I'm next to useless on your safety calculations but I have been toying with that method of sealing tubes.

Very elegant design. Do you have to seal where the threaded rod comes through?

edit, I think 2 by #10 threaded rod might be your weak link and the mode of failure, um, hazardous

I like the proportions and the paint

Yes, you might be able to pin or bolt it together, and use the hot melt for sealing. If the piston needs maintenance (all of mine eventually did) then you pull the pins and warm it up to take it apart. Threaded connection is better but it depends what you have to work with. Or glue it and hope you d...

i promised never to seal up a piston with glue again...

can you hot glue and pin the endcap?

good luck!

Well, I learned a lot from your project, and at least you have the valve and variable volume chamber for more experiments!

interesting stock! like.

SOme people look down on the spring actuated ball valve, but while they are wondering why their piston doesn't seal today or why the buffer is disintegrated or the seal shot downrange, you can actually be shooting your ball valver!

ummm I have 2 questions as it's been decades since I took physics...

1: how does this figure air resistance?

2: how do I get the projectile to come straight-ish down? I rarely get that to happen with a paintball gun (lying on my back with goggles on, grinning) despite many attempts

I've had the same problem more than twice... Use softer barrel sealing material? Might not last as long but has taken my launchers from "doesn't fill or only fills with rapid air" to "works" FIll with air faster? Wrap with some tape just to see if the pilot pressure will seat the valve better? Annoy...

thanks shiddymonkey, that clears a lot up for me, I initially thought your chamber was just a fitting to go over your valve outlet... I think we will see more of these... in fact every cannon with interchangeable barrel should have one! Better yet the "propellants that shall not be named" can be use...

I think he means the pressure in the chamber is low. Don't most markers use a high-low pressure system? All mine do... with their frustratingly tiny valves. 800 psi would blast a hole through a paintball instantly I thought. Oh and awesome toroidal vortex launcher btw! Let's see some smoke! I tried ...

I hear you, but I don't mean to suggest that we should be building a 4" piston valve rated to 5000 psi. Basically I'm suggesting that instead of building large valves rated to low pressure, build a small valve rated to high pressure. Instead of building high volume pumps at low pressure, build a hig...

Awesome, and I love the boba fett finish...

I did the "hole in the box" toroidal vortex gun using a big coffee can, complete with wood shoulder stock, but did did not get 30' range. Rings were very slow. Did anyone figure out how the Mattel sonic blaster worked? It could have a long cone in the the main tube. Has anyone tried putting a cone o...

might run into issues with air at those pressures! ...but I've been pondering, if high pressure low volume is efficient, why don't we use it? Instead of building large pressure vessels for 100 to 800 psi, why not tiny pressure vessels for 5000psi? Tiny pressure vessels, tiny valves, less material, a...

This is exciting!

BTW JSR that thread you linked to was EPIC