SpudFiles

@Zen: Thanks, (include the Youtube comment and such in that thanks as well) that's quite the compliment.

I did the video thinking I was limited to spuds, paintballs and marbles, none of which are that great for penetration (although spuds and PBs are great for giving up all their energy on impact), then realised after it was too dark to film that I had a load of dead AA batteries around and I could have used those for some better damage on the floppy drive.

The really bad news was I left my heavy duty penetrator dart in my Uni halls, so I didn't have it for videoing at home.
Those would have made some nice dents and holes, but they say hindsight has 20/20 vision. Those things will have to wait for the next video.

@DYI: Thanks as well. Youtube is a hive of badly built cannons and poor safety, I would do nothing but buck that trend. HEAL is built for what it does (even if the parts weren't originally intended for making an air cannon), and as you can see, I used safety equipment.

500 psi? That's going to be something to see - I found the jump between 150 psi to 300 to be a very large difference, so 350 to 500 is going to be serious.
I'm thinking about more power as well, and considering making an electrolysis machine and using Hydrogen on occasion to boost velocities - if GGDT is right, I might be able to get a paintball to Mach 1.5, and energies on other stuff will rise about 25% as well. My small chamber shouldn't make that too impractical an option.

@VH_Man: No, it's not specifically rated for that pressure, but it is generally accepted on UKSGC that they are "safe" at those pressures. They have also been tested by some webstores past 300 psi, so I'm confident with it at those pressures.

hahaha schweet. 300 PSI dart gun here i come

I just fragged a plate of drywall with a AA battery, 100psi with a copper ballvalve gun. And made a AAA battery into a bannana peel.

Imagine what yours can do, at 300psi

I'll have to imagine for now, I'm not home again for another 4 or 5 weeks. I'll try it then.

I remember my early 100 psi ball valve cannons that would spit grapes 200-300 feet. They equated to maybe 20 joules of energy, a bit more if I could open the valve really fast. Great fun, but not much power.

300 psi behind a specialised piston valve is a whole different world - there's ~400 joules there, or 20 times the energy. The potential for damage is way past anything that my first launchers could do. After I first switched to piston valves, I had to reassess my backstop.
HEAL makes my first piston cannon look like a peashooter. (The film version of that would be "spudgun", but Hollywood isn't at all clued up to what a proper spudgun is, are they?)

I promise another video with lots more destruction, but I can't do that until I'm back home to be able to make another video.

great video, that's the first projectile firing device I've ever seen that goes *click CLICK bollocks!*

jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:great video, that's the first projectile firing device I've ever seen that goes *click CLICK bollocks!*

Hmm looks like you're not familiar with the M16



Though i'm not sure if the British use it.


Great vid Rag, very entertaining. Loved every second.

MrCrowley wrote:Hmm looks like you're not familiar with the M16

That was the story with the early M16s in Vietnam, but in this case I think the much maligned SA80

I'm not too familiar with every gun, but doesn't the M16 still jam occasionally due to the fine Mid-East sand and dust?

Anyway thats not the point, the point is get the damn, faulty SA80 out of production

Rag, I left a Youtube comment for you, join the spudfiles channel.

MrCrowley wrote:Anyone thats not the point, the point is get the damn, faulty SA80 out of production

The SA80 is effectively a bullpup version of the excellent Armalite AR-18 that ironically was a favourite with IRA operatives the British Army was fighting - how they ended up with such a troublesome rifle is beyond me.

Buttstock has compartment for storing valuable survival necessities.


Haha, spoken like a true Snickers lover.

and there I was thinking it was for a cleaning kit and oiling bottle

@JSR: One way to (unintentionally) show you're British is to utter one of the stock British phrases in a UK home counties accent.

In some kind of overblown cliché of American TV's idea of "Britishness", I got at least 10 of the phrases on that list in the original footage (some parts not used at all, some just trimmed out), some by me, some by the mate behind the camera (although the classic screaming and whooping was avoided, at least while the camera was running).

It doesn't normally jam, but if you've mis-tightened something and you're bashing it about to make lots of metallic noises, it's inevitable.

@MrCrowley: It was quite a lot of fun to make as well. I find that videoing it helps, because blinking as you pull the trigger is pretty common. Being able to see it again is quite interesting, so I'll probably be videoing more in future.

As a foot note, I still can't watch the paintball exploding the potato without smiling. Remains of that were embedded into walls 20-25 feet away.

Ragnarok wrote:@JSR: One way to (unintentionally) show you're British is to utter one of the stock British phrases in a UK home counties accent.

What happened to "Well glaze my nipples and call me Rita!", "Bugger me with a fishfork!" and "Robert's your mother's brother"?

Just watched the whole thing, great job.
I rated and commented, and managed to typo/misspell "bollocks"

@Fnord: In answer to your Youtube comment, I use a hose clamp to allow the barrel to be removed. I routinely switch between shorter and longer barrels, and using a (well tightened) hose clamp makes that a much quicker and easier process.
It also means I can use the body of the breech for barrels of different lengths, rather than needing one for each.