ABS cannon explosion

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Hotwired
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:20 am

Too many people seem to use the words DWV ABS and ABS interchangeably.

Pressure rated ABS is the best commonly available plastic piping you could build a cannon out of

DWV anything is unsafe because the whole point of DWV is that it doesn't need to be able to hold much pressure and the manufacturers therefore do not construct it expecting it to potentially be put under pressure in use.
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Fnord
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 12:37 pm

Heh.. well, I was going to give my abs combustion a nice paintjob, but I guess I wont bother now.
I'll just post it the way it is sometime soon.

Were there any unusual variables (projectile type, low/high temp)
How many shots did you fire (total) before it failed?

Unrelated story: There's an abandon campsite about a mile away from my house in the middle of the woods. I was looking around there once and found a pvc combustion cannon hidden in the leaves. Aside from using primer, whoever built it was an idiot. The cb was something like .3:1, and half the fittings were dwv. Upon closer inspection of the vent plug, I found that it had exploded and someone had epoxied it back together.
I just left it there. Maybe someday the guy will return and attempt to shoot it again.
Last edited by Fnord on Thu Oct 07, 2010 3:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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mopherman
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 12:39 pm

_Fnord wrote:Heh.. well, I was going to give my abs combustion a nice paintjob, but I guess I wont bother now.
I'll just post it the way it is sometime soon.

Were there any unusual variables (projectile type, low/high temp)
How many shots did you fire (total) before it failed?

Unrelated story: There's an abandon campsite about a mile away from my house in the middle of the woods. I was looking around there once and found a pvc combustion cannon hidden in the leaves. Aside from using primer, whoever built it was an idiot. The cb was something like .3:1, and half the fittings were dwv. Upon closer inspection of the vent plug, I found that it had exploded and someone had epoxied it back together.
I just left it there. Maybe someday the guy will return and attempt to shoot it again.
lol, I would have tried to blow it up.
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spudthug
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 1:17 pm

DWV anything is unsafe because the whole point of DWV is that it doesn't need to be able to hold much pressure and the manufacturers therefore do not construct it expecting it to potentially be put under pressure in use.
yea thats what it says when u order regular nsf-pw pvc to though.. it says not to be used with compressed gas...thats what i dont understand though...why does it have a rating in psi if it is not meant to be put under pressure...
4" piston valved cannon-half done..( i spilt my cement...)

Hybrid- 75% done. need to build propane holder and drill/tap sparkplug hole..
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 1:19 pm

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Last edited by SpudBlaster15 on Wed Jul 14, 2021 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Fnord
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 1:28 pm

yea thats what it says when u order regular nsf-pw pvc to though.. it says not to be used with compressed gas...thats what i dont understand though...why does it have a rating in psi if it is not meant to be put under pressure...
Compressed gas at ###psi stores a lot more energy than compressed[pressurized] water at ###psi. I would stand next to a water pipe when it bursts, and I would probably just get wet. If the pipe was filled with compressed air, however, it would send tiny pvc fragments everywhere with great speed.
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Velocity
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:04 pm

That sucks that your cannon blew up... I definitely agree with you that DWV anything is bad. Glad to hear that you didn't get manged too badly (is your arm badly burnt)

Might be a good idea to put this in the Launcher Failure Log...
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BC Pneumatics
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:10 pm

SpudBlaster15 wrote:BC: With DWV pipe having piece to piece imperfections due to lack of quality control, I believe it is safe to say that this has the potential to happen to any DWV ABS cannon.
We have to look at the history of things. The past tells us that it is far more likely that this will NOT happen, thus making it unreasonable to tell people that their DWV cannons are nothing more than time bombs.
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:14 pm

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Last edited by SpudBlaster15 on Wed Jul 14, 2021 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:21 pm

Blasty, I didn't say it was completely static, consistent, reliable, just that your sudden eureka and call for everyone to discard their ABS launchers is very unreasonable.
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:40 pm

There isn't anything under the sun that will never be a lemon, no matter what the manufacturers say. Not to mention the pipe is still drain pipe, designed for use with with gravity-fed liquid, not exploding gases.

Look at the statistics: How many people use ABS properly versus how many failures there are. Not very many I bet.

Also, how many times were you shooting prior to this? Sometimes the ABS can heat up...
"If at first you dont succeed, then skydiving is not for you" - Darwin Awards
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 3:04 pm

Well, Im still going to use my abs deathtrap until it ruptures or I make something better. Ive spent too much time and too much money ($0) on it to throw it away now.
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spudthug
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Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:25 pm

for the last time he said that it was his first shot god damnit!@!@!@!@
4" piston valved cannon-half done..( i spilt my cement...)

Hybrid- 75% done. need to build propane holder and drill/tap sparkplug hole..
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Hotwired
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Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:53 am

TurboSuper wrote:Look at the statistics: How many people use ABS properly versus how many failures there are. Not very many I bet.
Say DWV ABS if you mean DWV ABS!

ABS pressure pipe which is what people SHOULD be using IS rated for compressed air use.
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Velocity
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Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:30 am

<a href="http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/launche ... l">Here</a> is the link to the Launcher Failure Log, if you wanted to post your cannon in it...
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