First Time spud stories

[Tater_Obliterator]

Man first cannon i built was way our of proportion, 3 feet of chamber, 5 feet of barrel, big ole thing. Anyway, took me one friday to build, and the next day i wanted to try out it hanging out with a couple of friends. The person who's house we were at though, didn't want us firing anything, so i had to subisde to two "dry fire" (just fuel) shots. it made a low womph, and i was pleased. after my other friend and me left that house, went stopped by the house my family is building (on 38 acres none the less, can you say spud gun testing?:D), and decided to fire off a shot. we loaded the tater, sprayed some aquanet into the chamber, capped, and took aim into the twilight in a safe direction. I'll never forget that first shot.... so much raw power, the PVC lighting up in with inner flame, the noise...jeez, that noise makes me smile to this day. oh yeah, and that potato taking a good 300 foot trip, maybe 60-80 feet into the air and off into the great treed yonder.....

anyway else got story about thier first spud shooting?

[Barasackee]

Just shot my first one off yesterday. Nothing really special other than my amazment at what some hairspray, PVC, and a potato can do. Can't wait to shoot it off again!:D

[draculon]

I remember the first time that I shot mine in the dark. Or course, it was also when my barrel popped off due to improper gluing, but we won't mention that. :p

But the whole thing lit up, and when the barrel popped off, this gigantic flame came out the barrel. Good thing I was holding the barrel, otherwise it would have gone flying.

[Velocity]

The first cannon I ever built was from backyard ballistics, and it was a DWV deathhole (I now understand why that book instructed the builders to not exceed 30 PSI). It had a 3/4" ball valve to it. I dry fired it (was wearing safety glasses, ear protection, all for a 10 PSI shot from a ball valve cannon). As soon as it went off, I was hooked. I remember being amazed that it could shoot a tinfoil ball onto the roof

What I find is that with each cannon I complete, I get that same feeling. Just knowing what you build works is a great feeling.

[An Apple Pie]

Wow Rmich that is exactly like mine. I built mine from Backyard Ballistics, and the chamber was made completely out of DWV. I was hooked after I first shot it. It also took me a year to realize that there were better valves than ball valves. LMAO.
<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/uploader/uploadFiles/lmao-new.jpg">
(sorry old topic, but I am not really kicking it up due to so little stuff in this section)

[SpudStuff]

My first cannon was ABS. We shot ~20 pounds of taters at one of thore giant dump trucks. Whenever we got a good shot on the bucket it sounded like a giant bell.

[joannaardway]

My first cannon was quite feeble - it'd chuck an AA battery 100 feet (perhaps more). It's probably got it's topic hanging around somewhere. (It was called Lancer, and was seriously ghetto).

The follow-up was much more impressive - that used a ball valve, and much more pressure, and would get 100 yards or more or range.

[Los Frijoles]

Mine was a pill bottle combustion...I loved shooting apples across the yard (potatoes would get stuck in the barrel).

[crashtestdummy]

My first cannon was a combustion, modeled after the one in Backyard Ballistics as well. No threads on the barrel to make it detachable, and I used a cleanout cap, and DWV bell reducer. The BBQ ignitor was mounted into the side of the chamber where there wasn't a coupler or anything. Not to mention that I used duct tape instead of epoxy / JB Weld, and taped the ignitor into the hole I drilled for it. After a bunch of shots, the duct tape finally gave away and hot gases burned my palm really bad. Anyways... I'm glad I don't build cannons like that anymore.

[TurboSuper]

My first cannon was built according to plans I found on this site. I asked on the forums if ABS was ok and you guys said it was, so I still use it to this day with no problems.

It was awesome when I finally got the bloody thing to fire, a simple dry-fire shot produced enough power to almost shake the house. Sheer awesomeness8)