physicist call - Page 4

Kamog · #31 January 11th, 2003, 04:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rdouglass:
I'll have to see if I can dig up the photo of the 'potato cannon' I built about 20 years ago. Made out of 3" PVC pipe 6 feet long. Would launch a potato 200+ yards! Awesome! Woke up everyone for blocks!!!! Talk about a 'spinal mount' potato gun....

How does it work? It is like a catapult? Or maybe a big slingshot? It would really hurt to be hit by a high-velocity potato from such a cannon!

rdouglass · #32 January 11th, 2003, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kamog:

quote:
Originally posted by rdouglass:
I'll have to see if I can dig up the photo of the 'potato cannon' I built about 20 years ago. Made out of 3" PVC pipe 6 feet long. Would launch a potato 200+ yards! Awesome! Woke up everyone for blocks!!!! Talk about a 'spinal mount' potato gun....

How does it work? It is like a catapult? Or maybe a big slingshot? It would really hurt to be hit by a high-velocity potato from such a cannon!

I used butane lighter fuel or hairspray. It's actually a wonder I still have all my parts....

A true cannon. I got in trouble several times with police. For the record, I wouldn't recommend anyone building one 'cause they can be very dangerous (with only a PVC combustion chamber!)

You can read some more about 'em here just be sure to read some of the stories - you'll ROFLYAO!!!

Suicide Junkie · #33 January 11th, 2003, 07:46 AM

We have a propane-powered PVC cannon at the cottage. 2 meters long, with a fat combustion chamber at the bottom and a skinny barrel for more velocity. There's also a remote ignition system, so we can take cover

Kaaa-FOOM. Then, a few seconds later, a splash far across the lake

We even made a silencer for it out of metal, which works surprisingly well. Cuts the noise level way down, and dosen't seem to affect the power.

rdouglass · #34 January 11th, 2003, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kamog:

quote:
Originally posted by rdouglass:
I'll have to see if I can dig up the photo of the 'potato cannon' I built about 20 years ago. Made out of 3" PVC pipe 6 feet long. Would launch a potato 200+ yards! Awesome! Woke up everyone for blocks!!!! Talk about a 'spinal mount' potato gun....

How does it work? It is like a catapult? Or maybe a big slingshot? It would really hurt to be hit by a high-velocity potato from such a cannon!

I used butane lighter fuel or hairspray. It's actually a wonder I still have all my parts....

A true cannon. I got in trouble several times with police. For the record, I wouldn't recommend anyone building one 'cause they can be very dangerous (with only a PVC combustion chamber!)

You can read some more about 'em here just be sure to read some of the stories - you'll ROFLYAO!!!

Fyron · #35 January 11th, 2003, 08:03 AM

rdouglass, how do you have a 23 minute separation between double Posts, with a post by SJ in-between? That is amazing!

Timstone · #36 January 12th, 2003, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dralasite:
Timstone,

Thanks for those links! I love to read that stuff as well.

My pleasure!

Kamog · #37 January 12th, 2003, 08:18 PM

Rdouglass, thanks for the info, there's some really interesting stories on that Potato Cannon link you gave us! I had no idea that you could build potato guns that powerful. These guns are indeed not toys, they are pretty dangerous! It's amazing that you could give a potato so much speed that it pierces 1/2" plywood! Some people were firing all sorts of other projectiles like limes, cans of beer, jelly beans, dead rats, dynamite sticks, Barbie dolls, light bulbs, D cell batteries, etc. It does sound like a risky hobby, though.

Timstone · #38 January 12th, 2003, 09:16 PM

Ever tried building your own railgun? Now that's cool!
Me and some friends did it. It took almost three months to build the monster, but when it was finished we could fire 9 inch nails (no, not the group, heh) completely through 18 mm. plywood. This was with the help of a 24V battery. When we plugged it into the electric mains, we could fire the nail completely through three seperate pieces of 18 mm. plywood. The pieces were seperated from eachother by aproximately 5 cm..
We didn't make any photo's because we made the monster on school. When the teachers found out what we had constructed from schoolmaterial, we had to dismantle it immediately.

There are masses of sites on the on the net with good guides how to build such a device.

rdouglass · #39 January 12th, 2003, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
rdouglass, how do you have a 23 minute separation between double Posts, with a post by SJ in-between? That is amazing!

Dunno' 'bout amazing but it sure is weird...

Kamog · #40 January 13th, 2003, 10:07 AM

I would like to build a railgun, that would be fun! At one point I almost built one. When I was a student, I got together with three other guys to do a project. Our initial idea was to build a railgun, and I started doing some research on how to build one. Then the "politically correct" guy in the group had second thoughts and started to say that we shouldn't build a weapon because that's violent. He convinced the other two guys to abandon the idea and I was overruled. We ended up building a musical instrument instead.