HEAL 320psi 20mm copper cannon (now with damage videos)

[DYI]

The topic for the burst disk cannon will likely never even approach this length. Beautiful handheld cannons that are works of DIY art will always be more popular than 17 foot long 200lb monstrosities, even the really unique ones. If a gun has impressive specs though, it is always a good idea to flaunt them in the title. (i.e. " SCTBDCv1.5 - 450 psi 75mm steel cannon)

I expect that your next cannon will be even more innovative than this one, and I really do hope that the helium idea works. Other than a massive excess of power and crazy high pressures, low density gases are really the only surefire way of achieving consistent supersonic muzzle velocities with a pneumatic.

[Ragnarok]

Well, the innovation entirely depends on what design I go for my next launcher.

I might just be boring and create a metered propane cannon - I've never done an "advanced" combustion. I have some ideas about messing around firing water balloons into the air and shooting them down "clay pigeon" style with HEAL.

Or I may use the plans for the auto combustion, but that's going to need a larger budget.

[POLAND_SPUD]

Why do you want to improve HEAL's performance? seems ok as it is.....
don't get me wrong but there would always be someone who will build a more powerful spudgun than yours.Why don't you try to improve something else? Like accuracy or try to make it semi or auto? might be easier to do than building new gun from the scratch and makes more sense than spending XXXX of $ to increase muzzle energy by 20%

(sorry for my poor english)

[mopherman]

Why do you want to improve HEAL's performance? seems ok as it is.....
don't get me wrong but there would always be someone who will build a more powerful spudgun than yours.Why don't you try to improve something else? Like accuracy or try to make it semi or auto? might be easier to do than building new gun from the scratch and makes more sense than spending XXXX of $ to increase muzzle energy by 20%

(sorry for my poor english)

I would be thrilled at a 20% energy increase. who wouldnt want to upgrade their spudgun? You make it sound like a competition.

[Hawkeye]

The bottom line is that it's still just a piston valve gun like many others on here. The power increase gets less apparent as you start to get to 1000 fps.
I agree that repeatability and some sort of magazine would make it much more interesting.
I would love to see a repeating piston gun that delivered five good shots at even 500 fps with say, a marble.
Rag did have some interesting plans for something more dramatic. I'm not sure what happened to them.
This one was still nicely done though.

[POLAND_SPUD]

it's good to improve performance but to some point... after reaching that point it is like ->>> 20% more power = 40% bigger gun, 100% slower/more difficult to operate and 150% more money spent on it....

HEAL is really nice, well designed and build - it is portable, looks like a 'real' firearm ( well at least than most PCV-bigbore spudguns here ) and is powerfull... in my opinion improving it's rate of fire or accuracy makes more sense than turning it into an unwieldy stationary gun just to get 40 or 50% more power...

[Ragnarok]

I have some good plans to make it semi-auto...
It may need machined parts to do the conversion though, and that can't be done for a while - cost and finding a machinist that can meet my requirements near me make it difficult.

Saying that there will always be a more powerful spudgun is quite clear - a larger bore and longer barrel is an easy solution to beating HEAL's kinetic energy.
But it's not about just high KE - it's about getting as much KE out of a small launcher as is possible - HEAL is not competing with other cannons, it's competing with itself.

20% more energy is a huge improvement on that. And for that, HEAL does not need to become bigger, and the changes will actually increase ROF, making it easier to operate. Most of the changes to HEAL itself are small game, the big part of the job is the modified compressor that I'll need for a later project anyway (a compressor that can churn out 360 psi has many uses)

HEAL's accuracy is also being worked on - it's good already, but it can be improved. Also, higher velocity helps accuracy, so I'm not working just on power. I'll do some nice quantification of the accuracy in the next video.

I do have some more "dramatic" plans, but a lot of those will need to wait, because a majority of them need machined components.
Right now, I'm tired, but I may talk about my automatic combustion plans tomorrow if I can be bothered to create drawings.

I have a lot of design capacity, but a lot of it is hard for me to make. It makes me wonder what could be be created if you could get some of the world's top spudders (and me - I don't want to be left out) together in a machine shop for a week.

[SpudBlaster15]

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[Ragnarok]

I particularly liked the scene in which the potato was obliterated by the paintball.

I have to admit that's my favourite too.
Maybe I'll try something with a whole melon for the next video, after I've converted it for even more pressure.

[Ragnarok]

Ok, talking about HEAL's changes.

I've been searching for scopes, and based on a tip I got, I've found a store that will sell and ship me a nice little 3-9x40 mildot scope with a 1 piece high mount I should be able to fit to HEAL in some manner - and for just over £40 with delivery.
The scope itself gets consistently good reviews as being a stunningly good scope worth many times it's typical price (without mounts) of £40-60- if it's good enough for an accurate rifle, it'll be more than enough for HEAL. The thing is listed as coping with recoil nicely, so that's me happy.

The compressor set-up will probably have to wait, it's going to be a lot of work to make, and I don't fancy long hours working in the garden in mid December in a short sleeved shirt (long sleeves and blowtorches shouldn't be mixed). The next video will probably still be done on the custom pump, probably with improvements.

I'm also going to sort out a few other things, but I'll reveal those later.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

It will be interesting to see what sort of group sizes you get, do keep us informed

[Ragnarok]

Bloody hell, that was a quick response.

I plan on using my mystical equation to work out the MOA, and I'll be trying to sort a new muzzle porting attachment to improve accuracy. What I'll use as a projectile will be the real choice.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

What sort of range did you have in mind?

[Ragnarok]

Maybe 20 to 30 metres - that's all my shooting range/back garden can really be used for.

I may still get the compressor, just not modify it - that will only give me 8 bar, but that's plenty for low power target shooting. If I'm going for accuracy, then constant pumping does sort of make it more difficult to stay in the zone.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

That sounds reasonable enough, if you pump to a constant pressure and use ammunition of a consistent shape and size that fits tightly in the barrel, I would easily expect all shots to fall within a 2 inch radius.