mistakes in spud gunning

[Brian the brain]

Ouch my tooth..still hurts after almost two years..
CHeckvalve failed in a HP pump...handle hit me in the face, wich probably broke my upper jaw just under my nose...The gums where stripped off my front teeth and I could move the entire front part ( a little)
But after eating pudding ( literally) for three weeks the problem fixed itself.
I only have one wobbly tooth now.

I have a scar on my upper lip/cheek from it.

Furthermore...I fired a PVC cannon with ice ammo...wich resulted in two split open fingers and a bad black and blue bruise on my leg.

Those where the worst.
I too have a lot of failed designs..from leaky pistons to full auto attempts wich just kept hissing...

It is inevitable to fail when you are this active for this long.
Just like JSR...

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

It is inevitable to fail when you are this active for this long.
Just like JSR...

So true, the only way to never fail is to not never build anything.

Just remembered another one, this thing recoiled so hard it snapped the ignitor against my finger

[MrCrowley]

So true, the only way to never fail is to not never build anything.

Or to never post it
Though it is better to post it online as an experiment or test than not at all. I've noticed you cover your back by using the word "prototype".

[MikeNice]

On my very first cannon I thought I was going to be cool and go big. I did a 24" x 4" chamber with 60" x 2" barrel over / under. It had just 1 ignition gap almost all the way back to the cleanout. It was a night mare trying to get that one fueled right. It truly was a spray and pray. I think in it's original configuration it fired 4 or 5 times. The last time it almost shot I had a slow burn in the chamber which fused the cap to the cleanout. I was such a noob at that point I was still worried about where I used it so a friend and I went WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY out into the desert to shoot it. 15 minutes later we had to drive WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY back into town with a gun that didn't shoot. Now I use 18" chambers, 2 spark gaps, a chamber fan (on the next gun) and I shoot just about where ever I want. (rural Arizona)

One quick side note since I'm here . . . don't cut open glow sticks and dump the contents down a PVC spudgun barrel. The non-toxic chemicals make the PVC soft for a while then really brittle. The glowing green cloud was cool but not at the cost of my spud gun.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I've noticed you cover your back by using the word "prototype".

It's not small print, if it's a one-off experiment then it is a prototype. I could say "technology demonstrator" but then people would probably expect a higher level of workmanship

[D_Hall]

Not sure if this counts as a fail or just a really bad idea....


Have ya'll seen the foam projectiles fired from the Eclipse? Well, I was one of the two guys who did the original design work on it. Since it was designed for paintball, it *HAD* to be safe to shoot at a person. Mind you, "safe" is a relative term. It didn't mean that it had to be fun, but it couldn't send a person to the hospital, ya know?

So to prove that it was safe, I had my wife shoot me with one at point blank range.

Ummm....

That hurt.

Left a bruise about the size of a softball.

But hey, no hospitals. It passed the test!


(Other than that, I've got nuthin'... I over engineer everything and as a result I've never had a part fail or anything like that.)

[Gun Freak]

Why point blank? That's a dumb thing to do

[D_Hall]

Why point blank? That's a dumb thing to do

Because that's worst case scenario. If you can't do that, it's not safe. Keep in mind, at the time the idea was that we were going to mass market these things(*). Sooner or later some kid was going to shoot himself with one. If you don't want a lawsuit... That kid had better not get hurt too badly.



(*) Turned out that the insurance costs were more than production costs. Made it a no-go.

[mark.f]

Well, last night my wrist shorted out a 370 2.2uF capacitor... that hurt a good bit.

Other than that the only things I can think of have mostly been kind of expected... like when the fan and cap blew off of my JIF gun and broke against the wall...

I think I shot the ceiling in my room once with a piece of chocolate because the blowgun on my cannon bumped something.

My friend's first combustion came unglued and hit him in the shoulder with about a 2 lb. piece of PVC. He didn't use primer and painted his pipe before gluing, IIRC.

Not much else. I try to be safe.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I had my wife shoot me with one at point blank range.

... which begs the question, how much encouragement did she require

[MikeNice]

Have ya'll seen the foam projectiles fired from the Eclipse?

I'm not familiar, sounds funny though. And really anything self inflicted that leaves a softball sized bruise without a trip to the hospital or morgue has GOT to be somewhat amusing.

[D_Hall]

Have ya'll seen the foam projectiles fired from the Eclipse?

I'm not familiar, sounds funny though.

A quick google for "40 mm eclipse paintball gun" yields the following pic....



I got hit with the very first one of those at 200 fps.

[Techie]

on my first pneumatic i put teflon tape in between some of the non-threaded joints needless to say it never made it over 10 psi. that was 3 years ago

I prefer electrical tape

Chambers and barrels tend to fly when you do that

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Ooh ooh I just remembered another one

[youtube][/youtube]

And as if to hammer home the point that one gets used to these "mistakes", the comment was:

Very good self control Jack...not one four letter word on the clip, I'm pretty certain there would be (at least one) if it was mine.

[theBOOM]

LMAO jack that's funny, did it hurt?