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My Pneu Cannon

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:07 pm
by mark.f
Alright, this is copied entirely from my post on SpudTech, but I figure if Gort does it all the time, (and it's my material to copy anyways), I can too.

:roll: -------------------------------------------- :roll:

Okay, I finished my piston valved pneumatic a few days ago, but today was the first testing, so I figured I couldn't really call it finished until I did.

And boy does she shoot.

The cannon itself is rather simple. The main thing here was me working on the valve. It is a barrel sealing tee valve based in a two inch tee with 1-1/2" porting for ALMOST unrestricted flow for a golfball. Even with the tenth of an inch or so on the choked diameter, they still go out of sight.:D

The chamber is about 36 to 48", (I didn't really measure it), of 2" SCH-40. I was gonna use 3" but for simplicity's sake I just used 2".

The barrel is 2" SCH-40 with 1-1/2" SDR-26 sleeved inside of it with spacers. The barrel, while it is not SDR-21... works beautifully! It's only .03" larger in bore than SDR-21 anyways...

The piston is actuated by a 1/4" Q.E.V. bought off McMaster. The valve itself is piloted and filled from the same ball valve with a male quick disconnect end. This works great, even though it's not as "realistic" as piloting with a blowgun.

The piston is nothing special... just some 1-7/8" PVC rod sealed into the 2" pipe it rides in with duct tape an lubricated with gun oil.


The performance is more than I can ask for. The piston is not bouncing, (due to the quick and full opening and recoil felt), and the golf balls are going faster than in any combustion I've made.

I am going to take some pictures of the actual piston later on tonight when I ask my stepdad where he put the damn strap wrench, (to take it all apart).

Here are some pictures. I plan on more as you guys ask for them, (these are just the basic pictures).

The barrel support is just cardboard tubing painted black and a belt, ( :P ), until I find something a little more permanent.

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:21 pm
by Shrimphead
Looks great! Can't wait to see more of it. What did you use as the sealing face?

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:24 pm
by Bluetooth
It's like you took the idea out of my head :?.

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:47 pm
by mark.f
Shrimphead: I used 1/8" sheet neoprene off McMaster as the sealing face.

Bluetooth: all pneumatics pretty much look the same to me so far, (at least past the obvious differences). What were your plans?

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:52 pm
by spudmonkey
nice job like it alot, how long did it take to make

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:58 pm
by mark.f
It only took an hour or so to make... but it took a long time to plan...

I made a video. Too late to do any range videos, so I comprimised...

Here lies a dead PutFile link :(

EDIT: and Here lies a dead PutFile link :(

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:18 pm
by Velocity
lol, it seems like the golf ball goes in slow motion. It has a straight, fast flight path, but it seems to go slow. By the destruction however, I can tell it must have been going really fast :lol:

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:21 am
by killagorrila99
ow. kinda stupid to shoot ur camera dont u think?

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 5:23 am
by mark.f
It was a blank at ~15 PSI, so it was fine.

Rmich: it's actually funny that the golfball dipped at the last second, hitting the flank of the board.

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:02 am
by Velocity
thats from the crazy spin that the golf ball picks up i think