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I recently bought a 2ft length of schedule 40 PVC pipe. It is rated at 180 PSI. Is there any possibility at all of this failing as a result of a hairspray-propelled launch? This would be assuming that other components, I.e. Joints and such, would not fail. Thank you!

PVC is generally okay for very brief explosions. Anecdotal evidince suggests that you should be safe. But again it comes down to how much propellant and the level of sturdiness. Good luck and be careful. Make sure you use pressure-rated white PVC and wrap the areas of stress in non-stretch tape.

PVC becomes brittle over time. Be very careful. But on the reverse end people have used PVC extensively.

personally I wouldn't take PVC above 120/140. Is the risk worth the reward?

SWISH....out comes the spoon for feeding time....second paragraph.

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What Gippeto said.

And, when considering safety you have to do a worse case scenario. In general, hairspray sucks as fuel since it can't be accurately measured. But, for a safety analysis you have to assume that you hit the absolutely perfect fuel amount (which you'll rarely actually will). Still, hair spray is propane or butane and the theoretical combustion pressure is only about 140 PSIG, and that only occurs when the fuel ratio is exactly correct and you have a closed chamber (or your ammo is jammed in the barrel and can't move).

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