Potato Gun!

One of my friends has one and was shooting it the other day. I am definatly planning on making one, but i don't know what kind is best. Anyone made one got any tips for me?

http://www.advancedspuds.com/gunplans.htm

The first one on that page is the one i'm thinking about making. whatcha think?

 

I got one, And quite frankly.
It sucked shit. It shot 10-15 foot max.
It didn't hurt people so that was a downer. I'd really love a good BB gun

 

You must have been doing something wrong. The one I got to shoot could launch one a solid 100yards in a fairly flat tragectory.

 

If you want to try making one yourself there are plenty of desgins on the internet. Friend of mine made one based on this this and it worked good.

 

me and my brother made one just like that but we had the ignitor on the cap instead of the top of big round tube. we use a right guard spray since hair spray smells and gets kidn of sticky. we can get a potato to fly 100 - 150 yards with a slight lob. there really fun u should make it they only cost like 30 bucks.

 

They sound fun to make, though I don't understand how the ones on that site work. I understand the propellant and lantern sparker, though where do you put the potato?

 

Phat man i edited what you should have put in or at least put in every post you make (almost every)


The only potato guna i have ever made was a crappy wodden one, pretty much i pull a lever back wich pulls the string back, load the gun with the potato and release the lever, the potato goes flying.

Plastic (I used wood) Tube, attack the spring to somewere in the tube so when you pull it will pull back the lever and add force and perpulsion to the potato, add a platform for the potato to sit in, in the tube. This is how i made my basic and (poop) potato gun. It shot about 70 feet it was horrible.

 

Make one and shoot Jeffreycat in the head with it.

No but seriously, I have known some people who have made one of them. They said it worked well. Not exactly sure how they made it, but Good luck.

 

I made it and it's awsome. I can shoot a 1.5" diamater chunk of whatever (potato, tomato, peach, etc) well over 150 yards. I used up 2 flints shooting it today and 10 bucks of potatos. Soooo much fun, I recemend everyone make one. My next one is gonna be bigger, I'm thinking 4"D tube with 6"D combustion chamber.

Oh one question, I'm assuming the alcohol in the hairspray is what combusts; so do you think I could use something like grain alcohol as a propelent and it work better?

Also, if you shoot a peach out at night the fur catches on fire and presto, a flaming peach lobbed through the night sky.

 

Awesome!

 

Whoops, internet lagged horribly, wouldn't load the page. I double posted >.<

 

Corn alcohol might work although not as well as regular =)), never thought of a combusion tube, I just made a basic peice of crap machine

 

my sister has one, she aimed the gun upwards, n the potato got launched onto the roof, it never came down... make the gun long... potato guns r so cool, kinda wanna launch it at the dog across my house, that keeps barking 24/7. stupid dog.

 

yea, def. use hairspray, it workss

 

Add me on msn, I made one myself it works nice and shoots about 600ft. easy.

 

added. I'm going to the football field to get an idea how far it shoots this weekend, allthough I'm thinking it will fly it easiley from what I've seen.

I'm already planning my "pineapple launcher"

 

I made one, then brought it into tech class to show my teacher. Heres some tips.

Stay clear of the combustion potato guns, you know the ones that you spray like propane in and ignite? Thats are just and they are very inconsistent, sometimes I was able to put massive dents in my shed other times it wouldn't even come out of the barrel.
(maybe because I suck at making combustion potato guns lol)

BUT.

I used air compression, much more reliable and its consistent. I built it the same way as you would a normal one, I just tweaked some things.

Heres what I bought, you can have them veiry. IF you really want to make a unique one go to home depot and piece one together wile your there like I did.
But I used from back (chamber) to tip of the barrel.

PSI gauge
Bike tire valve
4" Pcv cap (for the end of the tube)
4" Pvc pipe pipe I used was 1 ft long (smallw was my first)
4" to 3" pvc adapter (to connect the small pipe to the chamber (back pipe)
3" Pvc ball valve (this is basicly a lever you twist it one way and its closed, twist it another way and its open. Thats to hold pressure)
3" to 2" pvc adapter (to connect to the other adapter to put an even small barrel on the gun)

If you dont want to die YOU'LL READ THIS!!!
- Make sure the PVC pipe is rated for pressure, it'll say PSI XXX (how much psi it can withstand. Some of the pieces on mine said 260 other pieces said 320, I never got up to that much psi anyway.
- BUY PVC PRIMER (the primer is usually purple, you put it on before you start glueing the pieces together. IT cleans the pipe.
- BUY PVC GLUE ( dont use crazy clue or some shit like that, but PVC glue lol.)

How I built mine:

1- Pieced together and bought the things listed above in home depot
2- Went home told my mom I wasn't going to lose a limb
3- I cleaned the pipes in my bath tub (just to make sure they were free from dirt)
4- Drill a whole in the PVC cap thats a little smaller then your bike tire valve
5- force the valve into the little whole from the inside until its snug (shouldn't leak air you'll know why when you see it)
6- take your cap slide it on the 4" pipe to get an idea of where it'll stop going in. Then take it off
7- Drill a whole a little smaller then your PSI gauge, then take plumbers tape, wrap it around a little and tap it into the hole.
8- You should screw a nut on from the inside of the chamber on to the gauge, (later on the pressure could blow the guage out)
9- Prime the inside of the cap
10- Prime the outside of the 4" pipe
11- Put glue on both piece and put pressure on it for like 20 seconds and let it sit for a couple minutes.
12- Attach your 4" to 3" adapter the same way as I told you in steps 9,10,11
13- Attach your pvc ball valve same way I told you above
13- Attach your 3" to 2" pvc adapter to that end same was as before =p
14- Do the barrel the same way (the longer the barrel the farther it Will go, ASLO the small the diameter the more force will push on the potato inside the barrel (or golf balls 2" pvc is pretty good for golf balls)
15- File down the end of your barrel into a tapered sharp point (this will shave the access potato off to make an airtight seal)
16- ONE OF THE most important steps, DO NOT SHOOT THE GUN RIGHT AFTER making it. You have to let the glue stiffen up so wait like 24 hours.

Now you'll think this air compression thing blows because you dont have an air compressor. You dont need one, you can use a bike pump.

Mine was about 4 1/2 ft long, The max PSI I got it fill to was 102 psi. that 102 psi was able to launch a potato 467 ft (we measured it on the football field) That was the furthest distance. If i made it bigger I could have got way more psi in and could have easily launched it over 1000 ft I believe. These things are not toys, you should definatly have a parent or someone with you wile using it. Do not point it ay anyone! It will kill them

MAKE SURE TO USE PRESSURE RATED PIPE!! IF YOU DONT. THE pvc pipe will explode once pressure is introduce and it will blow up making PVC shards (shrapnel) which will defiantly fuck you up.

This is my guide, I made it you will not find it anywhere. I might have missed some things I will edit as I notice them. Any questions just pm me your msn/aim and we can talk.

the whole job will cost you about 35 bucks including primer/glue pipe/gauge.

EDIT: Just made this.
No one better take credit for this guide lol

 

I really want one of these...a BB gun would be better but oh well :/

 

Nah you dont understand =). With a bb gun only thing you can shoot of out it is BB's

With a potato gun you can shoot anything that you can stuff down the barrel.

Ive shot cucumbers out of it, hardboiled eggs, hand full of tacks, ground beef, sand, flour (shot at my friends back covered in white head to toe lol)

 

shoot flour at someone. Ha I gotta do that.

As far as air pressure vs combustion, I havn't had any trouble with the consistancy of it. It always has a ton of power unless I take to long to screw the endcap on (less rightgaurd). But nevertheless thanks for the diagram, I might make an air powered one one day. I think most of the giant pumpkin shooting guns you see on tv are air powered, so there must be something to them.

But yea, what I've got is fun and real easy.