Basic Tennis Ball Cannon

[MrCrowley]

Just a little something I made with one of the 2" sprinkler valves I picked up. Even though the valves are 27 years old, they cleaned up really well and this one works fine. Not anything special really, just a 2" sprinkler valve (guide rod removed, piloted by 1/2" ball valve), a 3'x2" chamber and a 3.3' tennis ball cannon (65mm PN12 PVC). Also fits soda cans perfectly.

Can't be bothered painting it, this is just a fun cannon to use everynow and then. Pressure gauge has since been added. GGDT says 120m/s muzzle velocity with a tennis ball.

[wyz2285]

looks good,well done.the valve is 27 years old !?

[SpudBlaster15]

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[MrCrowley]

By the way, 100 spudbux to anyone who can guess from which cannon of mine the 1/2" ball valve and 2" chamber came from.

[MrCrowley]

Two new videos + two new photos.
[youtube][/youtube]
[youtube][/youtube]

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Fantastic stuff!

Since you have the benefit of using half soda cans as perfect lightweight sabot, I think some buckshot rounds are in order

[MrCrowley]

Fantastic stuff!

Since you have the benefit of using half soda cans as perfect lightweight sabot, I think some buckshot rounds are in order

Now that I think about it, I do have ~100 1/2" lead fishing sinkers...

Any suggestions on the loading? I'm thinking half a soda can with a dozen sinkers and a plastic bag scrunched up at the front to keep them in...

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

That would have been my first suggestion, make sure that they care evenly distributed and pressed against the bottom of the can so that they won't destroy the sabot on firing...

[Zeus]

I like this, a sprinkler valve to pilot a sprinkler valve.

Should use a piston valve.

No primer stain. Praise the Lordy

[MrCrowley]

Should use a piston valve.

Hence the basic part haha. I probably could've saved quite a bit of money by just making a tennis ball barrel for my VAL cannon (1.5" porting piston valve) but I wanted something portable (can't get the piston to seal on the VAL using a track pump since I added the 1" sprinkler valve to pilot it) and I had four 2" sprinkler valves to use

Trivia: At my local plumbing store, they wanted $50NZD for a 65mmx50mm bushing (for the barrel), so instead I heated up the end of the barrel and a 50mm slip-socket male threaded adapter and managed to get it to fit inside the 65mm barrel and then once it cooled I removed it and glued it in.

[Zeus]

I meant as a pilot, because it's normally the other way around.

Just my sense of humour.

MrCrowley: Sticking it to the ripoff merchants.

[MrCrowley]

I meant as a pilot, because it's normally the other way around.

Just my sense of humour.

Ahh I see. Yeah I probably could. Only reason I changed from ball valve to sprinkler was ease of trigger. GGDT says no noticable performance increase though.

[SpudBlaster15]

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[MrCrowley]

Didn't have the chance to do a buckshot today but I did have some more fun with soda cans:
(may be still processing on YouTube...)
[youtube][/youtube]

[SpudFarm]

Nice!
I just had to comment on your hipfire skills :O You should belong to the mafia..

Other then that, is there any way you could get your hands on one of the Casio high speed camera series? I would love to see those soda can sabots exiting the barrel.