SpudFiles

Davidvaini advised me to make a research paper about the safety of spudguns, how ironic that may be.
So in my quest, I am going to start by asking about your past spudding incidents. So A few questions:
How many incidents have you had?
How did these incidents come to pass?
Was their any damage?
How was the damage repaired?

I would appreciate this feed back, as when i get it, I may soon become a true member of the spudding community.

Search first, there is already a thread about this.

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/launche ... t7483.html link'd

Firstly, you'll become a member of the spudding community when you actually build a spudgun

1. As far as I can remember, ten.

2.

_1. The classic beginner's mistake, I looked into the chamber of my first spudgun to see if it was sparking, removing quite a bit of my hair.

_2.My oxy/MAPP gun's cleanout cap blew out (big surprise there ). Safety shield worked, but had to be replaced after it, as the cap gouged out a 4" circle of it.

_3.To date, my worst incident: After I fixed the leaks on my oxy/MAPP gun, essentially turning it into a hybrid, I had this brilliant idea to test it in my front yard with no barrel. Ignition finally worked, and the cleanout cap failed again - this time ricocheting off a concrete wall and being stopped by my face. I had a mild concussion from the local pressure spike (my head was about a foot away from the failure point) and some bruising and cuts from the cap, but nothing serious. The launcher was retired after that.

_4.During the testing of a steel steam cannon (never posted, as it took 50 minutes to pressurise), I slipped slightly and touched the 500 degree steel pipe to my leg. A 1-1/4" malleable iron elbow shaped 2nd degree burn on my left calf was the result.

_5.The same steam gun experienced a rapid pressure spike (cause still undetermined) to several hundred psi. The burst Bourdon tube in the gauge and the failed valve seal likely prevented a catastrophic failure.

_6.While using a dangerously thin target (1.5" MDF) with a very solid projectile fired from the SCTBDC v1.2 at 160psi, I put a clean hole through a garbage bin inside my shed, and an 8" deep crater in the rather overbuilt rear wall.

_7.On the shot I fired from the SCTBDC v1.5 at 500psi from a 75mm barrel for my contest video, the gun kicked hard enough to splinter its stand beyond repair, which left a 75 pound mass hurtling backwards towards my dad, with predictable results. On that same shot, the 35lb steel armour on the target was carried back far enough to hit my shed, about 15 feet behind it.

_8.Valve-barrel connection on the SCTBDC v1.6 ripped apart from recoil, ruining the shot.

_9.Filling nipple on the SCTBDC v1.6 was sheared off when the launcher recoiled into a large steel bar.

_10.My "Hybrid1"'s barrel experienced a catastrophic failure at 4x oxy/propane.

3.

_1. Except to my eyebrows, no.
_2. Yes - mostly to the filling rig.
_3. Yes. Dent in concrete wall where plug hit, ignition system totalled, end plug destroyed.
_4. No
_5. Yes. Firing valve, pressure gauge.
_6. Yes. Shed wall, garbage bin.
_7. Yes. Stand completely destroyed.
_8. Yes. Steel - ABS transition destroyed.
_9. Yes. Bushing and nipple unusable.
_10. Yes. First 16" of barrel destroyed.

4.

_1. No damage
_2. Made better filling rig more sturdily attached, bought new endplug.
_3. No repairs. Launcher was decomissioned and recycled for parts. It still exists as a spray'n'pray.
_4. No damage
_5. No repairs, as loading time wasn't worth it.
_6. Bought new garbage bin, left hole as it was
_7. Eventually built new, extremely sturdy stand, in hopes that one day the SCTBDC would be restored to its full glory. Still have to add wheels and gas bottle/ammo holders.
_8. Replaced connection, wrapped it in lots of fiberglass.
_9. Repaired with available parts, made shorter.
_10. Decomissioned launcher, as the fix would be too expensive, and it was awkward to transport.

Any hints as to what this is for?

He does a research on spudgun safety, and will then show to his parents he knows what he's doing, and hopefully will get approval to make a gun.

I've had 3 accidents, mostly of stupidity:
-After upgrading my combustion with double ignition and a chamber fan, the spud didnt splatter against the sheet of plywood. Instead, the spud went straight through the plywood AND the door of the shack behind it.
My dad was impressed of the power and just fixed the door without complaining.

-After completing my first pneumatic launcher, the back of the piston shattered on the first shot (about 30 psi). This was because I thought "ill make that bumper later" I replaced the back of the piston (which was just a sanded down pvc endcap). Luckely I didnt glue the piston together yet.

-I once stored my combustion cannon fueled after it didn't fire due to an heavy over fueling. One week later, I pressed the igniter and BOOM!
The only damage was that the air pressure ripped a piece of paper that was against the wall to shreds. From now on I always vent out my cannon after using, and store it without the endcap on. Click to read the whole story.

1.) so far only 1

2.) decided to build a large pneumatic piston valve out of DWV and pressurize it to 115 psi

3.) The valve ripped into pieces shooting shrapnel everywhere. we found pieces like 100 yards away. Lucky no one was injured, just a few bumps and bruises.

4.) Tore down and removed all non-pressure rated pipe redesigned the valve and over engineered everything to create our new cannon "Coagulation"

I havnt had many accidents as i am quite safety concious.

One i have had though was using my 1/8" bb gun (blowgun attached to 40cm of tent pole that shot 1/8" metal bbs). I decided it would be a really good idea to kill a spider with it..the spider was on a window

shattered the window (glass sliding door).

(few beers helped with this BTW)

Nothing major. The only incident was with my first PVC Aquanet spray n pray back in the 90s....the cleanout cap had not been screwed in very tightly and blew out rearward hurting nothing. However, a fairly healthy flame from the unburnt [too much originally sprayed in] hairspray then leapt from the opened chamber....giving me a good scare.

I'm pretty safety conscious when operating these things. I've actually had more incidents in the shop while building them, skin barked up on the disk sander, work getting caught in the drill press, parts flying rearward from the table saw, etc., than while operating them.

nothing have happened to me.. i have just got some zaps from ignition systems.

before i started to be active on spudfiles i built guns out of DWV but when i read and write here i just crapped all the plastic guns and all the steel and copper mayhem was born.

You'll have to find the thread linked to you above, no sense in another one.