CO2 LAUNCHER HELP (Newbie)

[Sunshinejack]

Hello!

So I've never built one of these before but am feeling pretty inspired.

Looking to make something similar to this (scroll to last image):

http://tssr.freeforums.org/d-i-y-rocket ... t1023.html

I'm feeling pretty confident except for one thing, I want to slim the design down by getting rid of the pipe section in between the co2 canister adapter and the ball valve.

Before risking blowing half my face off, does this pipe serve a crucial purpose? all builds I have seen have it so I thought I'd better ask. Here's a picture to show which pipe I mean; the galvanised steel pipe nipple.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

It's basically an expansion chamber that fills with CO2 giving a ready amount of gas for an effective launch. If not, you're trying to get the pressure from the tiny hole in the 12 gram CO2 capsule, which will not give you enough flow for a large diameter projectile.

[Sunshinejack]

Any pipes available that are shorter but wider?

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

To go to wider diameters you'd need adapters that would lengthen it anyway.

Consider this though, if you shorten the pipe, you will have less volume, but the CO2 there will be at higher pressure ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyle%27s_law ) so it's not necessarily going to be a huge performance loss.