I’ve always had this fascination with explosions. Every healthy human does, right? Exactly. As such, things like produce cannons and t-shirt blasters have always interested me. However, seeing as I had never worked with PVC in my life before and I had this odd effect on objects where everything I made spontaneously imploded, I reasonably had stayed away from making a weapon which utilized explosions for most of my life. Until now. Trying to step out of my comfort zone and create a project that was freaking awesome at the same time, I decided to create a potato launcher. And not have it blow up in my hands. To do this seemingly impossible task, first I had to learn what type of launcher to create. I found a forum online which was designed solely to discuss potato guns (I’m dead serious) and boolean searched their threads for any information pertaining to the pros and cons of different launchers( http://www.spudfiles.com/spudtech_archive/viewtopic.php?t=15826 ). Eventually I came down to three options: pneumatic, combustion, and dry ice. Dry ice was crossed off the list quite quickly when I discovered that the fuel for the gun was dry ice bombing, which if you know what a dry ice bomb is (dry ice put inside a closed water bottle filled with water) then you know how easy it is to kill someone (me) accidentally when that chemical TNT is involved. I have no plan to die or lose my hand so it came down to combustion vs. pneumatic. From the forum thread I could infer that, while more complex, pneumatics had far more firepower than combustion cannons which is what I was after: a rewarding challenge. So thank you, user joannaardway, your semi anonymous insight made my decision easier. He seemed to know what he was speaking about, of course this is the internet so who knows.
The design for the pneumatic launcher. Surprisingly simple.
After deciding on pneumatic, I had the very fun task of finding tutorials and instructions on how to construct such a contraption. This was incredibly easy, by simply typing in “pneumatic potato gun” into Google I found videos and tutorials galore. Perhaps my project is just extremely popular, I don’t know, I guess my dreams of having a hipster vegetable launcher are ruined. Anyways, I found this fantastic diagram (seen above) and set of very clear instructions of how to create a pneumatic one on a instructional resource site called http://www.spudgundepot.com/pneumatic.html , where the author (anonymous unfortunately, however the details of the instructions indicated he knew his stuff) even had a flash animation of how such a gun works. Fantastic! That site probably was the most helpful in my opinion, probably because of my mixed visual-kinesthetic learning pattern. I also found an educational website (http://home.howstuffworks.com/spud-gun3.htm) which had a page written by a “well respected nerd”, who has written multiple other pages of a similar nature which are somewhat credible, named Tracy V. Wilson (her words, not mine) which explained how pneumatic weapons operate. Of course if I’m going to build something I should know how it works so I don’t fool around in a way that I shouldn’t and end up blowing my limbs off. Due to my instructions calling for the use of PVC sealant, I boolean searched for how to accomplish this. I found an article on eHow.com (http://www.ehow.com/how_6145416_seal-pvc-water-supply-pipe.html) which was rather useful and credible (as credible as a stranger on the internet can be). Lastly I searched on YouTube for a step-by-step video of someone building their own (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6XIC5b7PME) so that I could compare my own work and be sure I wasn’t inadvertently creating a pipe bomb. Which I wasn’t, so thank you Phill Mayer for your YouTube video, you appear to know what you’re talking about since your launcher was both safe and operational. Still don’t know what you look like besides your hands but that’s alright.
My materials.
Somewhat assembled
The entire process of buying the required materials, assembling the doohickey, and then testing the launcher out was relatively easy. I went to a Home Depot nearby my house and bought all of the PVC piping and sealant, followed the instructions on the site to a T, and then waited a day for the sealant to stick. The only issue i had was that NO ONE sells Schrader valves. Absolutely no one in the entire Houston area which was where my shopping was limited to. So, I “borrowed” a tire pump from an old bike tire and refitted it as a valve for the gun’s air tank. That improvisation worked like a charm. Speaking of which, I love how the pipe I used as the air pressure tank said in bold lettering, “NOT FOR PRESSURE”.
This was used as the air pressure tank. Science has no time to read warning labels.
The instructions said the psi should only be between 60-100 psi. Oops
After the day wait was up, I finally was able to shoot starches at 80 MPH in my backyard. I have to say, this was the best project I’ve experienced. Yet.
I would have loved to show a video on here but unfortunately WordPress wants my money for that to happen. I’ll try to show it in my slides!
References
Ardway, Joanna. “pneumatic vs combustion.” 4 Mar 2007. SpudTech Archive, Online Posting tojoannaardway. Web. 7 Sep. 2012. <http://www.spudfiles.com/spudtech_archive/viewtopic.php?t=15826>.
Batka, David. “How to Seal PVC Water Supply Pipe.”eHow.com n.pag. eHow.com. Web. 6 Sep 2012. <http://www.ehow.com/how_6145416_seal-pvc-water-supply-pipe.html>.
“How To Make A Pneumatic Potato Gun.”SpudgunDepot.com. N.p., n. d. Web. Web. 6 Sep. 2012. <http://www.spudgundepot.com/pneumatic.html>.
Mayer, Phil, dir. Phill Mayer – Pneumatic Potato Cannon; Spud Gun How To [HD]. YouTube, 2009. Web. 6 Sep 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6XIC5b7PME>.
Wilson, Tracy V.. “How Spud Guns Work” 08 September 2005. HowStuffWorks.com <http://home.howstuffworks.com/spud-gun.htm> 06 September 2012.
Mobile Gaming (Fall 2012) 