SpudFiles

After making a little pen shaft barrelled, medicine chambered spud gun which is around 15 cm (6-7" rough estimate) long. Just thought I might make some suggestions to anyone wanting/thinking about making one.

- Make sure you use quality tape for insulation of wires (the spark still hurts [a bit] being shocked with even a long nosed barbeque lighter sparker, which is what I used.

- Make sure the end cap isn't a piece of shit. And if it is, make sure you take some measures in making sure it stays on, and doesn't blow out hence blowing off/burning your hand. Again, size doesn't matter, the combustion in even a small chamber can still cause injury.

- When firing inside, never take careless, aim then shoot and not the other way around. Moreover, never shoot to intentionally harm somebody. Once again, irrespective of it's size, the thing can still shoot (mine shoots around 30-40 metres) at a fair velocity, easily causing injury. It can also cause a mess if you shoot soft porjectiles i.e potato.

These tips (if you choose to call them that) should apply to all, but not restricted, combustion guns. But these would be some of the more common errors people make in construction of a mini. They may or may not apply to you, but even the most advanced spudders can forget the basics.

KIR

Very good points. I'd also like to add on, the goo that is left in you spud gun when using deodorant/hairspray is still flammable!

the point of mini's is to shoot inside! duh.

lol I never shoot my mini inside the first time I tried it I couldnt get it to ignite because I wasn't letting enough air ventelate in the chamber so i went to show my mom the spark and by that time there was enough air so the flame burnt her eyebrows off and she told me to get it out of the house lol. It really was an accident but she didn't think it was as funny as I did.

Yeah escape probably the worst thing you can do is not use a good cap. Mine flew off and gave me a bruise on my leg.

schmanman wrote:the point of mini's is to shoot inside! duh.

Haha, yeah I 'spose. My friend pointed that out earlier today when I was talking to him about... I think I'll edit it

MisterSteve124 wrote:lol I never shoot my mini inside the first time I tried it I couldnt get it to ignite because I wasn't letting enough air ventelate in the chamber so i went to show my mom the spark and by that time there was enough air so the flame burnt her eyebrows off and she told me to get it out of the house lol. It really was an accident but she didn't think it was as funny as I did.

Yeah escape probably the worst thing you can do is not use a good cap. Mine flew off and gave me a bruise on my leg.

okay with all due respect to your mom....

THAT'S PRETTY FUNNY!!
sorry

Yeah it was pretty funny lol she wasn't really that mad luckily. She puts up with alot of my crap.

I used mostly the same design for my mini spud shooter, except that I used a catherder syringe for the combustion chamber instead of a medicine bottle. The syringe has a plunger, so when you remove it you can easily fill it up with fuel, and you can cut off part of the end so you can shove a pen tube in it to use for a barrel. Also, i wrapped the wires from the ignitor around the end of thumb tacks and pushed them through the syringe. (as long as you don't wiggle them around, there wont be any loss of fuel) You have fillled the syring with your choice of fuel, (In my experimentation, binnaca breath spray and butane work the best out of any volatile substance in my house) you can put whatever fits into the barrel and fire away.
problems that occur, however were that the fuel didn't ignite the first try, if this happens, just move the plunger up and down a few times to let a little bit more oxygen in and try again.

I think this design is better because of the more airtight design and flexibility of oxygen:fuel ratio.

Hope this inspired more crazy ideas.