The propane tank combustion chamber

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.
DeathBlade
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Fri Nov 24, 2006 3:10 am

Well I was building a golfball launching combustion unit, It took me forever to find some 1.5" SDR-21 and the 2" sch80 to sleeve it in. The SDR-21 the gave me for free(it was scrap) but I had to by the 2" and that was a bit expensive, So I didn't buy and pipe for the chamber as I remembered I had some 3" that I had from putting in a drain. So I get home and low and belond the 3" is DWV not pressure tested. grr But while looking through my shed I found a propane (5gallon, 25lb) bottle that I had taken the valve off and used as a counterweight for my catupult, I dug around and found a 2" castiron pipe nipple I'm going to cut out around the valve and weld in the the 2" cast iron to the tank and I'll put a 2" threaded(female) on the barrel.
Think the LP tank will work as a combution chamber?
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rna_duelers
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Fri Nov 24, 2006 4:33 am

No reason why not,aslong as you have a big barrel to keep the ratio healthy other wize expect some eardrum shattering shots.
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Pete Zaria
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Fri Nov 24, 2006 4:49 am

The only problem I see is that the metal propane tank conducts electricity, which means you'll have to insulate your electrodes from the tank. Easiest way to do this would, in my opinion, be a spark strip. http://www.burntlatke.com/strip.html .

As rna_duelers pointed out, you'll need a pretty long barrel to keep a decent chamber:barrel ratio.

Peace,
Pete Zaria.
DeathBlade
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Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:34 am

I have a 4 foot golfball, and a 7 foot section of plain old 2". Which would you think would be better? and is there any caluations for barrel to chamber ratio?
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