High pressure golf ball barrel

Potatoes last one shot, so build reusable! Discuss ammo designs and ideas. Tough to find cannon part or questions? Ask here!
User avatar
D_Hall
Staff Sergeant 5
Staff Sergeant 5
United States of America
Posts: 1914
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:37 pm
Location: SoCal
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 41 times

Donating Members

Sun May 11, 2008 12:42 pm

I've always wanted to design a supersonic golf ball gun. But what to make the barrel out of? Honestly, I wouldn't trust PVC for the kinds of pressures that would be needed, so periodically I've looked for hydraulic tubing or whatever. I think I found it. Not hydrualic tubing but...

Schedule 160 steel pipe. 2" diameter (nominal).

ID = 1.689"

Golf balls are 1.68"

Thoughts?
Simulation geek (GGDT / HGDT) and designer of Vera.
User avatar
rp181
Sergeant
Sergeant
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:47 pm
Contact:

Sun May 11, 2008 12:52 pm

perfect =) (message too short)
User avatar
noob of noobs
Specialist 3
Specialist 3
Posts: 320
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 8:04 pm
Location: Illinois, Skokie

Sun May 11, 2008 12:58 pm

Sounds amazing! I assume there aren't any welds?
User avatar
D_Hall
Staff Sergeant 5
Staff Sergeant 5
United States of America
Posts: 1914
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:37 pm
Location: SoCal
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 41 times

Donating Members

Sun May 11, 2008 1:10 pm

noob of noobs wrote:Sounds amazing! I assume there aren't any welds?
Sch 160? No, you're not gonna find welds.
Simulation geek (GGDT / HGDT) and designer of Vera.
User avatar
Lentamentalisk
Sergeant 3
Sergeant 3
Posts: 1202
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:27 pm
Location: Berkeley C.A.

Sun May 11, 2008 1:10 pm

either you will need an insanely high pressure hybrid, or a shit load of helium, but either way, that would be absolutely incredible. I for one, am going to have way more helium than I will ever need, so I may just want to try that. Where did you find this? Or is it just your standard SCH 120 2" pipe?
Do not look back, and grieve over the past, for it is gone;
Do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come;
Live life in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.
User avatar
D_Hall
Staff Sergeant 5
Staff Sergeant 5
United States of America
Posts: 1914
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:37 pm
Location: SoCal
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 41 times

Donating Members

Sun May 11, 2008 1:14 pm

Sch 160, not 120.

It's at McMaster. :D

Bad news is that 36" is the longest stick they sell. But knowing the size, I could probably get longer from another vendor.

Right now I'm toying with the idea of....

5" x 12" chamber. (I've got some 5" ID pipe rated to 10,000 psi.)
sch 160 barrel. 6' would be magnificent.


edit: Of course, I've already got my hands full... But hey, it's fun to dream, right?
Simulation geek (GGDT / HGDT) and designer of Vera.
User avatar
STHORNE
Sergeant 3
Sergeant 3
Posts: 1208
Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:50 pm
Location: Kewaunee, Wisconsin

Donating Members

Sun May 11, 2008 1:27 pm

sounds awesome....but man that sucker is gonna be HEAVY! Pneumatic I presume?
Forum Rules - follow them or else!
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence”
User avatar
D_Hall
Staff Sergeant 5
Staff Sergeant 5
United States of America
Posts: 1914
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:37 pm
Location: SoCal
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 41 times

Donating Members

Sun May 11, 2008 1:49 pm

Uhh... Going supersonic with pneumatics is tough. We're talking hybrid.
Simulation geek (GGDT / HGDT) and designer of Vera.
User avatar
STHORNE
Sergeant 3
Sergeant 3
Posts: 1208
Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:50 pm
Location: Kewaunee, Wisconsin

Donating Members

Sun May 11, 2008 2:03 pm

ok, thought so but wasn't sure....
Forum Rules - follow them or else!
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence”
User avatar
Lentamentalisk
Sergeant 3
Sergeant 3
Posts: 1202
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:27 pm
Location: Berkeley C.A.

Sun May 11, 2008 2:10 pm

Its not that tough at smaller sizes at least, with helium, though as I said above, you would need a ton of helium to get it to work. A high-X hybrid definitely sounds like the way to go, probably best would be a Hydro-Oxy mix, as its only product is H2O, which has a much faster speed of sound than CO2.
Mayhaps you could try for DDT, to get faster combustion ^_^
Do not look back, and grieve over the past, for it is gone;
Do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come;
Live life in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.
User avatar
RDX,
Private 4
Private 4
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:16 pm
Location: Finland

Sun May 11, 2008 2:24 pm

I have made high pressure Gb cannon and I used Hydraulic Cylinder Pipe / Honed Steel Tube .. but I use sabots (I mold the sabots from polyurethane). I think it would be perfect for supersonic hybrid :wink:
User avatar
Lentamentalisk
Sergeant 3
Sergeant 3
Posts: 1202
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:27 pm
Location: Berkeley C.A.

Sun May 11, 2008 2:27 pm

Would you mind posting it or if you already have, linking it to us?
Do not look back, and grieve over the past, for it is gone;
Do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come;
Live life in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.
User avatar
dongfang
Specialist 4
Specialist 4
Posts: 448
Joined: Sun Aug 27, 2006 8:02 am
Location: Switzerland

Sun May 11, 2008 3:39 pm

Hi,

I can get some lovely 50 mm OD aluminium tubes. They are, like 43.6 ID. I found them at a truck body workshop, but they are available from any metals wholesaler also.

They can take any pressure that will ever come out of a spud gun.

I don't know if you have them over there in non-Metric land.

They are a little larger than the GB, but guess what: I have just wrapped a little sticky tape around my tube, and wedged it into a slip coupler on the front of the valve. When I fire blank (air) shots, it stays on. When I fire frozen eggs, it stays on. When I fire GBs, it blows off. As if it gets pulled off by the GB.

Golf balls deform under acceleration. The barrel should accommodate for that. I don't know exactly how much, though.

Regards
Soren
User avatar
DYI
First Sergeant 5
First Sergeant 5
Antigua & Barbuda
Posts: 2862
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:18 pm
Location: Here and there

Sun May 11, 2008 9:49 pm

I shot a few supersonic golf balls today, but it wasn't out of the kind of thing that you can stand within 100 yards of without risking life and limb. Its barrel was 1.5" SCH 40 ABS inside 3" SCH 40 ABS, with a fiberglass filling between the two layers, giving it very high tensile strength and shock resistance. I got it up to 20x oxy/propane on the last shot.

But as for a proper barrel, the pipe you suggested is certainly the way to go if you have the money. What kind of pressure would you be thinking of generating here?
Spudfiles' resident expert on all things that sail through the air at improbable speeds, trailing an incandescent wake of ionized air, dissociated polymers and metal oxides.
User avatar
Velocity
Sergeant
Sergeant
Posts: 1039
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:42 pm

Sun May 11, 2008 10:04 pm

DYI wrote:I shot a few supersonic golf balls today, but it wasn't out of the kind of thing that you can stand within 100 yards of without risking life and limb. Its barrel was 1.5" SCH 40 ABS inside 3" SCH 40 ABS, with a fiberglass filling between the two layers, giving it very high tensile strength and shock resistance. I got it up to 20x oxy/propane on the last shot.

But as for a proper barrel, the pipe you suggested is certainly the way to go if you have the money. What kind of pressure would you be thinking of generating here?
Details please :shock:
Post Reply