SpudFiles

im going to try and put a parachute on a peice of ammo, its a 5in piece of 3/4" pvc filled with water and capped off

i was thinking of making the shute out of a big garbage bag, i have 2 questions about the bag:

1. would garbage bag work or would it be to heavey? if so what should i use?
2.how big in diameter should i make the chute?

well since i got no help on this i just winged it and it turned out really good its fun to shoot or just throw the parachute is 3' in dia. my camera isnt here atm but i will post pics of it asap

How does that work? Wouldn't the parachute just open right away and stop the projectile from going very far?

sorry it took so long for me to get the pics but i didnt have acess to a camera for a while

no it doesnt open up right when shot or thrown it goes and comes down about 5-10' before it opens

and heres the pics:

Very nice, I'm going to make a smaller version for my gun, I'll tell you how it turns out.

sweet cant wait to see how a smaller version turns out

I made one with a pencil for the body, blu tac wrapped in electrical tape weighting the front. I used a chute about 30cm x 30cm made of bin bag, fishing line strings, and a cable tie attaching it to the pencil.
Pretty mediocre height, the lines started to unravel just after apogee, proving that it should work with a few tweaks. The problems started after the parachute lines unraveled. Due to the light weight of the projectile, it never got enough speed to 'pop' the chute open. I may try it with a thinner, more flexible plastic. Any ideas?

I would love to see a larger version fired from schmanmans S.W.A.T gun

Or, a toothpick, cotton thread and a tiny piece of glad wrap. Somone with a working mini pill bottle gun should try this, because I took mine apart and i don't feel like reassemling it.

you could also try adding weight to the pencil or using something heavier, as for the chute i dont know anything off the top of my head that would be thinner

and it would be sweet to see a larger version shot out of the S.W.A.T gun

Thats cool. I'm just wondering, is that a Les Paul, Fender p-bass and a fender bass amp in the backround???

Well I made another smaller version, weight was an old shrader, the shaft was a part off a sprinkler system, and the chute was smaller to try and helf it open. It was a total failure, not sure what went wrong but I think it opened like a second after leaving the barrel, and the strings came off a few of the corners. I didn't manage to find it again so I can't be sure on why it didn't work.

Bluetooth wrote:Thats cool. I'm just wondering, is that a Les Paul, Fender p-bass and a fender bass amp in the backround???

yes to all of that the guitar is mine, the amp and bass in pic is my bros, i have 2 amps for guitar a 15w crate, 50w peavey (i think its 50) and im going to buy a 100 maybe 200w peavey when i get the money


EDIT: insomniac how long are the strings on your chute? try making the strings:chute ratio 2:3 that seems to work best for me (i failed several times before i came up with this) or it could need more weight cuz im not sure how much that weighs

or its possible the problem is the way you load it, heres i prepare mine:

grab the very center of the chute so it falls into a cone shape the just squeeze it and get it as skinny as you can then fold the tip of the chute to the bottom of it and squeeze again the wrap the strings as tight as you can around the bottom of it (where the top meets the bottom) and then fold it over next to the load or put in front or behind the load to shoot, try different things and see wat works best with that size ammo

Heres my version of this. If you make slits up the side of the chute it exposes more surface area and causes more drag.

How well does yours work professor amadeus?
I can't really experiment that much, I live in a city and i lose it after each shot. I might make one with an aa battery and go to a deserted field to shoot it.

Deko wrote: and it would be sweet to see a larger version shot out of the S.W.A.T gun

ok, that is on my to-do list for the spring.

I will use one of the extra large heavy duty black ones, and a caulk tube as the weight. I will also videotape it, and count the hang time.