SpudFiles

As a birthday present to my Dad's friends kid i decided i would help teach the 9 year old to build and design his first cannon. I have several extra sprinkler valves and pipe, but was wondering do you think 9 is too young? i was also planning on putting like a 30-50 psi pop off valve and setting it up for Nerf darts. is this too dangerous for someone this age and does anyone have any suggestions for other ammo barrels or considerations i should make first.

9 year olds have 10 pump BB guns that are far more dangerous. I think with a pop off valve regulating the cannon, it will be just fine. Of course with some adult supervision at first till he gets the science of it. A interchangable barrel set up would be good, tennis balls would be good for his age I would think. He's gonna love it!

i have found that if you show a child the riddiculous power of something they learn to respect it. at least the children ive shown my cannons have realized quite fast its not something to toy with.

making it shoot nerf darts is just ASKING for the kid to shoot it at someone.

A pop-off limited cannon will do just fine.
And yeah, why not a tennis ball launcher.

VH_man
You can better give a kid a harmless cannon that he does non-responsible things with then giving him a lethal cannon that he uses with responsibility.
He might get angry someday and use that lethal cannon in a bad way, its a kid and you cant expect him to properly posses such a weapon. Kids shooting nerf darts at people arent dangerous.
So even if he might understand and realize that its not something to toy with, the chance is he still does.

Every 9 year old in the Uk could fit inside of a oneumatic chamber, they are that small..They're also incedibly immature, and due to the growing stupidity of the general public, I wouldn't trust them with a digestive biscuit.

lol so true maxus, kids in the UK don't have any respect for anything, i wouldn't trust them with a digestive biscuit either, they would probably try to choke me with it

Well I know people that teach their kids to handle firearms as soon as they're physically able to, so I don't see a problem with it. Teach the kid to respect things of this nature now, and he'll grow and learn to appreciate them more later on.

You just need to make sure that the cannon is always put up so he can't just play with it at will, and when he does play with it, there's an adult around that will make sure he follows safety rules.

I think nine is fine for a kid to build a cannon that is around the age I built my first cannon with my dad. I think as long as you add a pop-off it will be fine. Add a safety too that will add some more protection since hes so young, for the safety use a ball valve before the blow gun so you have to release the ball valve before the gun is able to fire. ( one thing I found that makes kids a little more weary or careful is make sure you put agauge on there that doesnot go ove say 50psi, I have found little kids think it will not work if you go over the pressure the gauge says.)

Pfft. I built my first cannon around 9 also. It was a sh!tty pneumatic that had so many leaks that you couldnt even count them. I fixed the leaks later on and then put a dart into a foam ball. I shot it at a wall on my house thinking, whatever... But then I got yelled at because there was a hole in the side of the wall the size of a dart. Now I respect cannons because of there power. I guess if the boy is mature enough to have good common sense, then why not build him a fun little plinker? Just make sure that you teach him a couple safety tips.

I agree with VH_man and maxus (to an extent). Show thm the power and they will respect it, but at the end of the day he is just a kid. The solution would be that he only uses it under supervision, which I think is kinda obvious anyway. That way the dad can enjoy it too.

And maxus - most UK kids are, especially chavs, as ever there is a good majority but still not many . The way obestity is going here there are probably more like no kids who could fit down the barrel!

Really depends on the kid I think and his maturity level. 9 is probably a tad on the young side for most kids but some can handle it just fine. 10-11 (big difference from 9 at that age) or first year in middle school (grade 6) probably a better timeframe.

Just my 2 cents....

Instead of a pneumatic, how about a "Binaca Gun" (http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/thermo/thermo2.html) combustion?

I think you should set it up like those little crappy nerf-dart guns where the foam dart goes over the barrel, but have like a 1" barrel and make some darts from a foam noodle. Fun and safe

hmm.

why not make something with the parents that he can have an hour a week to shoot it in his backyard? and if he got visitors he can't shoot it.

Hint:
Make the barrel long enough to keep him from shooting himself in the face.

But yeah, I think 9 is probably old enough; I got a bb gun when I was 6 or 7.