In-car spud cannon

Aboliton · 03-23-2009, 03:13 AM

Hello all, so my plan is to mount two potato cannons in a free area where my fog lights would go, as shown in the photo.

For my ignition system I'm using ignition coils and spark plugs so thats all rather easy.

I've run into a problem however, with supplying fuel to the chamber. My original plan was to use a solenoid to control the flow of air from a butane/propane canister, but after 4 hours of looking I couldn't find appropriate parts. The next plan was to use a solenoid to press open deodrant can for a predetermined amount, that however isnt working well.

Does anyone have any suggestions for another method that isnt too expensive or complicated, it would be much appreciated.

2k1Toaster · 03-23-2009, 04:33 AM

you can't be serious???

Well anyways, since you have gas in your car already, why not a fuel injector of your gas line?

malcom2073 · 03-23-2009, 05:16 AM

Haha, awesome, just don't get caught.

Crinos · 03-23-2009, 05:45 AM

Not sure if I would assist you in this.. it might be my rear beeing hit by two potatos

But.. You could go for a CO2 spud...
There's ALOT of spud reading on the net.. just google it

Aboliton · 03-23-2009, 06:08 AM

hmm, i'll read up on that, the only thing im concerned with is the confined space, might not fit >.>

Also doubt i'll be shooting you, i'm in aus

Enforcer · 03-23-2009, 11:38 AM

Meddler : Watchout!

Injector · 03-23-2009, 01:02 PM

ask and you should recieve

http://www.nitrousdirect.com/solenoids.html

koolmoedee · 03-23-2009, 10:13 PM

hahaha what model car is that? looks like a magna to me, i would love to see this in action when its up and running, here's a pic of my projectile system
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i use it for passenger control keeps them quite

stealinfool · 03-23-2009, 10:34 PM

Nice.

I'm using metered propane w/two manual valves.. this may work with auto valves.. basically so one lets the gas into a pipe that measures out a certain amount (you only want a certain ratio, otherwise no boom) and once that closes the other allows gas into the chamber. I use a bbq ignitor with a 12v battery.

Honestly you'll be better off using compressed air or CO2. Less likely to catch something on fire in case of an accident.

Also, keep in mind that a good chamber - barrel ratio is key to efficiency

I want to mount one to my 4wheeler though... a bit more likely to get use

jjh221 · 03-23-2009, 10:51 PM

brilliant!

Bugbyte · 03-23-2009, 11:43 PM

This is awesome but I'd advise dropping the fuel and using compressed air due to the fact that you don't want a rolling inferno if something goes wrong. Not that I speak from past life experience but if you have a carpet tube duct taped to your car hood and it's designed for the passenger to load a Roman Candle into it and he accidentally loads it backwards and it shoots into the car and ignites the rest of the fireworks in the car, you've got a pretty big issue. Better to go with compressed air instead of fire.

You can drive the compressor from the car's electrical system, trigger the solenoids with a fusion brain and you are golden!

Aboliton · 03-24-2009, 02:14 AM

the only issue i can forsee with using compressed air is the space limitation, i only have about a 30x12cm (12"x8" roughly) and i'm not sure where i could fit the compressor.

At the moment I'm considering going to the wreckers tomorrow and grabbing two injectors and trying to find a solenoid valve that can split between two outputs. The plan is then to connect it after my fuel pump and use a capacitor shutoff circuit to control the exact amount i'll need.

This wont be an issue to my normal driving as I run a duel fuel system, not sure if its popular in America and elsewhere but here in Aus it's fairly common to get LPG conversions which is a lot cheaper than petrol,

And yeah a Magna it is, wish I had a verada though

Crinos · 03-24-2009, 03:13 AM

Is your spud guns going to be magasine fed, so you can fire multipletimes with the same gun?

If not, you can have CO2 canisters, that you connect to the guns... the canister can be where ever you see fit. And when you have run out of CO2, you can disconnect it, and connect a new one, and refill the first one....

Like you would while playing Paintball

Aboliton · 03-24-2009, 03:23 AM

Well, I've reconsidered the petrol idea, i don't want to screw stuff around with my engine, i'm considering the pneumatic idea. The thing with that is, I've never built a pneumatic one, and i'm not sure what the pressure limit on the pvc have is, also, I'm finding it hard to 12v solenoid valve with decent pressure

stealinfool · 03-24-2009, 06:27 AM

Generally SCH40 PVC (smaller diameters) has been used for shop compressed air lines...

But here's a cool chart for ya

Considering how difficult it is to make a truly "magazine" type of feeding system, it's likely you'll get one shot at a time. This should allow you to have something like a 5 gallon portable air tank that you'd fill up from time to time... it would in turn pressurize a PVC chamber up to a certain PSI via one valve. The next valve would allow the pressure to escape the barrel, propelling the ammo.

Here's another site full of good stuff

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