SpudFiles

Not for you, you greedy bastards

I am considering making my father a spudgun for his christmas present, as he has neither the time nor the expertise to make one, but he really wants one. I have already decided the following: 1) Under 50 $ in cost. 2) Use common materials found at any hardware store. 3) Pneumatic. 4) Use a piston valve. (One that will reseat and seal with only a bike pump providing pressure) 5) Small caliber, like under 1".

My main question is: does anyone know of a common item that can be used for a piston in a 3/4" tee?

Any other suggestions are welcome!

mabey cast one from epoxy or make one from 2 pvc caps glued together

Under 50$ you could make a very nice mini-ish combustion.
I'm sure your dad likes "Bangs" as much as the rest of us.

an epoxy or hot glue case is an easy, effective and cheap solution, especially at 100 psi or so pressures.

Yeah though I would recommend you start ASAP, first time pistons, or pistons in general can take awhile to configure and get working properly, that's why I would not recommend one as a gift because they are a bit more complicated and can fail easier.

You could avoid making the piston valve yourself all together and use a QEV or Sprinkler valve and they are both very reliable and relatively cheap.

rna_duelers wrote:You could avoid making the piston valve yourself all together and use a QEV or Sprinkler valve and they are both very reliable and relatively cheap.

I don't think that would fit into the $50 budget. If carefully made, a 3/4" piston can be piloted with a schrader, meaning you can use the same valve to both fill and fire the launcher, saving a bit of cash in the process

All depends on which country he comes from,if its USA then he could easily make a small pneumatic with a sprinkler valve for less then $50 and infact so could I.

Add a couple of bucks for shipping and get a kit from www.Bcarms.com. That way it's easy to get what you want, and you can help him build it and teach him a little maby.

I see sprinkler valves for <$10 on Ebay.

Just use a galvanized steel nipple for the chamber, some copper pipe (or even PVC) for the barrel, and some threaded fittings to hold it all together.

I really don't see how that would exceed $50.

I have made a 3/4" steel piston valve before. The piston was made out of a highlighter that fit perfectly when wrapped in tape. I was also able to seal it with a bicycle pump if that helps.

I just made my first Bolt Piston in the christmas present for my friend.
Theyre relatively easy to make and work very well. I just used some M6 Rod (6mm), some M6 Nuts, M6 Washers (that happen to fit very well in the housing), some chunky rubber washers and 3 layers of bike innertube as a sealing face.

I did the same thing as Maxus... or he did the same as me... or something... actually, we both copied it from someone else entirely.

A bolt piston is a nice way of creating a piston, and currently my favourite method because it's low on tool work (two hacksaw cuts, a couple of spanners), pretty customisable and pretty hard to get wrong if you pay a little attention.

If I ever get into larger valves, I'll need to look at a different method, but I like my low bore launchers for the moment. They have a nice "shotgun" feel to them.