Spud Gun Myth for Mythbusters?

[MrCrowley]

Even if they knew what they were doing, you will need a sh|t load of people on their forum to want the myth to be done for them to even notice it.

[rcman50166]

I agree with all the comments people have made about myth busters. they know a very little amount in a very large number of subjects, there is no way that they know more that the veterans of this site, MUCH less the combined knowledge of all of us. You want someone to use they're resources, with the knowledge of this community. that wont hapen any time soon.

You guys are missing the point. I know for a fact they are less experienced. Because of this reason they are just like any new spudder. They don't have much knowledge on the art of throwing a spud. That's why I want them to try. I want them to make it known that this hobby isn't child's play and that all of us are scientists to the same degree as the men in lab coats. I want respect for the hobby. And a failed attempt at supersonic spudding would only give it more respect as the mythbusters show that making a potato gun isn't as foolish and as pointless as it seems.

[rcman50166]

Even if they knew what they were doing, you will need a sh|t load of people on their forum to want the myth to be done for them to even notice it.

I could get a rally going. I've done it before on their site. Besides, this kind of thing is what they do best. You tell me how many times you would expect a special effects technichian to use pneumatic cannons for something. They would take an immediate liking to this because they would think it's one of those cheap, simple, builds, that would draw in a lot of viewers.

[pizlo]

I may be wrong, but from what I've seen these guys are not going to want to suck up to a bunch of kids (and adults) on how to build a Uber gun. they have better things to do with they're time.

[BigGrib]

Ok so I just read the first page of this thread so dont get mad at me if someone has said something similar to me already. This is my opinion on the whole thing.

Everyone who says that this would reflect on spudgunning in a negative light, no offense, is an idiot. This would be a great opportunity to get the word about SAFE spudgunning to the masses. To let people know that there are groups out there dedicated to to safe yet enjoyable operation of spudguns. Yeah there is always going to be some jack ass out there that blows his ass apart, but isn't this a hurdle that model rocketing had to overcome at first as well. Everyone is so worried about losing what little legal rights we spudgunners have that you can't see the bigger picture of bringing this hobby into the world as a safe legitimate sport and then possibly gaining more legal rights if we play our cards right. Come on guys. Now I said all of this and I know I'm going to get some negative responses but I know that with the right kind of publicity this could do this hobby a lot of good.

~BigGrib

Edit- Oh yeah one other thing, I talk to this guy named Grant Imahara all the time, maybe you heard of him, about projects that I'm working on and he's helped me immensly. Maybe I can ask him what he thinks about the possibility of doing a supersonic spud myth. I mean at the very least he'd bring it up in their creative meetings.

[mark.f]

Well, I don't think it'd be a good idea because of one important fact:

"Experts" are complete idiots.

All of the pneumatic cannons I've seen built on TV have been pieces of crap. The only "decent" one I've seen was built by the mythbusters, but it only had ~1/2" porting, to shoot straw.

Smash Lab's cannon they built the other day wasn't too hot either. Overly complicated, overly redundant, and underpowered. With their facilities, I could have built a MUCH more powerful cannon, capable of producing the same performance they got with about 3/4 the pressure, and MUCH cheaper.

The chicken gun was good, but come on... replace the butterfly valve with two gaskets, a burst disk, and you'd have much more powerful, and, more importantly, CONSISTENT performance, especially if triggered by a small charge, (think a squib or other small blasting device), instead of waiting for it to burst.

If you gave them a spudgun myth, their message, at the end of the day, would be "Don't ever do this! These are dangerous!", and you know what? People would listen.

That's my opinion, anyway. If they ever do a spudgun myth, they should invite somebody who knows what they're doing, to come and bring a few guns for their tests. Leaving construction and their representation of the hobby entirely in their hands would be stupid.

[BigGrib]

If you gave them a spudgun myth, their message, at the end of the day, would be "Don't ever do this! These are dangerous!", and you know what? People would listen.

Not at all. Their message would be this is a hpbby for people experienced enough to glue pvc together but it must be done in a safe manner.

If they ever do a spudgun myth, they should invite somebody who knows what they're doing, to come and bring a few guns for their tests. Leaving construction and their representation of the hobby entirely in their hands would be stupid.

Duh. Come on you guys dont give the mythbusters enough credit. You think they are going to just go out and say well hey lets go out and find plans on the internet and just build one without getting someone who knows a lot about this stuff on the show. Get Real.

[Novacastrian]

Well i'm an idiot. I don't really care what happens to spudgun laws either because where i'm from they are already illegal.

[BigGrib]

yeah sorry nova didn't mean to rub it in, well hopefully one day enough will be done about the safety to where they will be legal

[Novacastrian]

Meh, history has shown that if the bastards take something away from us the chances of getting it back are nil to niller.

[TurboSuper]

I'm willing to bet that someone on the Mythbusters team has encountered a spudgun at some point. Spudding isn't really not as esoteric as you guys seem to think (except for the advanced stuff).

[rna_duelers]

If they want me to,I can be there "Expert" if they fly me over and let me have my time on the Air.

But I have seen some of the guns they have built and they had a restriction of 1/4 threads in there some were back out to something like a 2" valve.And with there Straw gun used to shoot straw through a tree there barrel was meters in length and they only managed around 300fps if I remember correct at 150psi.

[Solar]

Hi everyone. Interesting thread. I have been in contact with the discovery channel regarding my pneumatic launcher being used on the Mythbusters show since last year. It was for a different myth regarding the lethality of "broken" nerf spines, but the white whale of supersonic potatoes sounds like a good one too. For those who don't know me, I manufacture the Eclipse launcher.
<a href="http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/s ... nt=ecf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/solararis/ecf.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


The main valve is rated at 1200psi. At 350psi I am achieving 650fps with a 23 gram nerf-like rocket from the guys at paintballwarhead.com .

I am only using an 8 inch long 40mm ballast (plus 10 inch long 1" spindle tube). I have a 3 foot long ballast I could try out with a longer barrel to see what it possible. The best would be to fire it in the breech load configuration to provide the best seal. Only a short time until the first fifty are complete. Just got the bulk of parts back from the plater and will be starting assembly by next week.

In reference to the steam gun they built. It DID work, just not considered lethal enough. Their giant frozen turkey launcher was a crazy beast as well. I am hoping they could do some hi-speed camera work or some destructive testing for posterity sake.

oh, and they're getting serial number 3.14

[frankrede]

I broke the sound barrier.
Enough said.

[Ragnarok]

Hell, I'll be an "expert" for the Mythbusters if they want - and I'm sure I could show them a few things about making launchers.
...Well, we can dream, can't we?

Without a proper "expert", the Mythbusters cannons aren't going to be particularly good.

I'm not sure how proving that spudguns can fire supersonic will help the legality of them though - oh look, these things are potentially highly lethal. Your ATF is already very generous just allowing them, but offering to classify them for you as well?!?
Even if it's done perfectly safely, the Busters will just say something like: "Don't try this at home. We have trained professionals to assist in the busting of this myth."
And certainly, you'll get people who go out and build simple spudguns with materials of highly questionable safety.

It would bring spudding to a wider audience, but I'm not sure that would help it - maybe if we could get in important messages like: "Only safe materials" and "don't even think about solid propellants" then it would be good, but I somehow doubt the message would make it in to the show.

Now actually, if I think about it, you do get a lot of mentions on the Mythbusters site of people who've made spudguns and claimed (completely erroneously) that they've gone supersonic when they sprayed in whole cans of hairspray (as if it would go 2 feet), so maybe the myth is more notable to the Busters than I initially thought.

It could be interesting, but I'm heavily reserving judgement on whether it's a good thing for spudding.

But anyway, if you try, give them my number...