Rapid firing air cannon?

[kunkmiester]

Paintball had a collapse during the housing crisis, and it lasted long enough it never fully recovered. Obviously still around but not quite popular enough to sustain sales of some of the more specialized and expensive equipment. Legal concerns are icing on that cake.

[Pilkdog]

I know this is an old post but I didn’t see where the air cannon plans were ever posted. If anyone can help

[quinn whitsitt]

I get the idea

[Graybill]

You need to shut off the air feed or the recharge rate will effect the projectile velocity as the tank discharges. This varies on factors like ballast size and operating pressure. Smaller ballast needs higher psi but gets more efficient as you go. 800psi can be used in quite a small ballast and propel 25gram projectiles a couple hundred fps. With larger ballasts you can acheive the same velocities but at lower pressures. Fastest thing to fire off of is a giant tank that is at launch pressure. The faster the flow the better. Back to feed shut off, best way is to integrate the shut off seal into the piston or piston rod to close right before main valve opens to barrel.

[quinn whitsitt]

they could have a end around refeaul or a hidden air tank with Psi regulator.

[Sear]

I am wondering how people build air cannons that seemingly have no air refilling time. Here's a couple videos showing some of them.




I don't see any air compressor anywhere, not even a large noticeable air tank like most potato guns. They act just like a paintball gun. Firing in quick succession.

I never understood how this is done exactly. My current plan to achieve a similar result was to use a high pressure air tank, and use that to fill up a 2nd air tank that will be used to shoot the cannon. But I don't think a 2nd tank is required with the right kind of air release control.

Luke, these guns are not exactly rapid firing ones. AT gun can fire once in 4-5 seconds, light mortar even faster. Those are realistic values. And both of them have small yet higher pressure steel tank. You don't need anything fancy in both cases. I've done both and more. The final setup is a some air reservoir, a solenoid valve and a smaller scuba tank. If you need more info, just drop me a line.
That being said, rapid firing Flak 30/38 is well possible, it is just not cheap at all to master.