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Wrapping gun in tape reduce shrapnel?

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:50 am
by nabu92
I was wondering if I wrapped my gun in duct tape and it explodes, would the shrapnel be held together, or would the explosion be bigger and worse. Is wrapping your gun in tape a good idea? Thanks for your time.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:58 am
by MrCrowley
No, waste of tape. Wont do a thing.

Just get pressure rated pipe and stay under the pressure rating.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:59 am
by Pilgrimman
It certainly wouldn't make things worse (as far as I know), but it wouldn't help at all. You'd be best off just taking general shooting precautions, i.e. wear safety gear, and treat the gun like a real firearm. :D

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:48 am
by TheTrooper
I heard from someone on here that the shrapnel won't even pierce flesh, is this true?

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:36 am
by BigGrib
Why don't you go ahead and try it and let us know how it turns out? Or you could use ballistics gel.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:55 am
by SpudFarm
the only thing getting worse of tape is the cannons look :)

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:05 am
by TurboSuper
If you're that worried about it make it out of pressure rated-pipe, or if it's a combustion use DWV ABS. You can usually get away with DWV PVC in a simple combustion too, but not so much with a pneumatic.

I remember I asked the same question when I built my gun...

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:52 am
by SPG
It'll give you nice tape coloured shrapnel I suppose.

I remember there was huge amounts of discussion on this on the old spudtech forum, with ideas from tape to old jeans, and I don't think anyone came up with something that would work apart from just using proper pressure rated gear.

I've always wondered about engineering in a weakspot, something like a burst disc in the chamber, so that if anything did go wrong, that's where it would fail.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:43 am
by jackssmirkingrevenge
care to volunteer for this test? :D

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:20 am
by Carlman
talking of wrapping pipe in supposed pvc shrapnel material, i might be able to get a hold of some chain male 'sheets'. Basically its made of small link steel chain and if it can protect a knight from a sword blade surely it can stop pvc one would think. This is not definite but just thought id put it out there.

Now back to the tape i do not believe it works at all :D

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:06 am
by Hotwired
TheTrooper wrote:I heard from someone on here that the shrapnel won't even pierce flesh, is this true?
Load up a cannon with some pvc shards and blast it at yourself.

Penetration will depend on how said shards hit, their mass (which may be linked to the pipe type and size) but you'd regret it enourmously if you even could after that.

Also note that PVC shards won't be picked up on an x-ray.



Chain mail would be pretty interesting, if its tough enough to hold against half a cannon blowing into it it would make a nice cannon cosy :)

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:15 am
by jackssmirkingrevenge
Hotwired wrote:Penetration will depend on how said shards hit, their mass (which may be linked to the pipe type and size) but you'd regret it enourmously if you even could after that.
That was why I proposed the test mentioned earlier, to get an idea of the sort of velocities the fragments would generate and be able to replicate them by firing saboted shards out of a launcher and seeing how they perform in ballistic gel.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:18 am
by pizlo
If you sleeved your gun with sch80 pvc I doubt the initial burst could shatter that as well. Or build your gun out of steel.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:07 pm
by nabu92
I have a combustion cannon, so I dont know about the pressure, but I am using pressure rated pvc. I just wanted to know if I could make it any safer than it already is. Thanks guys.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:33 pm
by BC Pneumatics
PVC fragments will do a number on your flesh, I know from experience. A 3/4"x1/2" scar still marks the spot on my arm where I exposed an artery with a piece of 2" thinwall about 4 years ago. Whether or not a fragmenting chamber will accelerate the PVC fast enough to do this I don't know, but I seriously think it would.

Also, PVC shows up on x-rays, there was a post some time back where someone tried to replace bones with a PVC skeleton or something? I'm sure someone out there remembers more of the details.