True Semi
- PCGUY
- Owner
- Posts: 1436
- Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 10:54 pm
- Location: Illinois
- Has thanked: 2 times
- Been thanked: 26 times
- Contact:
<div align="center">TRUE SEMI
Provided By Mr.Plow - <a href="http://www.geocities.com/boomstick989"> ... tick989</a>
T he first development of my semi-auto idea was completed weeks ago. It consisted of a tri-chambered design with three independently operated blowgun-modded sprinkler valves linked to a 1" diameter barrel by means of a 1" cross. A tee and small section of pipe just before the barrel acted as the hopper, with a 15 round capacity. Although a complex system of smaller electronically actuated valves connected to a timer relay circuit was devised to make the gun essentially fire full automatic, it never got past the initial phases using 3 plain ol' blowguns. Ammunition was at first a limited number of round wooden balls I found in my basement that loosely fitted the barrel. While the initial design worked, it was extremely unreliable. One test would work perfectly, shooting all 15 balls without jams or other problems, and right after that the next test would go FUBAR in every possible manner! Obviously, it was flawed in several ways. I scrapped the tri-chambered design, for now focusing on resolving the problems encountered with just one chamber. Perhaps sometime soon I'll rebuild the original with all the bugs worked out...
Working out the magazine jamming issues was easy; a little dremeling the inside of the barrel plus plastic balls for ammo that actually fit the barrel did the trick. The most difficult problem was getting the valve to re-seat the diaphragm quickly enough. Since air was continually flowing into the chamber, the valves had the tendency to "honk" after each shot for 4-10 seconds as the diaphragm vibrated quickly. To fix this problem, I removed the inner spring and essentially made a bigger equalization port by adding an air-in line to the top of the valve. Of course, I had to limit the amount of air going to the top of the diaphragm (or else it wouldn't fire), so I added the needle valve with gauge. With the chamber at 40psi and the top restricted to a little less than 10psi, it works like a dream! I can get about 3 shots per 2 seconds, and I estimate the ammo is getting more that 150fps (although I dont have a chrony...so a real number will have to wait)
Provided By Mr.Plow - <a href="http://www.geocities.com/boomstick989"> ... 9</a></div>
Provided By Mr.Plow - <a href="http://www.geocities.com/boomstick989"> ... tick989</a>
T he first development of my semi-auto idea was completed weeks ago. It consisted of a tri-chambered design with three independently operated blowgun-modded sprinkler valves linked to a 1" diameter barrel by means of a 1" cross. A tee and small section of pipe just before the barrel acted as the hopper, with a 15 round capacity. Although a complex system of smaller electronically actuated valves connected to a timer relay circuit was devised to make the gun essentially fire full automatic, it never got past the initial phases using 3 plain ol' blowguns. Ammunition was at first a limited number of round wooden balls I found in my basement that loosely fitted the barrel. While the initial design worked, it was extremely unreliable. One test would work perfectly, shooting all 15 balls without jams or other problems, and right after that the next test would go FUBAR in every possible manner! Obviously, it was flawed in several ways. I scrapped the tri-chambered design, for now focusing on resolving the problems encountered with just one chamber. Perhaps sometime soon I'll rebuild the original with all the bugs worked out...
Working out the magazine jamming issues was easy; a little dremeling the inside of the barrel plus plastic balls for ammo that actually fit the barrel did the trick. The most difficult problem was getting the valve to re-seat the diaphragm quickly enough. Since air was continually flowing into the chamber, the valves had the tendency to "honk" after each shot for 4-10 seconds as the diaphragm vibrated quickly. To fix this problem, I removed the inner spring and essentially made a bigger equalization port by adding an air-in line to the top of the valve. Of course, I had to limit the amount of air going to the top of the diaphragm (or else it wouldn't fire), so I added the needle valve with gauge. With the chamber at 40psi and the top restricted to a little less than 10psi, it works like a dream! I can get about 3 shots per 2 seconds, and I estimate the ammo is getting more that 150fps (although I dont have a chrony...so a real number will have to wait)
Provided By Mr.Plow - <a href="http://www.geocities.com/boomstick989"> ... 9</a></div>
- Attachments
-
- Here's a side view of the cannon. In case you're wondering, the black tape is cosmetic, hiding the blue cement I used...no, its not taped together!! ;)
Also, as you can see, the air system plugs into a compressor with an industrial plug. The regulator you see is a detroit pneumatics mini-reg I got for free. I love the look of those braided steel lines (also free!)
-
- Heres an example of one of the plastic balls that I shoot.
- autoammo.jpg (16.93 KiB) Viewed 9656 times
Last edited by PCGUY on Tue May 02, 2006 11:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
Yes, I am the guy that owns & operates SpudFiles (along with our extremely helpful moderators).
nice, i hope you get the jamming done, but i like it.
Real cool.
Real cool.
<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/uploader/uploa ... 980630.gif">
My website www.freewebs.com/potato_cannon/
My website www.freewebs.com/potato_cannon/
Darn... I just had his idea the other day and thought I was the first one
. Good work though. I reckon i will make soon a 3-5 chambered, single barreled cannon. The only thing i can find that wold be dodgey would be the size of the chamberes, as the gun needs to be portable. I hope to have this built within the next...
year.
It will take a while and must be a secret bye!
---Julz



---Julz
- deathtodeer666
- Specialist
- Posts: 126
- Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2005 12:57 am
- Location: mars alabama
- Contact:
aaah! how do you make the sprinkler valve work with the blowgun, I can under stand if it just releasis presure.
there is pressurized air on both sides of the diaphragm, using the blowgun you exhaust the air on top of the phragm, so there is no pressure above, and your chamber volume is still pushing from below, that pushes the phragm up and allows the air go to to the barrel

- saladtossser
- Sergeant 3
- Posts: 1234
- Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2005 10:40 am
- Location: Toronto
- Contact:
i honestly dont know how this gun loads. and i dont get y there are 2 hoses coming from the valve, those clear hoses dont take a lot of pressure.
"whoa... I thought pimpmann was black..."-pyromanic13
Neat! But you need to elaborate on your system there. The valves and loading.
<a href="http://www.launchpotatoes.com"><img src="http://www.launchpotatoes.com/images/up ... 2.PNG"></a>
http://www.LaunchPotatoes.com
http://www.LaunchPotatoes.com
spudshot wrote:there is pressurized air on both sides of the diaphragm, using the blowgun you exhaust the air on top of the phragm, so there is no pressure above, and your chamber volume is still pushing from below, that pushes the phragm up and allows the air go to to the barrel
so on those air nozzle triggers that bcarms.com sell's when you pull the trigger dose air come out the bottem or not
