 8.5" barrel for bowling balls. I came across a great program (ggdt) and with a 4"x36" chamber mated with a 1" sprinkler valve and 1.75"id x 48" barrel shot at 125psi i would get aproximately 425fps out of it. by attatching a 8.5" id x 10" long barrel in the program at 125psi i could hypothetically shoot a 6lb bowling ball about 45fps.
is this feasable? would it be worth the time and $ to try it out?
any thoughts or ideas?
thanks,
Ryan

[Recruit]

Hurray everone lets throw a party and give this guy a trophy for researching before posting. Last person I saw that study before post was months ago.

Now on to the cannon I think it is feasible but it would be a big take of your pocket book. If you do build it remeber if you go big enough you can take the title of having the bigest pnematic on this site.

[StealthSpud]

Yeah that'd be a huge investment!
I say you do it! ( Ha but I'm not the one using up my money!)

[audioman81]

Hurray everone lets throw a party and give this guy a trophy for researching before posting. Last person I saw that study before post was months ago.

Now on to the cannon I think it is feasible but it would be a big take of your pocket book. If you do build it remeber if you go big enough you can take the title of having the biggest pnematic on this site.

lol ya, i may be one of a few to search, but i know from experience and from being a member on quite a few other message boards that search is your friend. lol

anyways. what would be expensive about it? we have a 8.5" 9" peice of pvc 3ft long at work thats been sitting there for years so i doubt they would notice it was gone im gonna measure it tonight. the hardest part would be trying to couple 1" threads to the larger pipe, but we have lots of nylon in different thicknesses that i could cut to make a plug for one end and just tap it for 1" pipe. the only thing i havent figured out yet is where to get a 6lb, or preferably 3 or 4lb bowling ball.

the whole cannon wouldnt be that large, just about 5ft long total. im just a little worried on the recoil because the bowling ball will be way heavier than the cannon itself. I might try making everything but the barrel out of threaded black pipe and welding it after assembly if it actually works with the pvc.

[MrCrowley]

eBay, the dump...people chuck them out ya know. While your at you should buy a Supah Valve or a Mauler or some other piston valve....

[schmanman]

go for it, it would be pretty sweet.

oh, on a sidenote:
what is the diameter on a 6 ilb bowling ball? I am planning on getting a 10' long 6" diameter barrel soon.

[Velocity]

Good idea, but I have a couple of suggestions. 45 FPS really is not anything special...you should definitely take some measures to upgrade. One option is of course making a combustion, but that has been done too many times, so pneumatic would be more unique. Replace that 1 inch sprinkler valve with a valve with at least 2" porting, if not more. I would recommend maybe a 3" sprinkler valve or two. Secondly, increase your chamber size. 6"x60" would be very good for such an application.

While the concept of a potato gun which can use any barrel is certainly appealing, it really is not practical. To get power with your bowling ball barrel, you need a huge 6"x60" chamber. However, when you want to use a 1.5" barrel, this 6"x60" chamber is WAY oversized, and it would be a waste of time to fill up such a large chamber, when in reality, a chamber 5-10X smaller would suffice.

[audioman81]

a bowling ball is 8.5" diameter. another idea that just came to me is to find the largest dia pvc i can find cheaply and partition it with double 2" or 3" shut off valves between every 12" or so for a total of 4 to 5 chambers so different barrels could be used and at the same time different chamber sizes with the flip of a valve. now this might start to get pricey

Good idea, but I have a couple of suggestions. 45 FPS really is not anything special...you should definitely take some measures to upgrade. One option is of course making a combustion, but that has been done too many times, so pneumatic would be more unique. Replace that 1 inch sprinkler valve with a valve with at least 2" porting, if not more. I would recommend maybe a 3" sprinkler valve or two. Secondly, increase your chamber size. 6"x60" would be very good for such an application.

While the concept of a potato gun which can use any barrel is certainly appealing, it really is not practical. To get power with your bowling ball barrel, you need a huge 6"x60" chamber. However, when you want to use a 1.5" barrel, this 6"x60" chamber is WAY oversized, and it would be a waste of time to fill up such a large chamber, when in reality, a chamber 5-10X smaller would suffice.

[VH_man]

You think hes actually gonna hold that thing? Unlike you biker i think this guy has ALOT of common sense. Have you ever seen 6 inch pipe? with three peices i can barely get my arm around it. also, a bolwing ball at 45 FPS gives off akick hard enough to break bones. Anyway, Back on topic, I REALLY want to see this thing when its done. we are seeing pneumatic history in the making people....... wow boling balls will do huge damage.......

[audioman81]

You think hes actually gonna hold that thing? Unlike you biker i think this guy has ALOT of common sense. Have you ever seen 6 inch pipe? with three peices i can barely get my arm around it. also, a bolwing ball at 45 FPS gives off akick hard enough to break bones. Anyway, Back on topic, I REALLY want to see this thing when its done. we are seeing pneumatic history in the making people....... wow boling balls will do huge damage.......

I have two other ideas in the making which is welding up my own custom diaphram out of aluminum with a 4" inlet and 2.5" outlet, and if that doesn't work a sliding piston using a 4"t and 3" conduit. I'd post the details, but i'd like to finish either or both first and just take pics of the real thing.
as far as kick back... ya i'm concerned. not sure what to do yet, but stay out from behind it when fired

if none of the above works, we have a 500 gallon air tank where i work with a 3" ball valve on the side for letting air out or hooking up spare compressors when ours is on the fritz. it would be a piece of cake to put a bunch of couples together and the 8.5" barrel on the end, load it and just crank the handle and see what happens. the nearest wall is about 100ft away and is cement block. I could put a pallet of cardboard in front of it so that takes the damage tho.
if i can somehow put a 90 on it and make just come off the main pipe outside the compressor room i can shoot it down the isleway which is like 100-150 yards. I would test fire it with nerf balls or plastic soccerballs or something before i tried the bowling ball tho just in case.
if it seems to kick alot, i will have to weld the pipes to some brackets and bolt them to the floor.

sometimes i think i might be a little crazy, but there has to be others out there like me, just wondering why i havent come across them....... unless they arent around anymore to tell about it

[frankrede]

sgort made a big ass gun that could fit a basketball if I am not mistaken. But his was combustion.