I have been using PVC potato cannon for about 2 years and I decided I wanted to make it shoot further. I use a grill igniter/spark plug wired up to 2 screws inside the combustion chamber to ignite the hairspray. One way I knew would make it shoot further was to wire a certain way with more screws to make it spark in different locations in the combustion chamber so the hairspray will burn faster. Does anyone know how effective this will be? And is adding multiple sparks safe to do because it increases the pressure and I don't want the combustion chamber to explode.
Re: Adding Multiple Sparks In Combustion Chamber
Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 10:33 am
by jackssmirkingrevenge
Welcome to the forum!
Multiple spark gaps will give you a marginal increase in power, but nothing that will really be perceptible.
The best way to consistently increase power is to stop using hairspray and properly meter Propane or MAPP gas.
I have been using PVC potato cannon for about 2 years and I decided I wanted to make it shoot further. I use a grill igniter/spark plug wired up to 2 screws inside the combustion chamber to ignite the hairspray. One way I knew would make it shoot further was to wire a certain way with more screws to make it spark in different locations in the combustion chamber so the hairspray will burn faster. Does anyone know how effective this will be? And is adding multiple sparks safe to do because it increases the pressure and I don't want the combustion chamber to explode.
In a hairspray cannon, it has been shown by a youtube channel called smartereveryday that adding two sparks to a hair spray cannon doesn't help anything. In a metered propane cannon with a chamber fan, it has been shown that adding a second spark increases performance by only a small amount. The biggest performance gain comes from adding a chamber fan and measuring the fuel accurately. I think I got all that right.
Re: Adding Multiple Sparks In Combustion Chamber
Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 12:28 am
by jimmy101
What Jack said.
Plus, more than one spark increases the spark gap, that means the gaps need to be smaller if you are going to use the BBQ piezo.
For what it's worth, my big gun used conductive copper tape made into strips, but then again I used two stun guns for ignition. It made a noticable difference.