my rather large cannon

[hi]

this is by far the largest cannon i have built. i built it about a year ago. i think it is my third cannon.

this was originally posted on spudtech here at

http://www.spudfiles.com/spudtech_archi ... hp?t=15811



it has a about a 16 foot barrel at 45 degrees. it just uses a ball valve, but dont let it fool you, with the barrel as long as it is the cannon is incredibly powerful. the barrel is 1.5'' pvc and the chamber is 2'' pvc. if were to take all the pipe from the chamber and make it into one long pipe it would be about 20 feet long. so thats about a 2:1 C:B ratio ( no i didnt do the math, its just a guess), so its a big waste of power, i know.

i did build a piston valve for it and that made it even more powerful, but after about 10 shots or so the valve broke. i didnt have a bumper in the piston valve so it shattered. so its back to the ball valve with this thing. its still very fun to shoot and is a interesting conversation piece.

let me know what you think. keep in mind its aver a year old and i dont intend to change it, this is one of my "beginner spudguns". its litterally my second or third pneumatic.

ps- if you look at the original post at spudtech you will see that i originally claimed 3/4 miles with it, this is totally false. at the time i really did beleive i got it 3/4 mile, but when i accually messured it it wasnt much more than 1/4 mile.

questions or comments welcome.

[Hubb]

What do you shoot out of this thing? Satellites?

That thing is massive.

[paaiyan]

1/4 mile is still something to be proud of. That is quite a large cannon indeed. I agree with hubb, I think he shoots sputnik's descendants.

[hi]

you ever wonder why the hubble doesnt focus properly? just kidding...

thanks for the comments. it really is a cool cannon, no matter how much duck tape is on there. you cant see it, but the duct tape is there because the only way i could make the barrel ridgid was to put some aluminum tubing on the out side. it doesnt bend as much now.

what really inspired me to build it though was the SWAT gun here on spudfiles. i wanted one, but at the time didnt understand piton valves, so a ball valve it was.

[f.c]

i love it. its just so big it has to be powerful. id love to see it in action.

[Novacastrian]

Many people would not go to the trouble to build this, i think that it deserves the "passion" award

[hi]

lol thanks nova... it only took a couple days and a little can do attitude.

you know whats really funny is that i pretty much built the entire thing in home depot and pretty much everyone that passed said something along the lines of "what the hell is that thing kid?" i simply said "its a launcher" then continued ( i try not to use the word "cannon" in the pipe section). when i was done i took it apart and payed for it, then re-built it at home.

[potatoflinger]

That's a cool cannon. I also build my launchers in the store, just to make sure I don't forget anything.

[dauphinoise potato]

that is rather large.

[hi]

that is rather large.

the tip of the barrel is about 11 feet off the ground. i cant even set it up in the garage in the back ground, and it has a 10 foot ceiling...

[joannaardway]

I also build my launchers in the store, just to make sure I don't forget anything.

Me too. Although I sometimes just build them in my head instead.

[dauphinoise potato]

If I had that gun I'd upgrade that to a piston and have the barrel flat and make a stand that you can swivel up down and around...I wonder what that could do to some plywood.

[SpudUke5]

i plan on making more air cannons and my first one i built used a 3/4 inch sprinkler vavle and it didnt work so now i had to use a ball valve and it works just fine. But i am looking for more power and i want to build another cannon, one with a piston valve, and then maybe a homeade diaphragm valve but anyway if you have instructions on how i can make a piston valve and what i need to make it that would be cool. Awesome cannon though.