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Possible Ignition Source

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:34 pm
by spudzinger
Hey, I just had a brain fart.LOL. Excuse me.Anyways I thought maybe you could use a standard small engine spark plug. Like one from a lawn mower. You could either use it with a capacitor,a piezo sparker, or with the original magneto setup from a lawn mower engine, which you could power with say a vacuum motor.Has anyone ever tried this before? Info would be appreciated greatly.

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:41 pm
by evileye250
i just just thinking the same thing as i was looking at a spark plug. just like 10 minutes ago. i would do it but i wouldnt know how to get it to spark.

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 7:17 pm
by jrrdw
to get a spark plug to spark you need a 12 volt coil and a 12 volt battery

you charge the coil with the 12 volt battery, then you collaps the field,(disconnect the power supply), this makes current flow to the primary side,)plug lead/wire and causes the plug to spark, but a spark plug is designed to work with the propertys of gasoline/air mix, not hair spray, butane, rightgaurd ect.....

the spark plug may not perform as well with the different fuel

if you try it and use a ford coil, or any other round coil so you can mount it to your cannon


TECH TIP---make your spark plug leed as short as possible, (less voltage drop)

SAFTY TIP----a dischargeing coil can cut your thumb in half, ask my friend billy, a poniac sunbyrd got half his thumb

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:06 pm
by Atlantis
Capacitors are safer than coils, they might make your hand numb, but they don't turn into a thumb arc cuttter.

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 4:20 pm
by boilingleadbath
"you need a coil to get a spark with a sparkplug"
No you don't. Many people use stunguns, and you could probably use a peizo-electric sparker.

Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:17 am
by spudzinger
Nice Ideas. But my original idea was just to use the hand pulled magneto setup, straight from the mower. You could just pull it or you could use something like a vacuum motor to spin it real fast, to get a nice rapid spark.

Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:40 am
by The High Plainsman
if you pull a spark plug out of a mower and leave it attached to the magnetic stuff and the pull string, i see no reason it wouldnt spark.