The "user created" gun

[roxk]

This thread is dedicated to making a gun that is built from the users of this forum. This gun will be a pneumatic laungher. We need to determine the best materials, valve, and any other accessories we want like a turret stand, silencer, and any other creative things like dual air tanks or breech loader. The gun wont be semi-auto or anything like that. It is just for making something fo fast, far, and [glow=red,2,300]safe.[/glow]. Were not all made of money so please keep this a spud cannon and not nuclear missile, and keep this somewhere cheap?? like no military-grade aircraft alloy for the material please.


I guess ill start tihs off. Well pvp piping is basic so im suggesting a metal type gun like steel or copper, and that is extremly safe too. quick exaust piston? breech loader? folding stand like a scooter? rifled barrel and maby even a real paintball barrel?

please continue

[blowemupspudguy]

'bout time somone thought this up, great topic:)
anyway lesse.....i think it should have maybe a 1 1/2" barrel because that's about the right size for potatoes. maybe like a bolt action loader, somthing with a heavy spring that would push a potato into a hole in the start of the barrel when it was open and seal it off when it was closed. i don't know how you would do that with a piston exaust, but it's a thought.
also for a stand i have been thinking about what would happen if you took a bike pump and sealed where the air comes out, it would work like a pnewmatic shock. you could have two of them on a stand to take the kickback, it would be usefull for launching water, and it would just look cool:)

[Lukas]

Hey, shock sounds good. Exhaust piston built into a T is the only way to go, trigger it with a solenoid or blowgun. Simple sliding-sleeve breachloading is a must. Rifled copper barrel would be sweet, I'm thinking of cast lead or plastic ammo in that case, but maybe potato. Paintballs are a pain. Are we aiming for a sniper-style gun, or more of a cannon?

[blowemupspudguy]

i think it should be more of a cannon, maybe a new thread should be for a sniper. plastic ammo could be allright, i think lead would be hard for most people to get

there is gonna need to be some kinda moderator for this to keep everything together, after a while it could get confusing with everyone adding stuff

[Lukas]

Or not. Lol! I'm surprized, ya'll need to get in here and help us with this!

[darthtator]

Well I would really like to help out, this is a great idea!! Unfortunately, I don't know much about pneumatic cannons. You guys are talking about a lot of things that I don't really have any knowledge over, so its kinda hard for me to give ideas. If someone could take some time and make a diagram of what we are talking about so far, it would really help me. I think I could also give many good ideas when I gain some simple understandings from you guys. I think I could possibly give many good ideas once I get a picture into my head. So if someone could do this for me it would be GREAT!! Thanks in advance!!!

[Lukas]

Thanks for the enthusiasm! It's not all that complicated, actually. I'm sure you understand the traditional things like tripod/turret, scope, silencer, rifling, and materials options (copper, iron, PVC, ABS).

The piston designs are hard to describe, even with pictures. Start here www.air-power.net/ or here www.spudfiles.com/Main/cannons.php It's alot to look over, but that's how I got introduced, and I think it's the best way. Saves alot of time for me, too! lol

Breach-loading means being able to load the ammo into the end of the barrel nearest the chamber, so that no ramrod is required. There are different ways to do this.

Blowemup: maybe we could start a series of polls for each feature in question, such as valve type, breach mech, materials, etc.

[darthtator]

Haha, I know the basics like all the materials and breech loading and valve types and all that good stuff but it sometimes gets a little past me. I bet its not that hard but once I get a little confused it all goes down hill from threre ya know? Well I will look over the links above and check things out. thanks again.
Nick

[Lukas]

Ok, good, lol, yeah once ppl start spouting off alot of tech jargon n' crap, it can bog you down.

[darthtator]

Well I looked at the links and registered to those sites so I could see all the forums and stuff. I never saw an actual design of a piston valve cannon though. I saw the whole cannon not the inner part of the chamber and all that ( bummer). Well I also think that a breech loader is a good idea. I saw some conflict at the top posts about what size barrel to use. I think if we make it like the green hornet (featured on this page) it would solve that problem. I think since we are putting this much thought and effort into it, we should definately plan on a steel cannon. This would allow us to use more powerful fuels. That means a monster cannon.... I like that!!! Do you guys think that maybe our mind-set is a little too modest? I think we should try to build something that hasn't been done before. Or some thing that has been done but had problems, then try to fix the problems. I don't know.... I'm just throwing stuff out. keep it coming guys!!

Nick

[darthtator]

This topic has been viewed over 550 times and we had only 3 people post!! What is wrong with this picture??? C'mon people lets get some ideas going!!!

[darthtator]

4 people sorry

[Lukas]

Darth, try the concept drawing section of the air-power forum, it has some valve schematics. And this is going to be a pneumatic gun, according to the founding poster. So we won't be needing fuel. Steel still might not be a bad material to use though.

[darthtator]

LOL, Wow... brain fart!! Sorry about that. I'm so used to making combustion that I forgot this one wasn't! I haven't made any other types of cannons so I automatically thought of fuel sorry about that! I'll check out the concepts part thanks again.

[sgort87]

I'll post a picture of my suggestion of a breech loading port in a day or two. I got a pretty good idea what could work well for this. But I need to know what we intend to use as ammo first. Will they be potatoes or other food? Or will it be premade slugs made to fit the barrel? I think slugs are the way to go. Maybe try a bunch of different ones: Ice, wood, lead, clay, plaster, D-Cell batteries, maybe even racket balls eh? I like those last two...