My second combustion cannon

Boom! The classic potato gun harnesses the combustion of flammable vapor. Show us your combustion spud gun and discuss fuels, ratios, safety, ignition systems, tools, and more.
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Jose Arcadio Buendia
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Thu Dec 26, 2013 1:20 pm

This is my second combustion cannon:
Update:
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I bought some pipe and made barrel extension; I sanded down the division in the coupling so there would be no space between the two pipes. It has now a 3ft barrel and a 0.75 C:B ratio.
Here is a damage picture using a PVC dart against a 1/4" pine board:
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It is made from sch 40 PVC. The chamber is 6.357" of 2" pipe and the barrel 13" of 1" pipe. The C:B ratio is 2.76:1; it is not very good since I made the barrel from a small scrap piece of pipe I had. The cannon has a 1.5" computer fan that I power with a 9v battery. It has a BBQ piezoelectric lighter ignition.
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Those are the fuels I use. Either metered butane from lighters with a syringe (I use 11mL of butane) or one pump of 99.8% isopropyl alcohol from a nasal spray bottle works very well. After combustion using the alcohol there is not residue or liquid on the chamber since it all evaporates. With the butane I get very consistent shots; it rarely misfires. I can't say about the alcohol since I mostly use the metered butane.
Last edited by Jose Arcadio Buendia on Tue Dec 31, 2013 9:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
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jrrdw
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Fri Dec 27, 2013 4:51 am

How did you attach the fan to the plug?
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jackssmirkingrevenge
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Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:57 am

jrrdw wrote:How did you attach the fan to the plug?
Looks like tubes wedged into the cap.

Syringe fuelling FTW!
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
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Jose Arcadio Buendia
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Fri Dec 27, 2013 8:47 am

jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:
jrrdw wrote:How did you attach the fan to the plug?
Looks like tubes wedged into the cap.
It is pieces of tube from a windex bottle. I wrapped some tape around them so they would fit snugly on the cap
jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:
Syringe fuelling FTW!
Yes, who needs those fancy propane tanks and reliable metering systems attached to their cannon :lol: .
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