Boom! The classic potato gun harnesses the combustion of flammable vapor. Show us your combustion spud gun and discuss fuels, ratios, safety, ignition systems, tools, and more.
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ryguy
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:23 am
Well I was looking around and i found this site, and i saw that purell mini, i wanted to build one like it, i have a mini scope mouthwash bottle, with a pen tube through the cap, snuggly. So, i got a bbq lighter, and it make a spark in the ligher, when I took it out, it won't spark on thumb tacks or anything, am I doing somthing wrong?
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jrrdw
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:28 am
Your point of ignition may be gaped to wide, to much fuel, wired wrong. Could be bad fuel, put up some pics, it's hard to give accurit advise not being able to see it.
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ryguy
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:29 am
well that was a fast response
thanks.
but right now, im not using any fuel, i cant get the thing to spark yet
the gap is 1-2cm
is there supposed to be 2 wires coming out of it btw?
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ryguy
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:31 am
if i attached a wire to the wire from the igniter, so both thumb tacks were wired, would that help?
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jrrdw
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:34 am
Yes 2 wires, 1 at the bottem, (the ground), and 1 near the top, (possitive). The gap should be way closer the that, around .020, about like a lawnmower sparkplug, the closer the gap, the hotter the spark.
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jrrdw
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 7:55 am
Take it back out and try it on it's own again, maby it's dead from to much munipalation. Just guessing.
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Taternator
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:29 pm
when my combustion wouldnt launch all i did was get a rag or a shammy and wipe as much in there as i can for some reason when i sprayed the screws it wouldnt spark and when i wiped the screws clean they light up like christmas lights trey that (wiping the screws or w/e u used)
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POS
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:33 pm
what do you use as explosive ? Hairspraiy or something like that ? It could be that the screws get dirty of it, and the can't form a spark that way. Propane is cleaner.
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zafabafa
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:56 pm
i made a mini aswell. but my spark doesnt make the propane ignite, im sure it doesnt leak cause i burnt my hairs on my hand when i did it with a naked flame (lighter)
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zafabafa
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 4:52 pm
it kinda is
but could it be my spark isnt hot enough?
i used one from a pretty expensive lighter but that doesnt garantee anything
tried it with very little deo (propane) and i tried loads. Neither worked, must have done it 10 times
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zafabafa
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Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:58 am
i think im gonna try it on a bigger scale, o you know the bb gun pellet bottles, the one with the pooring nozzle? that must be sick