LUCKY13 HYBRID

Provided By Lucky13 - http://www.koolpages.com/potatohell/

Hybrids are a form of potato guns that use the theories of both combustion and pneumatic guns. In a traditional combustion gun you enject 4% propane into a chamer and fire. With a hybrid you inject 8%,12%,or 16% propane. Then to make up for the lack of oxygen you inject compressed air. The amount of compressed air is determind by what is neccesary to get the extreme amount of propane back to 4%. So in other words, if you put in 3 times the normal amount of propane, you then have to put in 3 times the amount of air (depending on atmospherict pressure in your area, thats about 28 psi of air). A burst disc (or many) are placed in a union that prevents the gun from firing untill it hits a very high pressure. These guns can reach and exceed 300psi when firing. A large hybrid is capable of firing projectiles up to and past the speed of sound.





This is the straw that broke the camals back. I was pressure testing my chamber at 80psi when the sch80 union exploded. Obviously it was defective, it should have held 350psi easily. At this point I was ready to give up on this gun and start over which is exactly what I did. The next gun will have less chance of failure since it will have only two places for leaks instead of 6 like in the old version.





Here is the hybrid that never was. I stripped it for parts (i.e. the stun gun and propane meter) and threw the pvc away. As you can see it looks very sloppy (because it is). Its defenatly not my best work so in a way im glad it didnt work because it look realy bad. It gives me a good reason to trash it and start over.

Time to start over.



Here is the five sparks that will ingnite the propane and compressed air.


This is the propane meter that was made for my first hybrid (the one that blew it's union). It's still in perfect working condition so why make a new one.





Here is the stand that will hold my hybrid. I was bored one day and through it together in about a half hour from left over 2X6's. As you can see, the top piece of wood is on a hinge so that I have a wide range of angles to choose from. I plan to put a hose clamp or too around the top of the stand to give the hinge some extra strength.



Allright, the first shots of my new hybrid are in. The barrel that is on it is just temporary. Its the barrel I used for testing my red basic combustion. It is only four feet long. The actual barrel that I plan to use for my hybrid will be about 8 feet long. The metering systems and ignition will be coming soon. From the back of the chamber to the 2" union, this is my longest combustion chamber at 2 feet.



Here it is. finaly done, sort of. On the air regulator, the gauge all the way to the left is not the one I will be using. Im waiting on my 0-400psi gauge that has not yet arrived. The color scheme turned out really nice, even though I didnt plan it that way.



This is just the same as the last, just from the other side.



Here is the stungun that fires the gun. As you can see the ignition wires are rapped around the propane meter and the point where the compressed air is put in. This allows me to have only two wholes drilled into the chamber.



This picture just shows off the stand and how it has a hinge that allows me to aim the gun at just about any angle.







This is the gun in all it's glory. The barrel shown is for testing and current picture taking. I plan to go buy another 2" pipe and use about 8 feet of it for the real barrel.



This is the only picture I have of the inside of the chamber. Its hard to tell what the hell is going on cause its messy in there. the wires coming from the sparkstrip run into the metal fittings that protrude from the outside of the chamer. The wires are bent so that they will stay on their own but I used epoxy on it just to be safe. The spark strip is held down by epoxy as well.



Here is the push button for firing the stun gun. It is made of two 1" end caps and a few inches of 1" sch40 pvc pipe.



Now that the gun is built, its time for a little tweaking and working out all the bugs. If you look closely, youll notice that the propane meter has been cut much shorter. (mmmmmm...sprite flavored burst disc)







Here are a few shots of the burst discs after they have been fired from the gun. They go into the union as smooth and flexible plastic but after being fired from the gun they are hard and very stiff. These two were used in a 3X mix.





Here is the plywood that I shot the plasic dowl at. I found that the dowl was too soft and would explode on impact instead of going through the target.



This is what happenes when a Duracell "D" battery and a sheet of plywood get collide.......Right: This is the "D" battery that smashed through the plywood. The gun produced 210psi with a 3X mix. (approx. speed: 500mph). From the looks of the battery (its been flattened), it looks as though it went through the wood standing up as apposed to straight forward.





I tried to fire a D battery through a can of hairspray. The battery was wrapped in duct tape at the time to make a good seel in the barrel. The tape got stuck in the can and the battery flew right through and into the tv that the can is taped to.



Here is the pressure gauge that tells me what pressure the gun produces when it fires. The shot that fired the battery through the hairspray can, produced 200psi.



This is all the pieces of the union that I could find. As you can see, most of the pieces are missing. The pieces I did find, where within a few feet of the gun. THIS WAS VERY DANGEROUS AND I AM VERY LUCKY THAT I WASN'T HURT!



This piece shows that the force was so strong, it cracked a layer of sch80 pipe wrapped in a sch40 fitting.



This is what the 4X mix produced when it blew my union up. Fortunately the chamber is still completely intact so only a new union is needed to fix it.

For videos please look at around here.

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