30 gallon combustion chamber

spudzinger · Thu Feb 02, 2006 3:59 pm

Hi my dad and I are thinking about making our 2nd spudgun out of a 30 gaqllon plastic drum and a barrel from our first gun. We have all ready done some dry firings using a flint lighter and starter fluid for fuel. If you spray it for more than like 5 seconds you can hear it echoing throughout the canyon near our weekend cabin. It sounds about like a jet taking off. Anyways, I was just wondering if anybody had any advice for building it. The problem with it is that being that is so big it takes a long time to clear out the fumes so you can fire it again. So we were thinking about putting a valve on it so we can use an air compressor, but today I saw those drum pumps on the website with the air knives and wondered if you could put one in backwards to quickly clear out the drum. Anybody with even the slightest bit of information is welcome to chime in.

dragon finder · Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:06 pm

how wide is the drum? you could put a small table fan or something like that in it. that sould clear it out very nicely

p.s. can you get some pics up thanx

spudzinger · Thu Feb 02, 2006 5:30 pm

The drum is about as wide as your regular 55 gallon drum. It has two bungs on one end each of which is about 3 inches in diameter and there is a hole on the opposite end which we have fitted with a piece of steel piping that is about 1 inches long and is threaded.Thanks for the idea.

midget08 · Thu Feb 02, 2006 5:40 pm

seems to be a neat thing...be cool if you could get picture's up of it

spudzinger · Thu Feb 02, 2006 5:56 pm

Come on people theres got to be more of you with good info.

dragon finder · Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:08 pm

at the size of the chamber i'd use a very large bore. but that is just me

Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:42 pm

sounds like you can launch basket ball with a chamber that big, you said this was a 55 gallen plastic drum? does it have a clamped on lid? only takes a minute or 2 to unbolt the clamp, some of these type clamps are quick release, like a key ring, or chain binder, pop off the lid to quickly vent the chamber, then clamp it back on to shoot again-let us now

K40T1C · Thu Feb 02, 2006 8:10 pm

Yeah i would make the barrel at least wide enough to shoot like a grapefruit or something... man that thing is gonna need a lot of fuel, also youll probably want more than one spark... itll make it stronger... i expect that those things can withstand pretty high pressure so if the time ver came, it would be extremley easy to convert it from a normal combustion to a hybrid.... also when the thing does go off i suggest that you remote detonate ( notice i said detonate... cause that might be exactly what happens) You'lll probably also want to make a stand for it... duh... be kinda hard to carry a 30 gallon steel drum

cardinals08 · Thu Feb 02, 2006 8:55 pm

K4OT1C, its a plastic drum, do you think it would be able to hold enough pressure for a hybrid? I wouldnt have thought so. It sounds like this cannon is gonna be bad @ss though, cant wait to hear the results of this thing. You ever thought of having a rifled barrel that fits footballs? that would be pretty cool. have someone go out about 150 yards and launch em out there (jk, isnt a good Idea to have anyone stand anywhere in front of a potato cannon) But the football thing would be cool

K40T1C · Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:19 pm

oh... im not sure if it wouldf hold the pressure... it should though... oh and on your foot ball idea... if you really wanted to do that you might be able to just by lowering the amount of propane (dont even pressurize it)

cardinals08 · Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:27 pm

dont pressurize what? Im kind of lost at what you mean? and I just though about the laces on the football, would make it hard to have a good enough seal

K40T1C · Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:34 pm

no you could probably just put some wadding (or a towel) around it and have that engage the rifling. and what i ment by pressurize was if it was a hybrid, you should just fire it as a combustion

cardinals08 · Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:28 pm

oh, I had a brain fart, I was thinking either to not pressurize the football, or not have any pressure in the cannon, and not even have an ignition, so I was totally lost. I was thinking you were retarded cause I thought 'how would the ball get out with no combustion' but it turns out that i am the retarded one

the towel would work, didnt even think of that. Maybe I will make a cannon one day to shoot footballs

Fri Feb 03, 2006 7:04 am

you would have to have that football in a sabet, not just some wadding, to keep it from cocking sideways and jamming, but that is a great idea, imagin the spiral it could carry

spudzinger · Sun Feb 12, 2006 2:35 am

Hey, sorry I haven't been on. I'll be getting photos up soon. Anyways, the lid is sealed on because its a plastic drum not metal. I don't think it would have enough power to shoot a basketball, plus it would require a mongo adapter from the normal bung. When we haved dryfired it with out a barrel we noticed it has a real long burn, like 5 seconds. So we thought we might make a barrel with a hopper that can shoot golfballs or pingo pong balls. Oh yeah, I sure as @#$! wouldn't use it for a hybrid. I think it would leak just with the initial pressurization, and if it held up through that I think it wouldn't be able to realease the pressure of the explosion fast enough. Unless, if it was a multi-barrel it might work. Thanx for the ideas. Be patient, I promise to get some pics soon.

30 gallon combustion chamber

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