Well, I don't know about hot air, but there was a hell of a lot of cold nitrogen whooshing around my back yard this morning, accompanied by copious amounts of wood and glass shrapnel, as well as about 30 pounds of steel plate.
The following is my entry for the "Best Shot on Video" competition. The angle kind of sucked, but, as you will see, I couldn't really reset and try again...
[youtube][/youtube]
In case you didn't read the video, the projectile weighs 1130 grams, and is an old disposable oxygen cylinder filled with ice. It travelled at ~385fps, for a muzzle energy of >5700 ft/lbs . The firing range was 13', and the target was a solid wood door with 1/4" thick hardened steel plate armour. As far as I can tell, when the slug hit the steel, instead of stopping, it caused the entire plate to rip through the door, shattering the door and carrying the steel plate into my shed (which survived without damage, despite JSRs continually ominous predictions).
Spudfiles' resident expert on all things that sail through the air at improbable speeds, trailing an incandescent wake of ionized air, dissociated polymers and metal oxides.
well... its not as spectacular as one would expect, but i suppose it could be the angle as you said, maybe you could try and dent the steel plate or something, i'm sure that would yeild good results? (i'm thinking pycrete slug )
I assume that you didn't watch the video very closely ALIHISGREAT. The dent in the steel plate is >1" deep, and over 6" across. The door was blown off it's hinges, and over 12 square feet of wood was turned to shrapnel, not to mention the cloud of glass particles that can be seen departing from the windows as they shattered. You can't get much more spectacular than that without high explosives.
@Noob: The cannon is the SCTBDCv1.5, I assumed that everyone here knew about it from the massive amount that I advertise it. It's posted in the pneumatic cannon showcase if you want to check it out.
Spudfiles' resident expert on all things that sail through the air at improbable speeds, trailing an incandescent wake of ionized air, dissociated polymers and metal oxides.
I have Pykrete slugs made, but I need to rebuild the stand completely, because it suffered a level of destruction rather similar to that of the door - i.e. TOTAL destruction. I also need to buy a longer filling hose (and at $6/foot, it isn't cheap).
The most prohibitive part is, my parents have forbidden me from firing the heavy slugs in the back yard, and I can't access my range until the spring, so more attempts will have to wait. I don't have any problem with their decision, because I feel that I cannot reliably stop the heavy slugs in a short enough distance to prevent damage to the shed (that, and they literally would go right through the shed if the cannon moved enough when the trigger was pulled).
Spudfiles' resident expert on all things that sail through the air at improbable speeds, trailing an incandescent wake of ionized air, dissociated polymers and metal oxides.
DYI wrote:The most prohibitive part is, my parents have forbidden me from firing the heavy slugs in the back yard...
I can understand that. My parents aren't that happy with big cannons (although they don't expressly forbid them), so I just up the power on smaller ones, which I'm perfectly happy with, and they don't suspect.
My parents don't mind the big cannons, but it got a little out of hand this morning, and I don't want to risk any more damage.
Spudfiles' resident expert on all things that sail through the air at improbable speeds, trailing an incandescent wake of ionized air, dissociated polymers and metal oxides.
Nice one Crowley. Shows that even the low powered launchers have a decent chance here with some good photography and editing skills.
Spudfiles' resident expert on all things that sail through the air at improbable speeds, trailing an incandescent wake of ionized air, dissociated polymers and metal oxides.