Mass destruction potatoes. How to make a potato gun from plastic pipes Potato shooter from sewer pipes

11.03.2020

and, having come from it in complete delight, they promised to build a more perfect model in the future. And now, three years later, we were again drawn to the vegetable artillery. Last time we were satisfied with the accuracy and range of fire, and now we decided to improve the rate of fire. Recall that in order to load our first classic cannon, it was necessary to unscrew the barrel, blow through the breech with a pump, install potatoes in the barrel, apply gas from a spray can and quickly assemble the weapon.

Shells for loading into the store must be prepared in advance. They are cut from large potatoes using a piece of pipe with a diameter of 63 mm with sharpened edges. In the design of the gun, we used four types of pipes. A 63mm pipe is used as the barrel. The combustion chamber has a diameter of 90 mm. The arc connecting the breech and tail is made from a 50 mm pipe. A rammer is made from it, which should enter the trunk and push potatoes into it. Finally, the magazine bars are cut off from a 25 mm pipe.

We have not yet decided to take a swing at a fully automatic gun. Although such structures exist. They are controlled by a computer controller, and all recharging operations are performed by numerous servos. The potato gun does not give serious recoil, the energy of which could be directed to mechanical reloading, so we limited ourselves to manual reloading, but lightened by a six-round magazine, an automatic system for purging and supplying gas to the combustion chamber.

Turbocharged gun

To reload our gun, the shooter takes the combustion chamber back, holding a special handle. At the same time, a purge window is released from under the case, which turns out to be exactly under the fan. The fan automatically turns on and blows through the combustion chamber, filling it with air and freeing it from combustion products. At this time, the shooter turns the magazine, setting another potato in front of the entrance to the barrel.

In the diagram, pipes, elbows, and tees are shown in gray, and adapter rings are shown in brown. When selecting components, be careful: the catalogs indicate the outer diameters of pipes and adapter rings. This means that the adapter ring with parameters 90x63 mm is put on a 63 mm pipe, but is not included in a 90 mm pipe - only in a suitable tee or coupling with the appropriate inner diameter.

A cylinder with a propane-butane mixture is fixed on the body. A tube is connected to it, the other end of which is fixed exactly above the purge window. At the final stage of charging, the shooter delivers gas to the combustion chamber by briefly pressing the can button. Thanks to the operation of the fan, all the gas enters the chamber and mixes well with the air. Now you need to quickly, until the gas has flown out of the rammer hole, push the combustion chamber forward and secure the handle in the locking mechanism. In this case, the rammer, attached to the combustion chamber in front, will pass through the magazine cylinder and push the potato into the barrel. Everything, the gun is ready to fire.

Automatic fan switching is very simple. When the combustion chamber is retracted at full speed, the button mounted on it rests against the housing. In fact, it is the button that serves as a limiter for the backward movement of the breech. The handle performs the same role when moving forward. The most important part of the design is the locking mechanism. It is a corner screwed to the body, for which the handle is wound. Without such a lock, during a shot, the combustion chamber, instead of sending potatoes along the barrel, will roll back on its own.

The shop is the hardest part of the design. It is made from an adapter ring, pieces of 25mm tubing, six cylinders cut from 90mm tubing, and twelve saddles. The design is absolutely securely assembled with glue. Note that the central adapter ring is fixed on the axis between two of the same couplings. They are also fixed with glue. The diameter of the cylinders is much larger than the diameter of the rammer to make it easier to push it to the barrel. The potato is held in the center of the cylinder by foam pads.

Plumbing constructor

What a blessing that PVC pipes and fittings exist in the world! As a solution for plumbing, they are completely unpopular, but lovers of technical creativity can build whatever their heart desires from them. Working with PVC pipes is reminiscent of playing with a constructor: assembly requires a minimum of plumbing work, since from the variety of fittings available for sale, you can pick up ready-made “bricks” for almost any design.

When choosing a set of pipes and fittings, you need to remember the following. Firstly, you should choose pipes for pressure water supply, and not for sewage. The latter are not designed to work under pressure, so a gun made from them can explode. Secondly, do not confuse PVC pipes with more common polyethylene pipes, which require a special welding machine to connect. PVC pipes and fittings are designed for adhesive bonding. It is important to remember that PVC glue causes irritation of the mucous membrane of the eyes and respiratory tract, so you need to work with it in a respirator, in a well-ventilated area.

Finally, when choosing adapter rings for connecting pipes of different diameters, you should be very careful not to confuse the inner and outer diameters. Looking at the diagram, you might think that there are too many extra parts in the design of our gun, those same transition rings. This is due precisely to the desire to select elements of matching diameters so that they can be easily assembled without any locksmith refinement.

Two long self-tapping screws screwed into the pipe at an angle to each other form an excellent ignition system. Self-tapping screws are better than screws because they do not unscrew and have a pointed end, which favorably affects the formation of a spark. By turning them in one direction or another, you can adjust the gap between them. A feature of this design is a "tightly" sealed combustion chamber. Therefore, before gluing a plug to the pipe, you should make sure that the ignition system is assembled and working, and the handle is screwed securely and is not going to become loose. Repairing a sealed combustion chamber in the event of a breakdown will be problematic. For a similar reason, you should not use low-quality fuel: hairspray or deodorant. This will quickly lead to contamination of the electrodes, which can no longer be cleaned.

We couldn't do without locksmith work. The fact is that our gun involves a number of movable joints, and none of the standard fittings is designed for a through passage of a pipe through it. On the contrary, all adapter rings have coupling connections - special stops that secure the fitting to the end of the pipe for ease of installation. We had to grind these stops with a drill.

In addition to PVC pipes and fittings, which the diagram will help you choose, to build a gun you will need an 8 cm computer fan, a 9-volt battery, a piezoelectric kitchen lighter, several metal corners and mounting profiles, as well as a propane-butane mixture for camping burners, which can be purchased at a sports store.

We were very lucky with the gas supply system. On one of the paint cans lying around in the editorial office, there was a button with a spray gun, the diameter of which exactly corresponded to the thickness of the aquarium hose, which also lay idle from time immemorial. It remains only to put the hose on the button, and the button on the cylinder with a propane-butane mixture.

jolly gas

The air-fuel mixture is a tricky thing. Learning how to feed exactly the right amount of gas into the combustion chamber is the main skill of a potato shooter. Too lean mixture will not be able to ignite, too rich - too. I would like to call on all experimenters to be careful, confessing for example in their own sloppiness. Practicing firing blanks, we pretty much enriched the mixture. Desperate to set fire to it, we left the gun with the bolt closed. Returning a little later, they tried to click the lighter again. During this time, the excess gas has evaporated, the mixture in the combustion chamber is well mixed. As a result, the gun shied away so that half of the employees on the floor had ringing in their ears for another half day. Thus we learned, not without joy, that our cannon was capable of firing with much more force than we thought, and also that it was never possible to fire indoors even with blanks. Yes, and on the street we now always use headphones or earplugs.

Most computer coolers are rated at 12V, but work fine on a 9V battery. Do not be afraid that four wires come out of the fan. To make it work, the black wire must be connected to the negative terminal of the battery, and the yellow wire to the positive. The fan is turned on by a button, which is fixed on the combustion chamber. When the breech is pulled back to reload, the button rests against the case, starting the purge process.

When assembling the cannon, we expected that the long-range would have to pay for the convenience of reloading. A multiply charged cannon is structurally more complicated than a classical one, and in its design there is a “bottleneck” in the literal sense of the word: it is a rammer, the diameter of which is smaller than the diameter of the barrel. In addition, the purge window and the same rammer are places of potential leakage of working gases. That is why we strongly discourage the use of handguns.

Our predictions turned out to be wrong. Through blowing with a fan provided better filling of the combustion chamber with oxygen and better mixing of air with gas. Therefore, the pressure in the chamber during the combustion of the mixture increased, and with it the firing range also increased. So we can safely recommend that you repeat our experience. Dare, but be careful!

Our readers are very fond of weapons. There are many people among them who are familiar with various types of weapons firsthand: designers, testers, military men, as well as those for whom sports shooting, hunting or studying weapons history has become a favorite hobby. However, among the hunters to read and talk about weapons, there are also those who have never in their lives held anything worse than a water pistol in their hands. This, of course, is a mess. We decided to arm all the faithful fans of "PM" to the teeth. Every month we will tell you how to create something from available materials with your own hands that shoots far, flies high, burns well and pleases those around you with a deafening roar and festive fireworks, having previously tested each recipe on our own experience. We decided to start with an artillery piece that has long become a classic in America and is rapidly gaining popularity all over the world - the potato gun.

Pressure deficit

The first and, perhaps, the most serious obstacle on the way to our own potato gun for us was the total absence in the shops and construction markets of the capital of pressure water pipes made of polyvinyl chloride, the main building material for home-made artillery. The only PVC products, which are presented in abundance everywhere, are sewer pipes and fittings of any diameters, configurations and even colors. You can’t shoot from them - these pipes and their connections are not strong enough to work under pressure. The nature of the general concern of sellers with problems of sewerage with a complete disregard for the water supply remained a mystery to us.

You can find some materials for a potato gun right in your kitchen. Don't neglect protective equipment. 1. Pressure water pipe PVC 63X1000 mm. 2. Pressure water pipe PVC 90X400 mm. 3. Fittings. 4. Piezoelectric lighter. 5. Wires. 6. M4X40 mm screws with nuts (electrodes). 7. Travel balloon with propane-butane mixture. 8. Potato. 9. Points. 10. Gloves. 11. Headphones or ear plugs. 12. Respirator. 13. Paint. 14. Purge pump. 15. Carriage of arbitrary design.

In our area, water pipes are often laid from metal-plastic or polypropylene pipes. In terms of their properties, they are not inferior to PVC, the only difference is that polypropylene pipes and fittings cannot be glued together; an expensive welding machine with a whole arsenal of special nozzles is required to connect them. Do not succumb to the persuasion of sellers who assure that polypropylene can be welded with a lighter. We have seen from our own experience that, even with a powerful gas burner, it is impossible to connect such pipes reliably and evenly, therefore they are not suitable for building a cannon. For the sake of the experiment, we made a carriage out of polypropylene pipes.

A week-long search led us to a specialized store, where we were able to purchase two three-meter lengths of pressure PVC pipes, designed for pressures up to 10 atmospheres, as well as all the necessary fittings. Let's make a reservation right away that the construction of a potato gun requires creative flexibility: the lack of the necessary materials on sale can dictate serious design deviations from the original project. In particular, based on the available parts, we equipped our gun with a removable barrel, and made the breech part non-separable. This design has an advantage over the traditional one, with a screw plug at the rear of a fixed gun: the gun can be loaded from the breech, rather than pushing the projectile through the entire barrel. On the other hand, screwing a heavy barrel into place is more difficult than a small plug. To ensure that gas does not erode from the breech during assembly, you need to act very quickly.

Finally, in obedience to the will of circumstances, our gun turned into a howitzer. Guided by the availability of strictly defined fittings on sale, we purchased pipes with a diameter of 63 and 90 mm (internal diameters of 55 and 80 mm, respectively). At the same time, the barrel length turned out to be equal to 18 calibers, which allows us to classify our gun as a howitzer.

Working with fire

Together with the pipes, we purchased a special adhesive for PVC, as well as a solvent necessary for degreasing the surfaces to be glued. To say that these liquids smell bad is to say nothing. When working with toxic drugs, in no case should you neglect a respirator, goggles and gloves: PVC glue causes irritation of the mucous membrane of the eyes and respiratory tract, and direct contact can damage the skin. It is better to glue in a well-ventilated area. The rest of the assembly of the potato gun is very simple. When sawing off the necessary sections of pipes, one must try to make the cutting angle as close as possible to a straight line - then the joints inside the gun will turn out to be even, which contributes to uniform combustion of the mixture.

The ignition system of our gun was based on an ordinary kitchen piezoelectric lighter. This is the most affordable, but also the most capricious type of ignition. As its analogues, mechanical lighters from kerosene lamps are used, which we have not met on sale, and stun guns, which in themselves are weapons that are dangerous to use. The piezo lighter gives a very weak spark, which is not always enough even to ignite the gas mixture. The reliability of the gun depends entirely on the location and condition of the ignition electrodes.

The second critical factor in tool performance is fuel. First of all, we tried the hairspray recommended in one of the recipes. The heads of the screws screwed into the plug of the breech of the gun acted as electrodes. The tests were carried out in a barbaric way - by vertically setting the breech in the middle of the editorial office and trying to set fire to the gas injected there. The first shot of lacquer shot up into the air like a large ball of fire, making a long howling sound. The audience was impressed, and the second time the cannon fired an encore. But the third time did not happen: after the combustion of the propane-butane base, the unburned part of the strong fixation hairspray covered the inner surface of the combustion chamber and the electrodes with a thick layer. The ignition stopped working, the varnish showed its complete failure as a fuel.

Tests of the deodorant also did not give the desired result. Finally, in a sports shop, we came across the perfect fuel - a pure propane-butane mixture in canisters for a camping burner. Such fuel burns completely without contaminating the electrodes. We managed to achieve truly stable operation of the gun only by sharpening the electrodes for better sparking and moving them to the center of the combustion chamber. For a weak piezoelectric lighter, sharpening the electrodes and fine-tuning the optimal distance between them is not only desirable, but a vital procedure.

Goodbye potatoes!

Finally, the day came for the first field trials of the potato howitzer. We set up a firing position in a wasteland, about a hundred meters from the metal fence, to which we hoped to throw a potato. We dismantled the gun, tightly installed potatoes cut into the barrel, cut off with a special caliber - a piece of pipe identical to the barrel with sharpened edges (by the way, if you make the gun non-separable, you can sharpen the barrel itself), generously injected gas into the breech, wrapped the barrel, optimistically plugged your ears and pressed on the lighter button. “Zilch,” the cannon whispered plaintively and languidly moved the projectile half a meter along the barrel.

pink camouflage

An artillery gun is a complex engineering structure designed to decide the fate of people. Of course, it should not look like an extra detail from the sewer. Decorating a cannon, giving it a look that inspires fear and awe, is an obligatory stage of construction, similar in emotional intensity to painting a hot rod. Remembering the spring holiday, we dedicate our creation to beautiful ladies. Meet "Barbie from Hell", the most formidable weapon of emancipation in the spring/summer 2008 season! Lacquered pink cannon on a golden carriage will make you stunning both figuratively and literally!

It was all about mixture. The combustion of gas requires oxygen, which is contained in the air. Only a combustible mixture with an optimal ratio of gas and air can ignite. The situation was aggravated by cold weather (it was -50C outside), in which the gases mix worse. Our personal experience has shown that for a good shot, a second press on the spray can button is enough. After each volley, the combustion chamber of the gun must be purged to remove combustion products and refill the chamber with air. For purging, we specially took with us a pump with a long hose.

In the printed edition, it is impossible to quote the comments with which we saw off the potatoes flying across the sky far beyond the fence into the unknown. According to our estimates, the projectile flew at least 200-250 m. Judging by the lack of response comments, nothing vital happened behind the fence, and we did not deny ourselves the pleasure of firing a few more volleys. Therefore, we consider the above scheme to be fully functional and boldly recommend it to readers! We ourselves sit down to design an advanced gun with metered fuel injection, multi-point ignition, forced ventilation of the combustion chamber, a quick reload system and a silencer to talk about it in one of the future issues of the magazine.

Today, many people hear about potato guns. What is it and what are they for? The Potato Cannon is a weapon with a fairly long range. You can do it yourself. This article will tell you what tools are needed for this and how the gun works.

Principle of operation

The potato gun is very similar to a firearm, only it has less working pressure. In it, the projectile is also driven by a mixture of gases under pressure. Cannons can differ in how they project their projectile. We will talk about weapons in which the ignition of the fuel-air mixture occurs.

The gun consists of a combustion chamber, an ignition system and a barrel. To make a shot, you need to push the projectile, in our case, potatoes, into the barrel with a ramrod. Fuel is injected into the combustion chamber. It can be propane or some kind of aerosol. Now you need to activate the ignition system. Usually, a piezoelectric element from a gas lighter is used for this. The mixture ignites and creates hot gases. They expand under the influence of heat and push the potatoes out of the trunk.

How to make a potato gun, we will describe below, but first you need to find out if such a tool is legal. Check the laws in force in your area. In some places, such weapons are prohibited, and their manufacture and possession face penalties.

If you are convinced that the potato gun is considered legal in your area, you can start making it.

Required accessories

The parts that we need to make a gun can be bought at a hardware store. The cost of all parts will be approximately 800-1500 rubles. Thus, a do-it-yourself potato gun will not cost too much.

So what do you need to buy? Going to the store, write the following list on a piece of paper:

Plastic pipe with a diameter of 10 cm, bent at a right angle - 1 pc.
Plastic pipe with a diameter of 5 cm (1.2 meters) - 1 pc.
Adapter from 10 to 5 cm - 1 pc.
Cap on a pipe with a carving - 1 piece.
Piezoelectric element - 1 pc.
Sealant - 1-2 packs.
Aerosol can with butane - 2-3 bottles.
Potatoes - 1 bag.

Assembling the combustion chamber

When you have purchased everything you need, you are concerned about the question of how to make a potato gun. Well, let's start in order and make a combustion chamber.

First of all, we wind the cap on the end of the curved pipe, having previously smeared the thread with sealant.

We insert a narrow pipe into the adapter. She will play the role of the barrel of our gun. The design must be straight and have a strong connection.

A small hole should be drilled in the side of the resulting "shoulder". Here we have assembled the combustion chamber. The main thing in this work is to choose the optimal size. If it is very short, then the potato will fly out quickly, and if it is long, then the speed of the projectile will slow down.

We insert the piezo element

The piezoelectric element is a necessary thing, without it the potato gun will not work. Instructions on how to insert it are below.

We wrap the piezoelectric element with wire. There should be a small gap between its end and the spark generator.

Now we insert our "spark" into the hole that we drilled in the pipe. We process the hole with a sealant so that there are no gaps left and air cannot penetrate inside.

We screw a self-tapping screw into the chamber to a depth of 1.5 cm. We wind the wire from the piezoelectric element outside the chamber to it. When working, use a blue tape so as not to get an electric shock.

Now let's press the button. If a small spark runs through the wire from the piezoelectric element to the self-tapping screw, then everything is done correctly.

How to load a gun and fire a shot

Our finished potato cannon needs projectiles. To charge it, we take a potato, put it in the barrel and push it through with a ramrod. If not, you can use a narrow stick. You need to choose potatoes of such a size that there is a small gap between it and the trunk.

Everything, the gun is ready for battle. If you decide to shoot with a small gun, it is recommended to put a rag in the barrel. She will not allow the projectile to fly out prematurely, and the range of its flight will be large.

Now you need to choose a target. You can only aim the gun at the target, next to which there are no people and animals.

So, are you ready to fire? Then we unscrew the cap and spray the aerosol into the chamber for 5 seconds. Everything must be done very quickly. We twist the cap and press the ignition button. The potatoes flew.

Before the next shot, the gun must be cleaned and the above steps repeated.

Safety regulations

Shooting the potato cannon is pretty fun, but don't forget the safety rules:

Never point the implement at people or animals. The most suitable place for shooting is an empty open field.
The potato gun is a weapon! It can cause serious injury. It must be used with extreme caution.
Familiarize yourself with applicable laws. If such a tool is illegal, you will face penalties for using it.
Gun tubes should not be glued together. Otherwise, with a powerful shot, it may explode.
You do not need to load the gun if you do not intend to fire.
Potatoes cannot be fired at very high or low air temperatures. The fact is that plastic pipes can become fragile, which threatens both the shooter and others around him.

How to make a mini potato gun

To make a small potato cannon, take a plastic bottle with a cap. You will also need a small syringe, a button from a piezo lighter, a wooden pistol grip, glue, wire and

We make a hole in the pistol grip and cut a hole for the piezoelectric element. We install the button and contacts and fix everything with glue.

We make two holes in the bottle with a knife at a distance of 0.5 cm from each other. We insert a wire from the piezoelectric element into them. When the button is pressed, a spark should run between the contacts.

Glue the bottle to the wooden handle.

Now we will make a barrel from a syringe. We cut off its upper part and remove the piston.

We make a hole in the bottle cap into which we insert the syringe and fix the structure with glue. The mini potato gun is ready.

You can shoot from such a gun with small pieces of potatoes or berries.

So, we learned how a do-it-yourself potato gun is made. This process requires great care and accuracy. When firing from a finished gun, be very careful and in no case point the gun towards people or animals. You can only shoot at inanimate objects.

Potato gun, in English. - Potato cannon or Potato gun - the most favorite entertainment of those who love both tinkering and hooligans, and at the same time want to stay within the law. Probably, harsh Russian cops will react badly to such a hobby, but, having successfully originated in America, the potato gun has also successfully spread throughout the world, only a few countries have imposed a ban.

For such a gun you will need: PVC pipes that are used in plumbing. Namely - a cover, a coupling, an adapter, a pipe with a diameter of 50 and a tee with a diameter of 110. You also need to have at hand: a hacksaw, a knife, liquid nails, adhesive tape.

Begin slowly collect, this unit. On the 110 tee from the end side, we put the roof on, before that we smeared it with glue. On the opposite side, also on glue, we put the clutch. Having fixed the coupling, let the glue dry a little and insert the adapter from 110 to 50 pipe into it. A cover will be screwed on from the side, it does not need to be glued by inertia.

Next, we will make a barrel for a potato gun. We take 2 meters of a plastic tube with a diameter of 50 and cut it in half. Cut the other half lengthwise with a knife. Then we put the cut pipe on the whole one. Thus, we strengthened the thin pipe of our trunk. Next, we reinforce this trunk with tape. After you have wound 2-3 layers of adhesive tape, we glue the muzzle into the combustion chamber (the part that we made first) and go through the tape again.

After all the plastic parts are assembled, we proceed to the filling. After the holes have been drilled into the combustion chamber, we screw in the screw. A spark will jump between it and the wire. As a spark source, a cheap piezo lighter for gas stoves was chosen. Two wires come from the piezoelectric element, one is fastened to the screw, the second at a distance of 5 mm from it. We fasten the lighter itself to the body of the gun with adhesive tape, leaving the spark button free.

The principle of operation and the first tests of the potato gun

We take potatoes a little larger than the diameter of the trunk and press them into it with effort. Next, you need to push something further. For this purpose, you can make a ramrod from a ski stick. We push the potatoes to the end of the barrel, but not into the combustion chamber itself. To do this, you can make a notch on the ramrod so that you can see where to push the projectile.

Then we take an aerosol can with acetone, unscrew the cap, spray it a little into the combustion chamber and close it back. We press the button of the piezo lighter, the explosion of the projectile is pushed out by the burning vapors of acetone.

The potato gun, as the name implies, shoots ordinary potatoes. The design of the potato gun is a simple system that can be made from. The principle of its operation is also quite simple. First, potatoes are pushed into the trunk. On the other hand, flammable gas is injected into the combustion chamber. As such, you can use hairspray. Then, with the help, a spark is fed into the combustion chamber. The gas-air mixture flares up and pushes the potato projectile out of the barrel.

When making a potato gun, you need to pay attention to the reliability of fastening the combustion chamber cover. Otherwise, the ignited gas-air mixture, instead of a charged potato, can shoot a lid into your eye. Of course, you will not get severe damage, but a bruise, or a cut, can be provided to you. And it is best to make a cover for the combustion chamber of the potato gun, set aside from the shooter.

For the manufacture of a potato gun, we will use sewer. They are light and durable, they can be made completely sealed, and also, create almost any configuration and shape. The combustion chamber can be made from a sewer tee. We close the back with a lid, putting it on epoxy glue. For reliability, you can screw in small self-tapping screws with wide hats around the circumference, commonly called "bugs". The side branch of the tee will be used for gas injection. Therefore, it is advisable to choose a tee on which the caps are screwed with a thread in order to be able to quickly close the combustion chamber without applying much effort. we take a thin pipe and connect it to the combustion chamber using an adapter. We will also put it on glue for complete reliability. You can buy all the parts for the potato cannon at a plumbing store. Cut a hole at the bottom of the tee and insert a stun gun into it. Fill the gaps around it with epoxy. The stun gun will serve not only as an igniter of the gas-air mixture, but also as a comfortable handle.

Agree - this is a simple and effective design that anyone can do. The most difficult thing is, perhaps, to purchase a stun gun. Other igniters of the mixture that can be adapted to this design of the potato gun, something does not come to mind. Perhaps one of the readers of our blog will be able to offer something simpler than the stun gun presented by the authors of the potato cannon design.

Such a potato gun from twenty meters easily breaks through sheet drywall, and simply breaks a melon or watermelon from the inside into small pieces. Although, of course, you can’t name it, it’s quite possible to shoot at targets for fun. Good luck.

The author of the site does not bear any responsibility for what you can do, guided by the information taken from the pages of the site. Anything you want to repeat, you do at your own peril and risk.