Gatling gun prototype

[trollhameran]

I made a topic a week or so ago and it resulted in a plan to make a gatling gun prototype, so I have now started building the mechanism parts of it.



I have built a copy of a co2 motor as shown above, and the crank shaft which moves the barrels around will be connected to the crank in the animation above and the barrels will line up with the air outlet.



This is the actual piston I have made, it is an old pump housing with a piston at both ends and a hole drilled in the side for the air outlet.



This is my original drawing, the end product will probably look nothing like this but oh well.



This is what i have made so far, the prototype will only have 3 barrels as It will be easier to make 3 work than 8 like I am planning on having when I eventually build a bigger version. the top wheels circumference is 3 times that of the bottom wheel so that every time the bottom wheel goes round once (The chamber starts filling at the start of a rotation and air is let out at the end if it) the top wheel goes round a third of the way lining up the next barrel at the right time for the air outlet to release air into the barrel.

The Bent piece of wire will attach to the crank shaft and will pull the piston up and down letting air out when its down and allowing the chamber to fill when its up.



This is a lame paint drawing of what it should look like when finished just so you get the idea.

[youtube][/youtube]

And finally a video of the wheels spinning whilst connected to a drill, works pretty well .

[SpudFarm]

looks good.

not much to say acctualy

[MaxuS the 2nd]

An electric motor would have been a whole lot easier, but congrats on an interesting design. Afterall, spudguns are all about innovation.

[trollhameran]

I am planning on putting an electric motor on it in the end but until I can get one I have to just put the end of the wire in the chuck on the drill and away we go lol

[flamerz14]

MAN! i'm doing the same thing too! but i gots no money to build

[POLAND_SPUD]

if it's going to be powered by co2 don't you think that there will be a lot of force acting on piston ? I mean, so much force that the frame can break becasue of the stress ?

[trollhameran]

flamerz14: i havnt got any money either, im "borrowing all the parts from my dad and college lol

POLAND_SPUD: It shouldn't break because above the check valve on my piston casing there is another piston that is connected to the piston at the bottom by a rod so that when the bottom piston is pushed out it drags the top piston down with it and seals the top of the chamber so that the air only flows when a barrel is lined up and the top piston is stopped by the check valve so that the crank arm can only move a certain distance.

[Brian the brain]

I suggest you regulate the pressure to a lower safer...300 psi and use a reservoir.

900 psi is pretty scary...and you will run out of CO2 extremely fast.
Also, the temeprature of the piston and it's housing will drop incredibly, wich makes it a lot more brittle.
The combination of those two factors make it dangerous.

It doesn't need 900 psi to be powerfull.

[iPaintball]

Good idea man! I cant wait to see the finished product.

@BTB: Come on, of all the people to say " It doesn't need 900 psi to be powerful"

[Brian the brain]

Before the piston is at the top of the stroke, the inlet valve is alreay opened.
This will swing the crankshaft back in the opposite direction..Do this will NOT work.
If you try and crank it by hand, you will injure your wrist.

just look at the animation carefully.

900 psi is fine if everything is tested and rated to those kind of pressures.
I made my first "overpowered" gun using "only" 300-350 psi.
It shot through 2 layers of ply and a steel can and still managed to dent a brick wall.

So you don't NEED 900.
Especially not in a gatling gun.

[trollhameran]

I will be using an electric motor to turn the crank because i no how easy it is to damage your wrist on things that turn with alot of force, so Im fairly sure that as long as the motor turns with more force than the co2 then it will work, I have done some tests today using compressed air from a compressor and turning the crank with an electric drill, and you can hear the air flow stuttering from the air outlet opening and closing rapidly. I will upload a video of this shortly. It works to some extent but as so far it is just a very bodged version that i made to test the valve setup, so it has alot of dead space and no barrels yet because i need to redesign the frame so that i can have the barrels touching the air outlet, I will be doing this as soon as I can and as long as I dont hit to many snags I am hoping to have a fully working prototype in a week or two.

[socoj2]

So you don't NEED 900.
Especially not in a gatling gun..

Depends on the volume...

Ie you can have a small chamber and a large barrel if you use a high Pressure.

[trollhameran]

[youtube][/youtube] heres a small video of the valve part of the gun working, no barrels yet but if you look closely at around 12 seconds it dos fire 1 bb, if you listen you can here the stuttering sound that the air makes from the flow not being constant

[SEAKING9006]

Nice job, man. I'm looking forward to the final version.

[trollhameran]

thanks. Hopefully wont be to long before the final version of the prototype is done, but the final final version will probably be a bit longer, because i want to iron out every single flaw in this version before i start on the actual version which will be alot bigger, with a bigger bore and hopefully hand held