DIY potato cannon using compressed air. DIY potato cannon
Today many people hear about potato cannons. What are they and what are they for? Potato cannon- this is a weapon, and quite long range shooting. You can do it yourself. This article will tell you what devices are needed for this and how the gun works.
Operating principle
A potato cannon is very similar to a firearm, but has less operating pressure. In it, the projectile is also set in motion using a mixture of gases under pressure. Guns can differ in the way they eject the projectile. We will talk about weapons in which the fuel-air mixture ignites.
The gun consists of a combustion chamber, an ignition system and a barrel. To fire a shot, you need to use a ramrod to push the projectile, in our case a potato, into the barrel. Fuel is injected into the combustion chamber. It could be propane or some kind of aerosol. Now it is necessary to activate the ignition system. Typically, a piezoelectric element from a gas lighter is used for this. The mixture ignites and creates hot gases. They expand under the influence high temperature and push the potatoes out of the trunk.
We'll tell you how to make a potato cannon below, but first you need to find out whether such a weapon is legal. Research the laws that apply where you live. In some places, such weapons are prohibited, and their manufacture and possession can be punished.
Once you've verified that potato cannons are legal in your area, you're ready to start making them.
Required accessories
The spare parts that we need to make the gun can be bought at a hardware store. The cost of all parts will be approximately 800-1500 rubles. Thus, a DIY potato cannon will not cost too much.
So, what should you buy? When going to the store, write the following list on a piece of paper:
- Plastic pipe with a diameter of 10 cm, bent at a right angle - 1 pc.
- Plastic pipe with a diameter of 5 cm (1.2 meters) - 1 pc.
- Adapter from 10 to 5 cm - 1 pc.
- Pipe cap with thread - 1 pc.
- Piezoelectric element - 1 pc.
- Sealant - 1-2 packs.
- Aerosol can with butane - 2-3 bottles.
- Potatoes - 1 bag.
Assembling the combustion chamber
When you have purchased everything you need, you are concerned about the question of how to make a potato cannon. Well, let's start in order and make the combustion chamber.
First of all, screw the cap onto the end of the curved pipe, having previously coated the thread with sealant.
We insert a narrow pipe into the adapter. It will play the role of the barrel of our gun. The structure must be straight and have a strong connection.
A small hole should be drilled in the side of the resulting “shoulder”. So we assembled the combustion chamber. The main thing in this work is to choose the optimal size. If it is very short, then the potato will fly out quickly, and if it is long, then the speed of the projectile will slow down.
Insert a piezoelectric element
The piezoelectric element is a necessary thing; without it, the potato cannon will not work. Instructions on how to insert it are given below.
We wrap the piezoelectric element with wire. There should be a small gap between its end and the spark generator.
Now we insert our “spark” into the hole that we drilled in the pipe. We seal the hole with sealant so that there are no gaps left and air cannot penetrate inside.
We screw a self-tapping screw into the chamber to a depth of 1.5 cm. We wind a wire from the piezoelectric element to it from the outside of the chamber. When working, you should use a blue tape to avoid electric shock.
Now let's press the button. If a small spark runs along the wire from the piezoelectric element to the screw, then everything is done correctly.
How to load a gun and fire a shot
Our finished potato cannon needs shells. To charge it, take a potato, put it in the trunk and push it with a ramrod. If you don't have one, you can use a narrow stick. You need to choose a potato of such a size that there is a small gap between it and the trunk.
That's it, the gun is ready for battle. If you decide to shoot with a small gun, it is recommended to place a rag in the barrel. It will prevent the projectile from flying out prematurely, and its flight range will be long.
Now you need to choose a target. You can only aim the gun at a target that is not near people or animals.
Well, are you ready to shoot? Then unscrew the cap and spray the aerosol into the chamber for 5 seconds. Everything needs to be done very quickly. Screw on the cap and press the ignition button. The potatoes flew.
Before the next shot, the gun must be cleaned and the above steps repeated.
Safety rules
Shooting from a potato cannon is quite fun, but do not forget about the safety rules:
- Never point the gun at people or animals. The most suitable place for shooting is considered to be an empty open field.
- The potato cannon is a weapon! It can cause serious injury. It must be used with extreme caution.
- Check out current laws. If such a weapon is illegal, you will face penalties for using it.
- Do not glue gun tubes together. Otherwise, it may explode with a powerful shot.
- There is no need to load the gun unless you intend to fire a shot.
- At very high or low temperatures You cannot shoot potatoes in air. The point is that plastic pipes may become fragile, which poses a danger both to the shooter himself and to those around him.
How to make a mini potato cannon
To make a potato cannon small size, take a plastic bottle with a cap. You will also need a small syringe, a piezo lighter button, a wooden pistol grip, glue, wire and
Making a hole in pistol grip and cut a hole for the piezoelectric element. We install the button and contacts and fix everything with glue.
Use a knife to make two holes in the bottle at a distance of 0.5 cm from each other. We insert the wire from the piezoelectric element into them. When you press the button, a spark should run between the contacts.
Glue the bottle to the wooden handle.
Now we will make a barrel from a syringe. We cut off its upper part and remove the piston.
We make a hole in the bottle cap into which we insert a syringe and fix the structure with glue. The mini potato cannon is ready.
You can shoot small pieces of potatoes or berries from such a weapon.
So, we learned how to make a potato cannon with your own hands. This process requires great care and accuracy. Shooting from a finished cannon should be done very carefully and under no circumstances should the gun be pointed towards people or animals. You can only shoot at inanimate objects.
Potato cannon, in English. - Potato cannon or Potato gun is the favorite pastime of those who love both tinkering and hooliganism, and at the same time want to remain within the law. Probably, the harsh Russian cops will react poorly to such a hobby, but, having successfully originated in America, the potato cannon also successfully spread throughout the world, only in a few countries it was banned.
For such a gun you will need: PVC pipes, which are used in plumbing. Namely - a cover, a coupling, an adapter, a pipe with a diameter of 50 and a tee with a diameter of 110. You also need to have on hand: a hacksaw, a knife, liquid nails, and tape.
Let's get started slowly gather, this unit. On the 110 tee from the end side we attach the roof, first spreading it with glue. On the opposite side, also on the glue, we place the coupling. Having secured the coupling, let the glue dry a little and insert the adapter from 110 to 50 pipe into it. The lid will screw on the side; it does not need to be glued by inertia.
Next we will make the barrel for the potato cannon. Take 2 meters of plastic tube with a diameter of 50 and cut it in half. Cut the second half lengthwise with a knife. Then we put the cut pipe on the whole one. In this way we strengthened the thin pipe of our trunk. Next, we reinforce this trunk with tape. After you have wound 2-3 layers of tape, glue the barrel into the combustion chamber (the part we made first) and go through it with tape again.
After all the plastic parts are assembled, let's start filling. After drilling the holes, screw a screw into the combustion chamber. A spark will jump between it and the wire. A cheap piezo lighter for gas stoves was chosen as a spark source. There are two wires coming from the piezoelectric element, we screw one to the screw, the second at a distance of 5mm from it. We screw the lighter itself to the gun body with tape, leaving the spark button free.
Operating principle and first tests of a potato cannon
We take potatoes slightly larger than the diameter of the trunk and press them into it with force. Next you need to push it further with something. For this purpose, you can make a cleaning rod from ski pole. We push the potatoes to the end of the barrel, but not into the combustion chamber itself. To do this, you can make a notch on the ramrod so that you can see where to push the projectile.Then we take an aerosol can with acetone, unscrew the cap, spray a little into the combustion chamber and close it back. We press the button of the piezo lighter, the explosion of the projectile is pushed out by burning acetone vapors.
Shooting from potato cannons is an idea that has been in the air for a long time, as they say. And she flew to us, different sources, either from overseas, like the potatoes themselves, or from old Europe. No, there are also plenty of Kulibins on Russian soil with domestic bulb guns, but the potato artillery received the format of “mass psychosis” in the West.
“Potato cannon”, “potato gun”, “spud cannon”, “spudzooka”, “kartoffelkanone” - there are a lot of names and varieties of potato cannons and pistols in different languages and countries. In its most common form, the potato cannon is muzzle gun, which is driven by compressed air or due to the energy from the ignition of a mixture of combustible gas and oxygen. Potatoes are most often used as a projectile, which is how the name came about. At the same time, apples, tangerines, tennis balls and other objects that can be put into a cannon are used with the same success in shooting.
The most interesting thing about using a potato gun is the “wow” effect from the shot itself, for which, in fact, everything is started. At a low cost of 1000-1500 rubles, the result is a gun about 1.5 meters long, which can fire at a distance of 5 to 200 meters. Advanced specimens, if you believe the stories of experienced potato shooters, are much more impressive in size and send the vegetable even further - 300 meters. Not only is the range impressive, but so is the shot. You wouldn’t expect such a loud bang from several plumbing fixtures fastened together. The ballistics are also impressive: it is quite difficult to accurately predict in which direction the potatoes will fly.
Potato cannons have gained popularity all over the world due to their simplicity of design. The cannon components can be purchased by visiting your local plumbing supply store. Numerous authors of video tutorials on the Internet tell how to assemble a “potato shooter” or “potato bazooka” in literally half an hour using a PVC drain pipe, a coupling, a revision with a lid, an adapter from a drain to a riser, a plug, a piezoelectric element of a lighter, tape, glue and several screws. Like a construction set that even a child can master, in a few minutes a real cannon with a muzzle, combustion chamber and initiator is assembled. Having filled the chamber with gas, hairspray or toilet freshener, screwed on the lid and pushed the vegetable into the barrel with an improvised ramrod, the shooter uses a piezoelectric element to apply pressure into the combustion chamber - and a shot follows. Yes, such that it is better for those around you to keep their distance - with a close hit on the target, the potato breaks soft-boiled.
If in Russia shooting from potato cannons is mainly regarded as weekend pampering and hooliganism, then in the USA there have long been communities of “potatogainers”. Shooting enthusiasts come from different parts of the country to special shooting ranges and hold competitions, winning cash prizes. The winner is usually chosen based on three criteria - the potato's flight distance, time in the air and accuracy. At the same time, participants are constantly upgrading their guns. There is no limit to the imagination here. The design can be complicated by adding several barrels, automatic charge supply, automatic gas dosing, automatic ventilation of the combustion chamber using a fan, and, ultimately, improvement of the ammunition itself, giving it greater dynamism.
The method of setting the vegetable in motion does not necessarily involve igniting the fuel. The shot can be fired either by compressing air (pneumatic catapults), or by exploding a dry ice bomb or compressing the fuel-air mixture (hybrid gun type). No self-respecting potato shooter can do without accessories: straps for carrying ammunition, handles, cases for potatoes, etc. In many ways, the popularity of potato shooting among Americans is fueled by television. Scenes involving potato shooters and potato-shooting devices appear in films such as Tremors 3, iron man 3”, in the TV series “House”, the cartoon “The Simpsons” and so on.
However, it is worth remembering that if in the USA, where citizens of the country are allowed loose wearing weapons, potato guns are perceived as an innocent hobby, then in Russia, the idea of opening a potato shooting range or organizing the serial sale of potato guns will almost certainly result in problems with the law. As a negative example, we can cite the experience of Germany, where a craze for potato cannons among local teenagers several years ago had to be actively suppressed with the help of the police. The potato cannonade sounded on the outskirts of almost all German cities. Soon the news was full of reports of the first victims. Thus, a teenager from Göttingen lost part of his ear when the chamber exploded when he pulled the trigger. In Bavaria, a 55-year-old woman, walking her dog on the edge of a forest, was seriously injured: a potato shell hit her in the thigh. Another man nearly lost an eye, another shooter was burned by hairspray exploding while refilling, a third suffered broken bones, and so on. As a result, the authorities of most lands decided, out of harm’s way, to equate potato cannons with firearms. Now in Germany the creation and possession of kartoffelkanone is prosecuted by the police. The same ban applies in Austria. So the fears of folk craftsmen regarding the organization of vegetable shooting ranges can be understood. So far, potato cannons in Russia can only be officially seen as exhibits at rare open-air popular science festivals.
Potato cannon
Manufacturing difficulty: ★★★☆☆Production time: Up to two hours
Materials at hand: ████████░░ 80%
One day I noticed a large foam canister in the trash. At that time we were keen on potato cannons and I decided to make myself a small cannon from this balloon, and the brand of foam seemed to hint at making something similar - “Gold Gun”. A muffler was immediately made for the gun, but the article turned out to be too big and I removed the muffler. At the rear of the gun there is a bottle neck with a stopper for purging and refueling. The design turned out to be quite complex, but it can be done absolutely easily at home.
- Large container of polyurethane foam
- Plastic bottle
- Steel wire
- Wires
- Piezo lighter
- Small aerosol can
- PVC water pipe with a diameter of 35 mm and a length of 500 mm
- Hacksaw
- Screwdriver
- Drill
- File
- Self-tapping screws
- Pliers
- Plaster or alabaster
- Sandpaper
- Small nails
- Scotch
- Insulating tape
- Gas stove or industrial hair dryer
We drill holes and screw in screws. Next, insert the neck of the bottle into the hole and fill everything with plaster.
Barrel mount
The barrel of the potato cannon will be removable and can simply be removed from its mount for charging and purging. The mount is a small body aerosol can, the diameter of which is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the trunk. The excess parts are cut off, and an o-ring from the bicycle tube is glued inside
This tube will also be attached to plaster, so you need to insert pieces of steel wire into it crosswise
I decided that this was not enough and resorted to a little trick. A plastic bottle tends to shrink when heated. Let's take advantage of this. A cylinder made from a plastic bottle is put on the barrel mount, overlapping the combustion chamber. Also, part of the bottle should stick out outside the mount
Heat evenly, being careful not to overheat the plastic. Also avoid touching the plastic with an open flame!
The barrel at the point of contact with the mount is sealed with adhesive tape and tape
I advise you to sharpen the edge of the barrel on the outside to make it easier to “cut” vegetables and fruits that the gun shoots
Ignition system
Inside the gun there should be two electrodes at a distance of several millimeters. Our case is metal, this creates small problems. I protected one nail electrode with three layers of heat shrink and glued it into the hole. The second electrode is simply a self-tapping screw screwed into the gun body. Accordingly, the spark from the piezo will be supplied through the wire to the first electrode and through the gun body to the second
We connect and attach the piezo lighter to the body
How to make a small potato cannon
The foam container has a large plastic mount at the very top, you need to get rid of it. Make a few cuts and use pliers to remove it
You can melt plastic with a hot knife
Cut off the neck of any plastic bottle
Drill two holes in it directly above the rim and insert a piece of steel wire into them, bend the ends slightly downwards
In the bottom of the container you need to make a hole the same size as the neck of the bottle. To do this, drill a hole in the center with a drill and widen it with a file.
Don't forget to let all the air out of the balloon before drilling!
The upper part of the can must be opened, the tube and all unnecessary parts must be pulled out and the hole must be widened.
Mounting diagram
Scheme of fastening the neck from the bottle to the cylinder. It turned out a little complicated, but 100% reliable.
The neck is inserted into the hole
1 - Cylinder
2 - Plaster
3 - Neck wire
4 - Bottle neck
5 - Screw or self-tapping screw
Our readers love weapons very much. Among them there are many people who are familiar with first-hand various types weapons: designers, testers, military, as well as those for whom sport shooting, hunting or studying weapons history has become a favorite hobby. However, among those who want to read and talk about weapons, there are also those who have never in their lives held in their hands anything worse than a water pistol. This is, of course, a mess. We decided to arm all loyal PM fans to the teeth. Every month we will tell you how to use available materials with your own hands to create something that shoots far, flies high, burns well and delights those around you with a deafening roar and festive fireworks, having previously tested each recipe for own experience. We decided to start with an artillery weapon that has long become a classic in America and is rapidly gaining popularity all over the world - the potato cannon.
Pressure deficit
The first and, perhaps, the most serious obstacle for us on the path to our own potato cannon was the total lack of construction markets capitals of pressure water pipes made of polyvinyl chloride, the main building material for homemade artillery. The only PVC products that are widely available everywhere are sewer pipes and fittings of any diameters, configurations and even colors. You cannot shoot from them - these pipes and their connections are not strong enough to work under pressure. The nature of the general concern of sellers with sewerage problems while completely ignoring the water supply system remains a mystery to us.
You can find some materials for a potato cannon right in your kitchen. Don't neglect your protective equipment. 1. PVC pressure water pipe 63X1000 mm. 2. PVC pressure water pipe 90X400 mm. 3. Fittings. 4. Piezoelectric lighter. 5. Wires. 6. M4X40 mm screws with nuts (electrodes). 7. Travel cylinder with a propane-butane mixture. 8. Potatoes. 9. Glasses. 10. Gloves. 11. Headphones or earplugs. 12. Respirator. 13. Paint. 14. Purge pump. 15. Carriage of arbitrary design.
In our area, water supply is often laid from metal-plastic or polypropylene pipes. In terms of their properties, they are not inferior to PVC, the only difference is that polypropylene pipes and fittings cannot be glued together; to connect them, you need an expensive welding machine with a whole arsenal of special attachments. Do not fall for the persuasion of sellers who claim that polypropylene can be welded with a lighter. We have seen from our own experience that, even with a powerful gas burner, it is impossible to reliably and evenly connect such pipes, therefore they are not suitable for building a cannon. For the sake of experiment, we made a carriage from polypropylene pipes.
A week-long search led us to a specialized store, where we were able to purchase two three-meter sections of PVC pressure pipes, designed for pressure up to 10 atmospheres, as well as all the necessary fittings. Let's say right away that building a potato cannon requires creative flexibility: the lack necessary materials on sale may dictate serious design deviations from the original design. In particular, based on the available parts, we equipped our gun with a removable barrel, and made the breech part non-removable. This design has an advantage over the traditional one, with a threaded plug at the rear of a non-separable gun: the gun can be loaded from the breech, rather than pushing a projectile through the entire barrel. On the other hand, screwing a heavy barrel into place is more difficult than a small plug. To prevent gas from escaping from the breech during assembly, you need to act very quickly.
Finally, obeying the will of circumstances, our gun turned into a howitzer. Guided by the availability of strictly defined fittings for sale, we purchased pipes with a diameter of 63 and 90 mm (internal diameters 55 and 80 mm, respectively). At the same time, the barrel length turned out to be equal to 18 calibers, which allows us to classify our gun as a howitzer.
Working with light
Along with the pipes, we purchased a special glue for PVC, as well as a solvent necessary for degreasing the surfaces to be glued. To say that these liquids smell bad is an understatement. When working with toxic drugs, you should never neglect a respirator, goggles and gloves: PVC glue causes irritation of the mucous membrane of the eyes and respiratory tract, may cause skin damage if in direct contact. It is better to glue in a well-ventilated area. Otherwise, assembling the potato cannon is very simple. When sawing off the required sections of pipes, you must try to ensure that the cutting angle is as close to straight as possible - then the joints inside the gun will be smooth, which promotes uniform combustion of the mixture.
The ignition system of our gun is based on an ordinary kitchen piezoelectric lighter. This is the most accessible, but also the most capricious type of ignition. Its analogues are mechanical lighters from kerosene lamps, which we have not found on sale, and stun guns, which in themselves are weapons that are dangerous to use. A piezo lighter produces a very weak spark, which is not always enough even to ignite the gas mixture. The reliability of the gun's operation depends entirely on the location and condition of the ignition electrodes.
The second critical factor in the performance of a gun is fuel. First of all, we tried the hairspray recommended in one of the recipes. The heads of the screws screwed into the plug of the breech of the gun acted as electrodes. The tests were carried out in a barbaric way - by vertically installing the breech in the middle of the editorial office and trying to set fire to the gas injected there. The first portion of varnish flew into the air in the form of a large fireball, making a long howling sound. The audience was impressed, and the cannon fired varnish a second time for an encore. But the third time did not happen: after the combustion of the propane-butane base, the unburned part of the strong-hold hairspray was covered with a thick layer inner surface combustion chambers and electrodes. The ignition stopped working, the varnish demonstrated its complete failure as a fuel.
Tests of the deodorant also did not give the desired result. Finally, in a sports store we came across the ideal fuel - a pure propane-butane mixture in cans for a camping burner. Such fuel burns completely without contaminating the electrodes. We were able to achieve truly stable operation of the gun only by sharpening the electrodes for better spark formation and moving them to the center of the combustion chamber. For a weak piezoelectric lighter, sharpening the electrodes and finely adjusting the optimal distance between them is not just desirable, but a vital procedure.
Goodbye potatoes!
Finally, the day came for the first field tests of the potato howitzer. We have installed firing position in a vacant lot, about a hundred meters from the metal fence, to which they hoped to throw a potato. We disassembled the cannon, tightly installed cut potatoes into the barrel special caliber- using a piece of pipe identical to the barrel with sharpened edges (by the way, if you make the gun non-separable, you can sharpen the barrel itself), generously injected gas into the breech, wrapped the barrel, optimistically plugged your ears and pressed the lighter button. “Zilch,” the gun whispered plaintively and sluggishly moved the projectile half a meter down the barrel.
Pink camouflage
Artillery gun is a complex engineering structure designed to decide the destinies of people. Of course, it should not look like an extra part from the sewer system. Decorating a cannon, giving it a look that inspires fear and awe, is a mandatory stage of construction, similar in emotional intensity to painting a hot rod. Mindful of spring holiday, we dedicate our creation lovely ladies. Meet "Barbie from Hell", the most formidable weapon emancipation in the spring/summer 2008 season! A lacquered pink cannon on a gold carriage will make you stunning, both figuratively and literally!
It was all about the quality of the mixture. The combustion of gas requires oxygen, which is contained in the air. Only a flammable mixture with the optimal gas to air ratio can ignite. The situation was getting more complicated cold weather(it was -50C outside), at which gases mix less well. Our personal experience showed that for a good shot, a second press on the button of the spray can is enough. After each salvo, the combustion chamber of the gun must be purged to remove combustion products and refill the chamber with air. For purging, we specially took with us a pump with a long hose.
IN printed edition It is impossible to quote the comments with which we saw off the potatoes flying across the sky far beyond the fence, into the unknown. According to our estimates, the shell flew at least 200-250 m. Judging by the lack of response comments, nothing vital was happening behind the fence, and we did not deny ourselves the pleasure of firing a few more volleys. Therefore, we consider the above scheme to be fully operational and confidently recommend it to readers! We ourselves sit down to design an advanced gun with dosed fuel injection, multi-point ignition, forced ventilation of the combustion chamber, a quick reload system and a muffler, in order to talk about it in one of the future issues of the magazine.