How to do potato cannon or do-it-yourself Apple Gun. It so happened that in the year of construction, apples were more affordable than potatoes. Construction gas gun interesting project but first a warning. You build the gas gun at your own risk and assume ALL responsibility for the construction, use, consequences of using this device, as well as for any damage caused. The authors used the device only to scare away crows and birds destroying crops on suburban area. Since the prices for the essential product potatoes this summer went off scale in the country, apples that fell from trees were used to test the gun, which did not change the properties of the device in any way, although it gave it the name Apple Gun. During the construction of the Apple Gun structure, the experience of building potato guns (potato guns) accumulated on the Internet was summarized. The simplest and most budgetary scheme (less than 1000 rubles) for building a gas gun with your own hands was chosen. During testing, it was found weak sides and made some improvements. Buying cannon parts will take longer than building it.

How to make your own Apple Gun

Details and tools. In the hardware store in the plumbing department we buy the following parts:

- drain pipe diameter 50mm length 1 meter;

- adapter 50 - 100 mm;

— connector 100-100 mm;

- revision 100 mm, you only need to buy an expensive revision for outdoor use Brown, yes, it will be more than half the cost of parts, but the gun will be safer (details in the text);

- a plug of 100 mm, it is also better to buy brown for reliability.

Check that all rubber seals must be in place, they are included in the part kit. On the details must not be no mechanical damage or impact marks. Handle items with care after purchase.

It is also necessary to prepare a sealant, gypsum screws with a wide head at least 30 mm long, reinforced tape, a kitchen piezo lighter, two pieces of copper wire in good insulation, electrical tape.

From the tool you will need a screwdriver, and preferably a screwdriver. Drill with a drill with a diameter of 1.5 mm. Adhesive thermal gun. Wire cutters.

Revision 100 mm

Parts and tools

Apple Gun Kit

Apple Gun build order

The assembly order is slightly different from that shown in the photo and video, but experience comes in the process. But first, it’s better to practice assembling parts without sealant in order to assess your strengths and gain assembly skills.

1. Lubricate with sealant inner part connector 100 - 100 mm behind the rubber seal as shown in the photo. With our own hands we connect the part with the revision. We move the connector inward until it stops.

2. Lubricate the second side of the connector with sealant and insert the 100-50 mm adapter. Decide on the location of the trunk. The adapter should rest against the end of the revision - this is a must.

3. Lubricate the revision flange with sealant and insert the plug.

4. In the same way, insert the 50 mm barrel pipe into the adapter until it stops. From the expanding part of the pipe, immediately remove the rubber ring of the seal.

5. Leave the structure alone until the sealant sets.

Application of sealant

Compound

6. Be sure to connect the parts with self-tapping screws! To connect with self-tapping screws, we drill holes in the attachment points with a thin drill and screw self-tapping screws into these holes. It is necessary to tighten carefully so as not to turn the self-tapping screw in the plastic during the final twist. The installation locations of the self-tapping screws are shown in the photo. The barrel is screwed with two self-tapping screws, the connector with the adapter and revision is connected with 6 self-tapping screws. Special attention give a stub. Due to the short walls, it is necessary to fasten through a rubber seal. When fastening with four self-tapping screws, an undermining of the fastening was noticed. Stub fastened with eight screws. I recommend wrapping the extended part of the Apple Gun and attaching the barrel with reinforced tape, the cap is screwed on with adhesive tape!

The barrel is fixed with self-tapping screws

Fastening the connector

Plug fixed

The procedure for finalizing a piezo lighter

We do not bother with any electronic ignition. We will not use electronics and batteries. The device should be simple and reliable, and it is - a piezo lighter. The device works and does not misfire; the whole world uses it. You just need to have experience and a desire to bring this spark inside the volume. The cheapest kitchen lighter (37 rubles) is taken as a basis. Believe me, the piezo knot on this or gold lighter with diamonds is the same.

1. We disassemble the lighter.

2. We remove the piezo node, carefully handle the extension wire coming out of the piezo node.

3. We are preparing two extension wires, it’s good if at least one wire is high-voltage (cut off from the line transformer of a broken TV).

4. We connect the extension conductors to the piezoelectric element and isolate. There should absolutely be no twists or loops on the conductors. These are additional inductances and capacitances that will weaken the spark.

5. We assemble the piezo lighter, strip the ends of the conductors at a length of ~5 mm and place them at a distance of 5 mm from each other. We click a lighter - a juicy spark should slip. If not, then somewhere something was collected incorrectly.

Piezo lighter disassembled

Installing the ignition system on the Apple Gun

Ignition system

The main mistake in the construction of potato cannons is the supply of voltage inward through metal elements. As a rule, after several shots, such a gun falls silent for a long time due to the loss of a spark. This design devoid of this shortcoming. At a distance of 40 mm from the end of the plug, we drill two holes and insert the conductors there to a length of 40-50 mm. We fix the wires in the holes with hot glue. After the glue has set, we form a spark gap and check the spark. The suit will skip with a characteristic sound. For safety, the conductor entry point is tightened with reinforced tape in two layers.

Apple Gun Tests

The most crucial stage of checking the mini gun. As fuel, the next bottle of freshener was found on the shelf. The design is budgetary and the use of another type of fuel was not provided.

Fundamental rules

Work only outdoors away from people, buildings and flammable objects. Work only in protective equipment, especially eyes. Do not point the device at people, animals or structures. Do not look into the barrel with the inspection cap screwed on. An apple released from the device may cause damage (break the glass) or injury. In the event of a misfire, immediately unscrew the lid. Always remember that the device is made of plastic and can be destroyed, the directions of the cover and plug are especially dangerous. After each shot, inspect the device for damage or misplaced parts. If there is even suspicion of damage, stop testing.

1. Checking the ignition system. The shot comes from explosive combustion in the chamber of a mixture of air and gas. It is important to keep the proportion a large number of only cotton will give gas, a large amount may destroy the cannon or not work at all. The required amount of gas is determined only empirically.

2. Install the gun on the flyer or support with the direction up. We puff a small amount of freshener into the chamber and, without twisting the lid, give a spark, a flame should escape from the neck.

3. Let's blow the gun or wait for the removal of gases. We warn the nearest environment about a loud sound. Add gas and tighten the lid tightly all the way! Checking the safe direction of the shot. Spark. Happened? If yes, check the design. If not. Open the lid and without looking inside, give a spark. If it caught fire, it means that more gas was added than necessary or the gun was not purged. If it does not catch fire, we blow out the gun. We give a spark. We check the presence of a spark and the preservation of a spark gap of 5 mm. Attention! The gray screw caps already fly off well on blank shots. On tests, the gray cover flew 15 meters, was found after 3 days, the rubber seal has not been found so far. Effective blank shot at night.

Fragment of an article from popmech.ru:
In one of the previous issues, we built a potato cannon - a powerful firearm capable of sending a potato on a journey of 250m. Now it's minus fifteen outside the window, and I don't feel like organizing street shootings at all. We decided to build a miniature analogue of a potato gun for shooting in a room from stationery. The beauty of a mini gun is that most of the parts for it can be found in any office. An ordinary plastic bottle can serve as a combustion chamber - from under glue, putty or ink. Be prudent and do not use containers larger than 150 ml: the fuel mixture will ignite and expand in the combustion chamber, and the plastic may not withstand too much fuel. We liked the bottle of liquid for soap bubbles. It is important that the container has a securely screwed lid: it will have to be unscrewed to ensure ventilation of the combustion chamber. One hole in the barrel for purge will not be enough.

A body from a permanent marker is suitable as a barrel. As a rule, they are made collapsible and the inner surface has an even cylindrical shape - what is needed for a smooth-bore gun. In the bottom of the combustion chamber, make a hole corresponding to the diameter of the marker, and glue the barrel into it with superglue. In our case, the rubber cylinder, put on the body of the marker to improve the grip, made it possible to additionally seal the structure and make it airtight.

The ignition system is based on a piezoelectric lighter for gas stoves, for which you can run to the nearest supermarket. We were lucky: there were lighters in the shape of a gun on the counter. You won't find a better case for a mini-gun. We dismantled the body of the lighter and connected two long wires to the piezoelectric element. Wires can be soldered or simply screwed with electrical tape.

Office pins are ideal electrodes for firing guns. They should be stuck into the wall of the combustion chamber not far from each other. Due to the curvature of the walls of the jar, the needles will converge and form a gap of 1–2 mm. Wires from the piezoelectric element are connected to the pins. The pointed electrodes form a reliable spark when the trigger is pressed. It remains to attach the camera to the body of the lighter (this can be done using car clamps) - and the firearm mini-gun is ready.

The recipe for the perfect projectile is like a chapter in a cookbook. Take raw potatoes, cut into slices 1 cm thick. Using a mold, squeeze a shell out of a slice. The role of the mold can be played by a cap from the same marker, another body, or even the barrel itself. Put the projectile in the barrel and advance it with a ramrod (pencil) as close as possible to the combustion chamber. The potato projectile is good for its density and good fit to the barrel. If the projectile does not let air through, it will happily fly out like a cork from a bottle. In case you want to stay within the office arsenal, replace the potato with an eraser.

Propane is the ideal fuel for gas burners. Western gunsmiths often advise using hairspray. It is also made on the basis of petroleum products, but when the base burns out, the varnish settles on the electrodes and makes it difficult to ignite in the future.
Spray some propane into the chamber. A large outdoor gun takes 2-3 seconds to spray, so for a mini version, the jet should be really very short. Common Mistake novice shooters - unnecessarily generous refueling. A rich mixture does not ignite well.

Always screw the combustion chamber cap on tightly, otherwise it will fly into your eye during the shot. Do not point guns at people and wear protective goggles.

Thank you sister for scanning the article for me

potato gun

Production time: Up to two hours

Materials at hand: ████████░░ 80%

One day I noticed a large foam canister in the garbage heap. At that time we were fond of potato guns and I decided to make myself a small gun from this balloon, and the brand of foam, as it were, hinted at making something similar - "Gold Gun". A silencer was immediately made for the gun, but the article turned out to be too large and I took out the silencer. At the back of the gun, a bottle neck with a cork for purge and refueling is inserted. The design turned out to be quite complicated, but absolutely calmly done at home.

• Large can of polyurethane foam
• Plastic bottle
• steel wire
• wires
• Piezo lighter
• Small aerosol can
• PVC water pipe with a diameter of 35 mm and a length of 500 mm

• Hacksaw
• Screwdriver
• Drill
• File
• self-tapping screws
• Pliers
• Gypsum or alabaster
• Sandpaper
• small nails
• Scotch
• Insulating tape
• Gas stove or industrial hair dryer

How to make a small potato gun




The foam bottle has a large plastic mount at the very top, you need to get rid of it. Make a few cuts and use pliers to remove it


You can melt plastic with a hot knife









Cut off the neck of any plastic bottle




Drill two holes in it right above the rim and insert a piece of steel wire into them, bend the ends slightly down







In the bottom of the bottle, you need to make a hole along the diameter of the neck of the bottle. To do this, drill a hole in the center with a drill and expand it with a file.


Don't forget to bleed all the air out of the cylinder before drilling it!




The upper part of the can must be opened, the tube and everything superfluous pulled out and the hole widened.




Mounting scheme


The scheme of fastening the neck from the bottle to the cylinder. It turned out a little difficult, but 100% reliable.
The neck is inserted into the hole





1 - balloon
2 - Gypsum
3 - Neck wire
4 - Bottle neck
5 - Screw or self-tapping screw


• We drill holes and screw in screws. Next, insert the neck of the bottle into the hole and fill everything with plaster
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  barrel mount

  
  

  The barrel of the potato gun will be removable, for charging and purging it is simply removed from its mount. The mount is the body of a small aerosol can, the diameter of which is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the barrel. The extra parts are cut off, and the sealing ring from the cycle chamber is glued inside
  

  

  
  

  This tube will also be attached to plaster, so you need to insert pieces of steel wire crosswise into it
  

  

  
  
  

  

  
  

  I decided that this was not enough, and resorted to a little trick. A plastic bottle tends to shrink when heated. Let's use this. A cylinder from a plastic bottle is put on the barrel mount, with an overlap on the combustion chamber. Also part of the bottle should stick out outside the mount
  

  

  
  

  Heat evenly, try not to overheat the plastic. Also avoid touching the plastic with an open flame!

  
  

  

  
  

  The barrel at the point of contact with the mount is sealed with adhesive tape and electrical tape
  

  I advise you to sharpen the edge of the barrel from the outside to facilitate the "cutting" of vegetables and fruits that the gun shoots

  
  

  

  
  

  Ignition system

  
  

  Inside the gun there should be two electrodes at a distance of several millimeters. We have a metal case, this creates small problems. I protected one nail electrode with three layers of heat shrink and glued it into the hole. The second electrode is just a self-tapping screw screwed into the gun body. Accordingly, the spark from the piezo will be fed through the wire to the first electrode and through the gun body to the second
  

  

  
  

  We connect and attach a piezo lighter to the body
  

  

Probably few people do not know what a potato gun is:

Potato cannon (English “potato cannon”, “spud cannon”, “spudzooka”) is a muzzle-loading gun powered by compressed air, or due to the energy generated during ignition of a mixture of combustible gas and air to give the projectiles high speed. Designed mainly for recreational shooting with potato slices or other objects.

Attention!!!

This device is very dangerous if used inappropriately.Never shoot at live targets, and generally use common sense.meaning. No one but you is not responsible for your own actions!!!

On the Internet there is a lot of information on the subject of potato guns. There are also many descriptions of how to make it (from pocket to huge). But, almost all of them lack a fuel dosage system, which affects its power, or unreliability appears in operation. Ideas how to make a simple but effective fuel supply system There were not many, but among them was one that came up in all respects. After tests on a small scale model, and then on the main gun, she showed good results. And so, I present to your attention the main detail of my upgrade:

Some of you may have guessed what it is. If not, then this detail from a gas turbo lighter(only without ceramic tube) :

It mixes the fuel with air, which then burns with a beautiful blue flame 🙂 In other words, the fuel, passing through a small hole, captures air with it, forming the correct fuel-air mixture. Because it suits us. In theory, any gas burner with this principle of operation should be suitable (depending on the scale of your gun). I chose mixers from turbo lighters because it the cheapest and most affordable option.

My gun from sewer pipesø30 and 50 mm.

Not done very neatly, but everything works fine 🙂 I used two mixers from lighters (two were enough, the combustion chamber is completely filled in 7-8 seconds).

Important:

• liquid must not enter the mixer (liquefied gas in liquid form), otherwise it will cease to function normally (the proportion will no longer be the same)
• you need to watch that the air intake holes of the mixer are not clogged with dust and other debris.

Small-scale model (from a reinforced cardboard tube from cling film, a lighter and a piece of tube from a dropper; the projectile is a cardboard cork, the range is ≈ 10 meters)

The advantages of this system:

• increases the power and reliability of the gun
• the piezoelectric element began to work the first time
• no need to ventilate the combustion chamber after each shot

Well, how about without cons

Minuses:

• it is necessary to supply a gas-air mixture before installing the projectile, which is not very safe (it is solved by revision - to make a small hole in the barrel near the combustion chamber, the power will drop a little, but what can you do for the sake of safety)
• use only the gas with which the gas burner worked

P.S. I did not conduct normal full-scale tests of the range of the big potato-cannon projectile, but the correct mixture of fuel and air is 100% the key to success. As soon as I test it, I'll write it in the comments.

If you have any suggestions, questions about this system or the potato gun itself, write in the comments or in a personal message to me.

Thank you for your attention))

Shooting potato cannons is an idea that has been in the air for a long time, as they say. And she flew to us, different sources, either from overseas, like the potato itself, or from the old woman of Europe. No, there are also enough Kulibins on Russian soil with domestic bulb throwers, but the format of "mass psychosis" potato artillery received in the West.

"Potato cannon", "potato gun", "spud cannon", "spudzooka", "kartoffelkanone" - there are a lot of names and varieties of potato guns and pistols in different languages and countries. In its most common version, the potato gun is a muzzle gun that is powered by compressed air or by the energy from the ignition of a mixture of combustible gas and oxygen. Potatoes are most often used as a projectile, which is why the name appeared. At the same time, apples, tangerines, tennis balls and other objects that can be put into a cannon are used with the same success in shooting.

The most interesting thing about using a potato gun is the “wow effect” from the shot itself, for which, in fact, everything is started. With a low cost of 1000-1500 rubles, a gun about 1.5 meters long is obtained, which can shoot at a distance of 5 to 200 meters. Advanced specimens, according to the stories of experienced potato shooters, are much more impressive in size and send the vegetable even further - 300 meters. Impressive is not only the flight range, but also the shot. You don’t expect such a loud pop from several plumbing fixtures fastened together. The ballistics are also impressive: it is quite difficult to predict with accuracy in which direction the potatoes will fly.

Potato guns have gained popularity all over the world due to the simplicity of their design. Cannon components can be purchased by visiting your nearest plumbing store. Numerous authors of video tutorials on the Internet tell how to assemble a "potato shooter" or "potato bazooka" in just half an hour, using a PVC drain pipe, a coupling, a revision with a lid, an adapter from a drain to a riser, a plug, a lighter piezoelectric element, adhesive tape, glue and a few screws. Like a construction set that even a child can master, in a few minutes a real cannon is assembled with a muzzle, a combustion chamber and an initiator. After filling the chamber with gas, hairspray or toilet freshener, screwing on the lid and stuffing the vegetable with an impromptu ramrod into the muzzle, with the help of a piezoelectric element, the shooter submits a claim into the combustion chamber - and a shot follows. Yes, such that it is better for others to keep their distance - from a close hit on the target, the potatoes are broken soft-boiled.

If in Russia shooting from potato guns is mainly regarded as weekend pampering and hooliganism, then in the USA there have long been communities of “potato-gainers”. Shooting enthusiasts come from different parts of the country to special training grounds and hold competitions, playing cash prizes. The winner is usually chosen according to three criteria - the range of the potato, time in the air and accuracy. At the same time, the participants constantly upgrade their guns. There is no limit to the imagination here. The design can be complicated by adding several barrels, make automatic charge supply, install auto-dosing of gas, create automatic blowing of the combustion chamber with a fan, and, in the end, improve the ammunition itself, giving it more dynamism.

The method of setting the vegetable in motion does not necessarily occur with the ignition of the fuel. A shot can be fired either by compressing air (pneumatic catapults), or by exploding a bomb from dry ice or compressing an air-fuel mixture (hybrid type of gun). No self-respecting potato shooter is complete without accessories: straps for carrying ammunition, pens, potato cases, etc. In many ways, the popularity of potato shooting among Americans is spurred on by the TV screen. Scenes using potato guns and potato-shooting devices are found in films such as Tremors 3, Iron Man 3, House M.D., The Simpsons cartoon, and so on.

However, it is worth remembering that if in the United States, where the citizens of the country are allowed to freely carry weapons, potato guns are perceived as an innocent hobby, then in Russia, the idea of ​​​​opening a potato shooting range or organizing the mass sale of potato guns will almost certainly cause problems with the law. As negative example we can cite the experience of Germany, where the insanity with potato guns by local teenagers a few years ago had to be actively suppressed with the help of the police. Potato cannonade sounded on the outskirts of almost all German cities. Soon the news was full of reports of the first victims. So, a teenager from Göttingen lost part of his ear when, when the trigger was pressed, the "chamber" was blown. In Bavaria, a 55-year-old woman, walking her dog at the edge of a forest, was seriously injured: a potato shell hit her in the thigh. Another man nearly lost an eye, another shooter was burned by a hairspray explosion while refueling, a third suffered fractures, and so on. As a result, the authorities of most lands decided out of harm's way to equate potato guns with firearms. Now in Germany, the creation and possession of "kartoffelkanone" is prosecuted by the police. The same ban applies in Austria. So the fears of craftsmen regarding the organization of vegetable shooting ranges can be understood. So far, potato guns in Russia can only be officially seen as exhibits at rare popular science open-air festivals.