This is just one of those really cool idea's I am happy to be sharing. I have spent the past few day's researching how to build this spud gun, something I intend on playing outside with my son. With all my googling done, I have personally decided to go with a pneumatic design as it is safer and the design I found is freaken awesome!. :-) But we all know it's just way cooler when we can blow stuff up so let's get on with it!

First, How does a spud gun work?

As I am sure you are aware there are two basic types of spud gun combustive and pneumatic. Each one uses a rapidly expanding volume of gas to move a projectile or in our case a potato. Both types are typically made of Plastic PVC pipe, although some people (ABS), aluminum or other similar piping materials.

Please Note: Spud-guns are made out of Schedule 40 PVC pipe, It is thicker, more durable and has a great pressure rating to around 300 psi, so it is safe for minor 100 psi potato launches.

Basic Components:

• A chamber in which gas can be pressured
• A barrel for the projectile
• Some type of firing mechanism

Typically, the front end of the barrel is sharpened so the barrel acts as a barrel knife, this shaves off the excess potato during loading.

Combustion Spud Gun's

"A combustion-based spud gun uses a flammable vapor consisting of the correct fuel-air mix in a chamber, and a ignition source, typically an electric barbecue lighter which will ignite that flammable mix." When the vapor ignites, the resulting explosion creates a large volume of hot gas, which forces the potato down the length of the barrel.

A pneumatic spud gun uses compressed air rather than flammable gas.

This design in the above image is what I will be attempting to make. I found a awesome tutorial on how to build it at woldprofectpiles.com Hands down in my opinion the best design I could find. You can thank me later!

You have a large-volume chamber that is pressurize with an air compressor, bicycle pump, regulated CO2 tank or something of that nature. Then a fast-acting dump valve, will release all the pressure in the chamber when you fire the valve, this basically dumps that entire amount of air…just in a instant, sending your projectile down the barrel and across the lawn!

Most spud guns are front end barrel loading. The user forces a potato all the way down the length of a barrel using a pole or rod for example. However, some designs are breech loading, meaning that the user can open the gun near the chamber and insert the potato there.

Pneumatic Potato Cannon DIY Tutorial

For your convince I found another great tutorial worth watching :-)
Source on youtube

Need some more inspiration? Watch a Potato Cannon Ignited in Slow Motion.

I just had to share this simply because its amazing to behold, Enjoy!

Destin Sandlin is known for making cool videos with explosions and high-speed cameras, but this particular cool video with explosions and a potato gun is my favorite. Destin has built a potato cannon out of clear PVC Pipe and filmed the combustion chamber at 20,000 frames per second, fast enough to watch the explosion in detail

During the video, Destin is trying to determine if it's better to ignite the cannon from the rear or the middle of the combustion chamber. His theory is that igniting it from the middle is better as it will result in a more even destination. Source

Thanks for reading I will update once I have completed my first prototype. I am open to any advice and looking forward to your comments.

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Cheerz