Great video testing spud gun failure/safety (ThebackyardScientist)

Potatoes last one shot, so build reusable! Discuss ammo designs and ideas. Tough to find cannon part or questions? Ask here!
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Moonbogg
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Mon Jul 25, 2022 9:36 pm



Great video. He tested hydro testing to failure with PVC and it has enough POP to hurt someone for sure. Not sure if there was air in the line behind the water, but an interesting result. Lots of cool PVC failure testing specifically with spud guns in mind.
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mrfoo
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Tue Jul 26, 2022 12:56 pm

Moonbogg wrote:
Mon Jul 25, 2022 9:36 pm
Not sure if there was air in the line behind the water, but an interesting result.
Definitely, he was pressurising with gas. So there was all the stored pressure of the gas in the line to deal with. Best way to do it is with a grease gun, they go up to stupid pressures (I've done hydroforming with a grease gun).
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Fri Jul 29, 2022 4:45 am

I remember proposing this sort of test a long time ago :D

That was very fun to watch, I'm amazed by how much pressure it took to actually burst a lot of the PVC, although that of course is no endorsement to exceed the working pressures recommended by the manufacturers.

It also makes the point that even at these ridiculous pressures PVC fragmentation is relatively low velocity and low density, so one would need to be exceedingly unfortunate to be significantly injured by it. It seems like the overpressure would be a greater risk to one's health. Some ballistic gel and pressure meters would have been an interesting addition to the experiment.
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Moonbogg
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Fri Jul 29, 2022 3:04 pm

Watching a piece of 3" PVC hold until 1000psi+ makes me wonder what it would take to cause my aluminum cannon to burst. I'm starting to think 3.5X combustions just might not have the energy to cause that thing to come apart.
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Fri Aug 05, 2022 7:27 am

Moonbogg wrote:
Fri Jul 29, 2022 3:04 pm
Watching a piece of 3" PVC hold until 1000psi+ makes me wonder what it would take to cause my aluminum cannon to burst. I'm starting to think 3.5X combustions just might not have the energy to cause that thing to come apart.
Possibly it will never be destroyed, if you do not abuse the pressure in the shot 8-)
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