Build a Paintball Mine

My friends and I enjoy playing paintball out in the Arizona desert on occasion. It’s great fun, but sometimes pelting someone with a couple hundred paintballs traveling at 300 feet per second just isn’t enough. Sometimes you just need something extra…. So I built the paintball mine that you will see in this instructable!

Step 1: Concept

This paintball mine is based (i.e. ripped-off) from a patent I found online. (US # 6,688,234 B2) Browsing patents online is a great way to come up with cool ideas for your own projects! The mine is a small canister that you bury in the ground, filled with liquid paint. A standard 12 gram CO2 cartridge is inserted upside down into the canister. A top with a plunger centered over the cartridge is screwed on. When someone steps on the plunger the cartridge is pierced, pressurizing the canister and expelling the paint. I feel the original patent has a simple, but serious design flaw. Look at Diagram #1 below.  When the CO2 is released it follows the path of least resistance, and blasts directly out of the holes, carrying some, but not all, of the paint with it. It also tends to create more of a thin “aerosol spray” with the paint. Diagram #2 shows my design, which adds tubes/nozzles in the holes with a small gap beneath them. When the CO2 is released, it cannot travel down to the tubes, so instead it pressurizes the canister, forcing almost all of the paint out before it can escape out through the tubes. This results in more of the paint being expelled in a thicker and more forceful stream. 

Comments

[NinjaBoy12]

Any chance this works witth airsoft bb's

[mattbeowulf]

Dude- why not try it, and report back to us? kaptaink_cg went to the trouble of writing this 'ible; he probably would have mentioned bb's if he tried them... but that is where you can help out. For Science!
And because now I'm curious too :-)

[necro forums]

love it,work's great go to my profile if u want a paintball game mode

[RC Guy]

Hey i tried the out works great
Thanks!!!!
i had a mod that i made i used thin membraned balloon fixed on each of the outflow pipes and then i just incresed the canister size for 12 to 50gms and ta da
the pressure filled in the balloons and the exploded spreading the paint over a larger area

[The Sensei]

to modify this to use it with a trip wire, you could replace the plunger with a solid piece holding a spring compressed and held by a safety pin. wire is tied to the pin, wire gets tripped, pin pulls out releasing the spring to drive it into the cartridge. super simple and effective

[deobomb]

its adapter not adpater lolollol

[ilpug]

It's "LOL" not "lolollol."

[Kindhamster]

Nicely done, m'sieur

[thatoneguy112233]

i think that it would be better without the 4 spray tubes because without thhem you could get a wider range and possibly get more people, just my thoughts

[kaptaink_cg]

Without the 4 tubes, you can't truly "pressurize" the chamber. You'll probably get a bigger spray radius, but the CO2 will take the path of least resistance out, meaning it will just go straight for the holes and will leave at least half the paint behind.

[hamolton]

What if you used cones or something?

[Vulcanator]

Please tell me what website i can go to so i can look at patents.
thanks.

[lime3D]

United States Patent and Trademark Office

[kaptaink_cg]

Try:  http://www.google.com/patents

There are others as well.. Just google "Patent search"

[edfel01]

made this and i worked awesome the only problem was since their foot covered all the tubes thats all the paint hit. Good Instructable though

[lime3D]

You could modify this so that instead of shooting straight up, is shot out through a side pipe (maybe a foot or so) before turning up with an elbow.

[KontaKt]

How are you supposed to bury this thing without any of it showing but not have the spraying tubes underground?

[Paracord Ninja16]

Instead of using a PVC pipe cutter i just use a hack saw.

[Da Person who plays paintball.]

Another good idea is to make a tripmine. You connect a wire to the Co2 thingie, which goes into the nail, and then when the Co2 moves up the tube, it goes through a tube surrounded by paint, which goes into the barrel too. (I dont know what principal :P) It then comes out and hits a thin mesh, which spreads it thinner. This will spray anyone who trips the line. And maybe some other people too.

[Aron313]

Whyd you post this in an airsoft group?

[john209]

I working on a tripwire version of this mine, I going to post it when I'm done, I just started the prototype a day or two ago.

[kaptaink_cg]

Nice! Can't wait to see it. I had always planned on doing a tripwire one,but still havent gotten around to it.

[Aron313]

Thats why i like airsoft because i can go home and lay on the couch after a game and i dont have paint all over me. I also like the airsoft mines better!

[ilpug]

I saw this a while ago, and, remembering how cool it is, decided to come back and suggest some improvements.

1. larger spray radius, with the paint tubes less centralized. with your design, it looks like the paint only goes onto the bottom of someones shoe, if they step on it directly. I reccomend making the paint tubes come out the sides, and curve upward, so as to spray in a wider radius, to possibly hit multiple players.

2. Make a larger contact plate, or modify it to work via tripwire. At the moment, it looks like the trigger is only about an inch in diameter, easily pressed. you should increase the surface area of the plate. Maybe just glue some sticks or the lid of a tin can to it, as long as it doesn't get in the way of the spraying paint, it cant hurt.


amazing mine! i am i the process of making one to use flour instead of paint, for airsoft.

[aesquivel]

Great instructable, though you could go a notch up over the terrorist scale and fill it with pee.

Now THAT would make you watch your step, and actually you could just leave it there as it'll get better with time (and the sun). From there the possibilities are endless.

[ilpug]

You have an evil mind.

I like that.

[acarlson5]

could u make this shoot 4 paintballs?
like, make the spray parts wider and then just put a paint ball in each?
idk if they would be propelled fast enough to break, but what do ya'll think?

[hightekrednek2396]

it probably would if you could get the right size pipe and smaller chamber

[hungyhipo 2]

is there a way to convert this to airsoft. i was wondering how i would do that.

[wchbeast]

in airsoft,pellets arnt in landmines... powder is so if you want to covert it to airsoft fill it with powder or baking soda instead of liquid paint

[reddevved]

Probably just use pellets smaller than the tubes.

[wierdguy03]

Idea, flip the co2 canister and put the puncture screw in the mechanism from the top, as well as the escape holes for the gas. This way you won't add another hole in the canister/container for the gas to escape, and (with the escape holes for the gas at the upper end of the canister housing the gas will easily go to the void space at the top of the container, instead of forcing it's way through the paint first. Just suggestions, and GREAT land mine!

[I1FaLLenAngel1I]

I noticed on the PDF file has a safety pull pin hooked to the top, is there any reason you didn't add that in your version? and also your mine is pretty sick.

[kaptaink_cg]

Thanks!
Well, I didn't feel it was really necessary. It felt more like a gimmick to me. You dont fill/prime it until you are ready to use it, and I'd hate to set it all up and forget the pin. So I just left it out. Also I didn't want to add any additional holes for the gas to escape from besides the tubes.

[tmckenzie1]

well i just built mine today and the problem im having is the co2 let out is shooting through the cemented pvc pipe that holds the co2 in place with the screw in it so i just re did it and set it out for the night and maybe if i keep re aplying it each day it will get stronger idk

[kaptaink_cg]

Hmm.. That's strange. Can you post a pic of the problem?

[Molybdenum]

How do you manage the logistics of placing and retrieving the mine?

[kaptaink_cg]

I go "hmmmm THIS looks like a good spot" and then afterwards I say "Hmmmm.. where was it again" and walk around until I find it. ;)

[Molybdenum]

so your field allows you to just walk on an bury stuff between games? I guess I'm asking more about permission from the refs, and and when you get time to set and retrieve.

[smeeves]

He said he played out in the desert.... Don't think he uses these in fields.

Nice project, are the CO2 canisters reusable at all? Or do you just have a to buy a whole bunch.