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Dodgeball cannon??? Need help!

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:11 pm
by eastoff
I'm trying to build a dodgeball combustion cannon. Before I spend tons of money experimenting, I wanted to know if anyone had any advice (or links to a post that addresses the issues, since I couldn't find any).

I'm looking to launch 6" dodgeballs at targets (for a pirate themed game night) but not sure how to do that since I can't get pipe bigger than 6" for the chamber, meaning the chamber and barrel would be the same size. Can I just take a 6' length of 6" pvc and make the back half the combustion chamber, or is the reducer (that I see in every design) necessary so I would need to reduce it and then increase it back up?

Will a chamber that big be too difficult to get the right fuel to air ratio?

I'm trying to stick with combustion so I can keep the pirate cannon look rather than a pneumatic design. And I don't need it to go super fast, jus the length of a gym.

Any help or advice, or directing to the right sources or sites would be greatly helpful, I can't find anything anywhere. I find it hard to believe no one has tackled this before.

Thanks

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:13 pm
by JDP12
it won't be difficult... but it will be extremely expensive. take a look at the basketball combustion cannon in the combustion showcase.

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:22 pm
by biggsauce
If you have the pipe already, it really won't be that bad. Find an economical way to cap one end and use a solid piece of pipe as your chamber and barrel. Using an arosol might be tricky to get right, but a propane metering system isn't hard to setup and is explained at length on here. A camber fan is something you should look into also, since your chamber is so large.

Hope this helps