Need some help with building my first spudgun in the UK.

[noobyspud]

Hey guys,

I haven't yet build a spud gun before but i plan on buying pvc and stuff tomoz.

im 14 yrs of age soo i cant have anything to complicated.

basically im looking for a very easy to make spud gun that can preferibly fire tennis balls ( 2.5" barrel ??) and involving a ball valve NOT A SPRINKLER VALVE.

very much appreciated if u could give me a link or somthing giving me instructions with what parts to buy ect ect.

thanks very much guys

PS. i would like it to be relitivly powerful !

[dudeman508]

Y do you want a ball valve, if its couse you dont need batteries their are really simple mods to change that

[noobyspud]

could please tell me these mods? i say ball valve cause i live in england lol and everything is so expensive ..... 1 leng of 2 inch pipe ( only comes in 6m lengh costs about 70 dollars here !!

[dudeman508]

Sorry for the double post but basically all you need is a chamber with a shredder valve on it to put in air, A valve and a barrel. You should get a male adapter to attach the valve to the barrel to you can glue the barrel to something and screw the rest in to your valve, this way the barrel dosent fly of your gun. get pvc cement and primer to glue it all together(exept for the threads, get teflon tape for that) and once it drys you have gun

[daberno123]

involving a ball valve

i would like it to be relitivly powerful !

Thats not going to happen. The two just don't mix.

I'm not going to link you to instructions because there are none to link you too. By looking through the Wiki on this site you can get lots of good information.

I also think you should reconsider using a sprinkler valve. They are very simple to use and a good starting valve for a first cannon.

Make sure you use pressure rated fittings and pipe. They will say Nsf-pw on them. Stay away from pipes and fitting with DWV written on them.

Don't think that you can't build a good gun just because you're fourteen (so I am). This site has endless amounts of informtion on it. Using the search function and looking through the showcase sections are good places to start.

Welcome to Spudfiles!
Keep it safe and have fun!

[dudeman508]

All you have to do to mod the valve is unscrew the top and drill a hole you can either atach a blow gun valve to this or you can atach a hose bard with an air hose leading to the blow gun valve. have one end of the blow gun atached to nothing so air can escape

[noobyspud]

kk thanks guy i'll do some research

[SpudFarm]

hey, seems like the forum is growing.

on a barrel that big i would have gone with a burst disk. don't even ask what it is, you can find that out yourself

and as daberno said you can build nice guns in your age. i am there to (not far away atleast) but i keep on reading and trying things and learn.

i don't feel like writing so much right now. you can add my MSN and i can help you there

[Ragnarok]

Right, first things first. If you're living in the UK, you need to disregard any ideas you have based on large PVC cannons - the materials are not available like they are in the US, unless you shell out big money.

If you intend on taking the hobby up seriously, you're going to need to start thinking from a different angle. Pressure rated PVC parts are hard to find at best, and are usually quite expensive. Sprinkler valves are also relatively rare, and can only really be found on the internet.

There are some PVC cannons built in the UK, but a very significant proportion of what we do build over here is made from copper pipe.
This isn't particularly easy on the pocket either, but at least it's readily available and safe.

However, that's not where you really want to be starting if you're new to the hobby.

Now, second things next, I suggest you slow down. You're not going to do yourself any favours if you rush wildly into buying parts and building a cannon that is neither efficent, nor safe.
Although it might be tempting to buy all the stuff tomorrow, you'd do better to wait a week, and use that time to do some research into these things. You'll get a better experience out of it if you do.

@daberno123: As he says he's English... NSF-PW, NSF-DWV, SCH-40 and all that kind of thing have no relevance over here.

NSF is an American standards institute, so they're not going to be certifying UK materials.

[SpudFarm]

just a quick question to ragnarok. does the UK people use PN ratings?
i have seen PN9 combustions fail so it may not be a good place to make plastic guns.

[noobyspud]

my dad just sayed to me something about a trigger valve . u guys ever heard of it ?

[Ragnarok]

just a quick question to ragnarok. does the UK people use PN ratings?

Not exactly. In general, metric pressure rated PVC and ABS use a similar system, where the pipe is rated to things like 10 or 16 bar.

Imperial pipe (which is generally more costly) works on a "Class" system, where a Class represents a certain rated pressure. That works around roughly 9 bar for C, 12 bar for D and 15 bar for E.

[pocket]

not to blow your bubble but i found that first cannons are better to start as a combustion. i found this because you get to understand spudding concepts such as safety blah bla bla but they are techniquely less expensive plus that smell of burnt propane mmmmmmm

[noobyspud]

yeah but im 14 so its parents decision lol and they say too dangerous

[dudeman508]

my parents wont let me make cumbustions either