dry ice pressured cannon?

[me78569]

it was a thought awhile ago of mine to use dry ice to pressurize the chamber of a copper gun. dry ice here is cheap and always available to me. using the same amount of dry ice per amount of water you could get the same pressure each time right? of course i would do ALOT of testing to find the pressure produced from certian amounts of drying and water if i couldnt find some sort of chart on the internet. think this would produce a pretty uniform shooting gun? just a thought for when i have the time/ money to have some more fun

nick

[drac]

I doubt it, the copper would get so cold that it might become brittle. In my opinion, it would be much cheaper to buy CO2 and a regulator, istead of wasting mony more and more on dry ice.

[boilingleadbath]

Pressure produced won't be terribly consintent. But for blasting things at close range, it will be fine.
CO2 can "generate" quite high pressures, so be sure to install a saftey pop-off.
As to copper getting brittle, it's being kept at about 0*C, which really isn't that cold. Also, to my knolage, copper isn't affected by temperature that much... but I'll edit my post once I ask a more knolageable person.

[sergeantspud2]

how does dry ice work doesn't cold get smaller and heat expands?

[boilingleadbath]

Yeah, but <strike>boiling</strike> sublimating CO2 produces lots of gas.

[sergeantspud2]

oh ok thanks now i know how dry ice bombs work check this out
its kind of funny but very painful
http://www.lookatentertainment.com/v/v-1038.htm

[saladtossser]

that proves the unpredictablilty of dry ice. i saw that b4, those idoits

[boilingleadbath]

No, it's perfectly predictable. If you get a way to put as much pressure as you want (up to 800 psi) in a thinwalled plastic container, it will explode.
Darn it, you guys just seem to be giving weaker and weaker arguments. It's acctually pretty lame.

[me78569]

thanks i wasnt sure if you kept the ratio of dry ice to water the same if it would be predictable enought to use for a gun. just one of those thoughts.

[pyromanic13]

ya well I think it could be preety consistant , just grind up the dry ice and compactit into A premesured container for each shot plus premeasured water.

ive acually made a very desent dryice , chambers about 1 inch 6 inch long galvanised with a ball valve and I forget about the barrle length/size

but ya I guess my point is you can make a good powered cannon that takes up half as much space ( higher pressuers)


p.s I dont care if my spelling sucks