My first pneumatic almost-gun!

Show us your pneumatic spud gun! Discuss pneumatic (compressed gas) powered potato guns and related accessories. Valve types, actuation, pipe, materials, fittings, compressors, safety, gas choices, and more.
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dongfang
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Sun Jun 24, 2007 3:10 pm

Hi,

Finally I have moved towards pneumatics. This one can shoot a golf ball almost as far as I can throw it...

The gun probably boasts the worst mismatch between chamber and barrel strength in the history of potato acceleration. The barrel is 1m of 50mm deluxe aluminum golf ball pipe. The chamber is .. well I couldn´t find anything else right now. C:B = 1:1.

Feeding the ´bird from above works when inflating, but it introduces too much dead space (hose volume) for the blowgun to clear when the gun is fired. Right now it honks. When I get a decent chamber I will put the inflator valve there.

Also, I learned that pressure hose isn´t simply hose that will not burst under pressure, but will also seal. The current PVC hose is a disaster. What do you guys do? I can only find hose in 5m or 10m lenghts with fast couplers on both ends; what a waste to cut those apart.

Regards
Soren
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That black plastic sleeve around the barrel looks terrible on my desk chair where it belongs, but on the gun it looks cool.
That black plastic sleeve around the barrel looks terrible on my desk chair where it belongs, but on the gun it looks cool.
DSC_0444.JPG (36.5 KiB) Viewed 3498 times
Just a Rain Bird and a blow gun. I had never imagined that I could get the valve to honk even if I kink the inflator hose - it is the little "Y" tee in series with the blowgun that has too much resistance. When I pull off a hose to fire, the gun goes off with a BANG.
Just a Rain Bird and a blow gun. I had never imagined that I could get the valve to honk even if I kink the inflator hose - it is the little "Y" tee in series with the blowgun that has too much resistance. When I pull off a hose to fire, the gun goes off with a BANG.
Breech end. When I get a chamber It will be red w Swiss crosses on in.
Breech end. When I get a chamber It will be red w Swiss crosses on in.
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Jumpin Jehosaphat
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Sun Jun 24, 2007 3:47 pm

Does you blowgun have a small opening on it, that may be what is causing the honking problem because you are not venting the pilot fast enough. If you blowgun has some sort of nozzle, remove it.
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VH_man
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Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:11 pm

yes, it looks like there is a nozzle on that.... looks better than my first pneumatic...............

and wheres that bottle from?
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dongfang
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Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:20 pm

Hi,

Thanks for the tips w that nozzle. I´ll get rid of it.

The bottle is Swiss. Rivella is grrrrrrreat stuff; really nice taste. I guess I have to empty one or two more or those then I get a tee and elbows for multiple chambers, and fit my long plastic barrel.

Regards
Soren
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experament-u2
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Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:49 pm

nice barrel 8), the hole set up (excluding the chamber) looks really sweet
oh and isn't your pilot volume a little big?
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potatoflinger
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Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:33 pm

That looks pretty good for a first gun.
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mark0491
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Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:41 pm

thats awesome were did you get the sprinkler valve ?
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shud_b_rite
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Sun Jun 24, 2007 11:20 pm

Thats a nice gun. It looks like it should fire further than you can throw. When you get another chamber it should. Nice work
Airbeds... so many different uses
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spud yeti
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Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:00 am

So how far CAN you throw?? :D
I really like your gun, it will be even more awesome with the multiple chambers you were talking about.
A smart choice to try pneumatics! :lol: I love it!
btw, why didnt you just attach the blowgun straight to the sprinkler valve?
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dongfang
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Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:55 am

Hi all,

Yes the pilot volume is a tad big. With the current chamber set-up, the only port I have on the whole system is the home made control port on the 'bird. So I have to do everything through that.

BTW, does any of you know whether it is a good idea to try put a 1/4" NPT coupling through the lid of those birds? The thread of so called 1/4" fittings are really 0.54". Looks like they would have a nice fit.

The spinkler comes from a Liwa-Tec (Liwa-tek?) in Effretikon. They also have some old Toros for hydraulic control (no mod!), but spare diaphragms might be impossible to get.

Regards
Soren
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Pyro Ninja
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Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:32 am

Nice gun for what I can see only the first picture works for me...ahhh....the other two don't....I really want to know what is causes the pictures to not work for me.....It's really starting to P!ss me off :x
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simo
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Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:39 am

yea very nice i think u should put some marbles in the bottle and if they fit throught the sprinkler valve it will be heaps good, it might shoot a couple marbles in one shot
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dongfang
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Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:58 am

simo,

Huh? Marbles through a sprinkler valve?

Well I certainly need other hoses. It will only go to 2.8 bar with the current ones, then they expand and start leaking at the ends.

Regards
Soren
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spud yeti
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Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:08 am

Simo, have you ever tried the whole marbles concept yet? I have never heard of it before and Im interested what happens.
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