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

[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.

[deobomb]

its adapter not adpater lolollol

[ilpug]

It's "LOL" not "lolollol."

[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.

[tmckenzie1]

well its a 12 gram co2 canister so there not reusable

[Huntman00]

or you can bury it before you switch sides... LOL someone may be pissed though

[spenfisher12]

i dont think they are reuseable you just gotta keep buying theme

[ilpug]

you do have to keep buying them, but they are cheap, and you get a lot of bang for your buck.

[pbman123]

dude nice ible, and your paintmine way better than mine

[ginger20037]

I woulda tricked one of my friends into testing it out xD

[ginger20037]

hahahaha xD That's awesome, and maybe even a little evil xD

[loku1125]

how much did it all cost

[aleutphova]

it cost me 30 dollars because i had to buy drill bits and glue. with out them it would cost u under 15 dollars for the tubing and pvc.

3” ABS Cap- $3.68
3” ABS Threaded Adpater- $3.74
3” ABS Threaded Plug- $1.25
½” PVC Cap- $.25
½” PVC Union(coupling)- $.30
½” schedule 40 PVC pipe(5ft)- $1.50
¾” schedule 40 PVC pipe(5ft)- $1.60
¼” Pex tubing(5ft0- $1.68

[aleutphova]

does it have to be a 5/32” x ½” Metal Screw or can i just use a small screw

[Electronics Man]

Awsome Idea!!!

[MadBricoleur]

A much "greener" variant of this would be to use a refillable compressed air system, using water as the "paint". after all, summer's just around the corner! :) (the trigger could be some sort of quick dump system. like this maybe. just inverted, upside down, and the valve opens when a small screw with the rubber seal is pushed out, not pulled in, of a pipe... thru which the air would pass towards the opening once the seal is broken. so basically the air travels up the pipe when you push down on the seal that breaks on its bottom end, forcing air through the bottom, up through the pipe, out side holes at the top (which is capped), and down on the fluid that goes in turn up the tubes...

sorry if that was confusing. i'll make an ible if I make it.

[ilpug]

doing this, but for Airsoft!!!

[Musicman41]

Have you considered modifying it to have a larger blast radius? If you put a couple of the outlet pipes at an angle, instead of straight up, it will hit bystanders as well. Also, ever considered a way for remote detonation?