Freezing The Flame

[Ballad_Black]

I finished my newest combustion, it has a chamber fan, mini gun grip, detachable barrels. It also uses a bbq sparker as ignition. Well, I went to test it last night, stepp on my front porch, I added the spud, fuel, and turned on the fan. When I fired it, or tried to, it did nothing. I does spark, and I know im not flooding the chamber, but it was kinda cold outside.

I know warm makes air rise and take it cold does the opposite. Not saying it was smart to try to shoot it when cold enough to see your breath, but you know the suspence of your new guns.

In a nut shell, will cold air greatly hamper the proformance of my gun?

[TalonXxX]

hmmm not too sure about that one... but I have heard never to use a spud gun in colder weather cause the pvc could crack or possibly explode? is there any truth in that cause I'm afraid to test mine when it's done in a few weeks...

[Ballad_Black]

Yea, I knew that and tried anyway. I dont think people would lie about that, not that I wanna find out, but obviously if I keep shooting in cold weather i'll find out. But its kinda warm now and my gun shoots, so I guess I wasted time posting, lol.

[Animal81182]

Not really a waste!!!

the cold generally causes atmospheric pressure to reduce so if you are using a metered system there might not have been enough pressure to give you a correct mix (Please tell me if you think i am wrong!!) therefore causing a missfire!!!

on the pvc failing in cold weather - yes it is possible as the cold can make the pvc brittle although i dont know exactly at what temp the PVC becomes brittle

Hope this helps

Animal

[boilingleadbath]

"what temperature it becames brittle"
It's a curve. It's not fully brittle at very cold temperatures... but it's still quite a bit more brittle than at room temp. I'v seen a graph of it before, but I forget where or when, so I'm not going to try and find it.
You'll have to draw your own distinction of where you want to cut it off.

Anyway, the supplied pressure (by propane) drops as temperature decreases. How cold was it, and what pressure are you running your meter at?

[Cole]

Haha, when I first saw this threa, I thought it would be one of those guys who think you can actually freeze a flame. But then again I live in Missouri so im used to stupidity.

[Shandora]

ok icananser the degree on which it becomes brittle enough to blow its 20 degrees fareint height if you use schedule 40

[huskyPEN]

I was using gasoline from a spray bottle in the snow a few years back. My cannon is made of sch 40 pipe and the only problem i had was putting the end cap back on with cold hands.

[Andrew52]

i'm not actually sure that it does but pvc can be deterioated by gas and it will stay lit inside after firing a burn ur chamber

[Shrimphead]

Gas doesn't melt pvc, and the reason it stays lit for people is because they had a pool of it in their chamber. He said he sprayed it in, which creates a mist and evenly distributes it throughout the air. And whatever got on the walls would have burned away in no time.

[Flinchy]

yes your right, you want to be careful with gasoline though. pvc piping is soluble in gasoline.

[boilingleadbath]

PVC is <b>NOT</b> soluable in gasoline; gasoline is too long, not polar enough, and probably doesn't exibit enough hydrogen bonding.