Propane

[PCGUY]

<div align="center">PROPANE

Provided By Boogieman - <a href="http://www.advancedspuds.com/">http://w ... ds.com/</a>

Propane is an excellent fuel for spud guns. It is clean, safe and very cheap! A blue cylinder for torches costs about $3. Camping propane can be bought in the green Coleman cylinders for around $5-6 for 2 cylinders. Either will work with this setup.

Type 1:

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/propane2.jpg">

This is a little different style of propane meter than what everyone else uses. The advantage is that you can use this on any gun you make, just adjust the PSI of propane in the meter for each individual gun. All the launcher needs to use this meter is a Schrader valve.
Here is a parts list:


propane torch head (the cheap ones) cut below the bend with a pipe cutter. This connects it to the propane tank.

a 7/16" compression to 1/4" male pipe fitting.

1/4" Tee

out one side of tee: 100 PSI Pressure gauge with 1/4" male pipe thread (MPT) (100psi for more accuracy)

going out of the other side of the tee is a 1/4" MPT close nipple

a 1/4" ball valve

a 1/4" nipple ( I think it was 1" or 1 1/2" long)

1/4" tee

out one side of tee: 1/4" close nipple

tire valve filling tool (air chuck?)

out the other side of tee: 1/4" close nipple

1/4" to 3/8" adapter

3/8" to 1/2" adapter

1/2" to 3/4" bell adapter

6" 3/4" pipe nipple

3/4" pipe cap

lots of Teflon tape on all threaded parts.

I used brass on most of mine, but I would suggest using galvanized pipe, because it is much stronger, I had one mishap when my niece knocked mine off my dresser and broke it. It broke at the 1/4 inch nipple (the one I thought was either 1" or 1 1/2" long). But anyway that is the part list, one good thing about thispropane meteris that you can use it on multiple guns. The last thing you need is a valve stem with 1/4" pipe thread on the other end, and a pipe tap to tap your chamber (I bought mine at <a href="www.spudtech.com">www.spudtech.com</a> , but you should be able to find them at most hardware stores). One last thing, how to use it: with the ball valve closed let about 30 PSI into the small section, then close the gate valve on the torch, open the ball valve, and this small charge will seal the air chuck valve part. Then open the gate valve and fill the meter to the desired pressure, mine is 37psi, but will vary with the gun. Close the ball valve then press the air chuck onto the valve stem on your chamber. It sounds like a long procedure, but it is really simple and fast, only takes a few seconds to do.

As a side note you could put a small regulator somewhere before the ball valve to make the propane be the same pressure all the time without having to look at the pressure gauge.

Type 2:
This is the type of meter that most people use.
Details coming soon....
For info on how much propane to use (as in PSI), and an extremely useful fuel calculator visit look around <a href="http://burntlatke.quibble.com/">HERE</a></B>

Provided By Boogieman - <a href="http://www.advancedspuds.com/">http://w ... /</a></div>

[rl93]

my parents wont let me use propane

[PCGUY]

......Sucks for you?

[rl93]

i know

[sdcarter19]

Hello everybody... This is my first post and I have a few questions. I have two potato cannons, they both run on hairspray right now but i would like to convert them to propane. Here are the specs for the two of them.

<u><b>Cannon 1</b></u>

Fuel Chamber- 4" sch-40 that is 2' long with a pressure rating of 220 PSI at 73 degrees

Barrel- 1 1/2 sch-40 that is 5' feet long with a pressure rating if 330 PSI at 73 degrees

Ignition- Gas Grill ignitor

Current Fuel Source- 10 Seconds of white rain Xtra Hold hairspray

<u><b>Cannon 2</b></u>

Fuel Chamber- 4" sch-40 that is 3' long with a pressure rating of 220 PSI at 73 degrees

Barrel- 1 1/2 sch-40 that is 5' feet long with a pressure rating if 330 PSI at 73 degrees

Ignition- Gas Grill ignitor

Current Fuel Source- 15 Seconds of white rain Xtra Hold hairspray






This is where it gets tricky I want them now to run on clean burning propane. Right now what i am doing is muzzle loading the potato then, on the smaller cannon I spray about 10 seconds or propane into the chamber. (The bigger one i have not even tried yet because I don't want to die) Then i cap it up attach the ignitor and boom. This works ok but i want to adapt my cannons to the filling device listed above. My question is how many pounds of propane do i use for each cannon so that i don't blow myself up. Some people say they have used about 30 to 35 pounds in the little chamber on the filler before dumping it into the chamber while it is sealed.
I just need to know how many pounds of propane would we good for the two different cannons. Also I wanted to know if putting a fan in the chamber would help the propane mix better and make for a better launch. The farther and louder the better!! Also if you could tell the psi needed for mapp gas too that would be great.


Here are some pictures

[frogy]

It's not how much PSI that fills the gun it's how big your Meter pipe is I belive...

The kind PCGUY make is very expensive and other ones are cheaper and do the same thing.... I'm guessing you want it to work on both guns so you will want it to have an Air Chuck for filling your guns and you'll need 1/8" Tank Valves on your guns....

You small cannon (#1) has a chamber volume of about 301.44 cubic inches...
Your larger cannon (#2) has a chamber volume of about 452.16 cubic inches...

I'm not positive how to make these, but I know %100 how they work... If your using Propane you need the fuel mixturein your gun to be %4.2 propane and if your using MAPP gas you need the mixture to be %4.6 MAPP...

EDIT:
Plug in your stuff here http://www.advancedspuds.com/SpudToolonline.htm

If you use a meter pipe with an inner diameter of .8125 in. it has to be 14.94 in. for your big gun and for it to work with your smaller gun you will have to lower the psi of your regulator from 35 psi for your big gun to 24 psi for your little gun...

[sdcarter19]

I think i know what your talking about. Basilcally make a propane delivery device that is much more simple than the one at the top where i can get an accurate measure of the ID of the meter pipe. The one shown is all different sizes throughout the device with will give you an inacurrate ID. The one thing i am worried about is the elevation going from place to place at different elevations will this severyly effect the size of the explosion. Could this potentially blow up?

[frogy]

Again I say I'm not sure how to build it, but I know how they work... There's one in the Classifieds on these forums that someone is selling and that's the kind you want to make...

The elevation won't make that much of a difference even if you don't change your settings your gun will just get a little over\under fueled and won't shoot as great, but it most likely won't blow up, I'd say %100 not if I knew who built it, but I don't know how well you build stuff so I'll saw %99.9

[nivekatoz]

I know this is a old post.. Just in case someone is searching info, You dont need a (blow torch head ) (cheap one.) You can buy and adapter to go from propane threads to npt thread 1/4 "...Its like $6.00.. U.S