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Step 5Projectiles
Projectile Material:
The projectile material is the MOST IMPORTANT part of your coilgun system, I won't go into detail here but it determines probably 80% of how your coilgun will perform.
-Basically your projectile must be ferromagnetic, i.e contain mostly Iron, Nickle or Cobalt.
-It must be magnetically soft, which means that if a magnetic field is applied to it the material will not stay magnetized.
-It must have the highest magnetic saturation point possible
The Best Materials I know of are listed below from best down:
Nickle-Cobalt
Nickle-Iron
Pure Iron >$100
Low Carbon Steel (Steel with a rating of 10XX where XX is the lowest number possible, such as 1006)
Stainless Steel - Most stainless steal is NOT ferromagnetic, it must contain at least 80% Iron to be considered ferromagnetic.
Round Low Carbon Steel 1006 from McMaster-Carr will be the best material I found for your projectiles for a reasonable cost and availability. It is the lowest carbon steel I could find for "low quantity" purchasing.
If you want efficiency in your coilgun but don't have the tools, time, or effort to make your own projectiles buy HERE, you can customize your rod cuts for a considerably low price and you don't have to do the tedious work, and the steel is low carbon, which means higher iron content and more efficiency. Also they sell acrylic for my casings, which is a plus.
Projectile Fabrication
Now this is the "Hardest" and most time consuming part. In order to make the projectiles, cut the heads off of the nails using a Dremel tool with a reinforced cutting disc (will wear quickly) or a large grinder with a cutting blade.
You can also use a hacksaw with a steel cutting blade, credit for this idea goes to member jondo huang, I never even thought of it. This is the preferred method as it is cheaper and the cut is much better.
Then cut the rest of the nail to the correct length ( They should be 3/4 to 5/4 the length of the coil). If you are looking for efficiency, i.e. velocity, simply grind the edges of the projectile to a rounded flat surface and not pointed.
Mine are sharp so they can do more damage. In order to do this I placed the projectiles in a drill press and used the grinder to grind the edges down, if you use the Dremel you can get a smoother finish and finer point. This can be a long process, but well worth it.
You can glue smaller diameter straws to the end of the rounds to stabilize them, usually the longer the round, the longer the stabilizer will have to be.
The projectile material is the MOST IMPORTANT part of your coilgun system, I won't go into detail here but it determines probably 80% of how your coilgun will perform.
-Basically your projectile must be ferromagnetic, i.e contain mostly Iron, Nickle or Cobalt.
-It must be magnetically soft, which means that if a magnetic field is applied to it the material will not stay magnetized.
-It must have the highest magnetic saturation point possible
The Best Materials I know of are listed below from best down:
Nickle-Cobalt
Nickle-Iron
Pure Iron >$100
Low Carbon Steel (Steel with a rating of 10XX where XX is the lowest number possible, such as 1006)
Stainless Steel - Most stainless steal is NOT ferromagnetic, it must contain at least 80% Iron to be considered ferromagnetic.
Round Low Carbon Steel 1006 from McMaster-Carr will be the best material I found for your projectiles for a reasonable cost and availability. It is the lowest carbon steel I could find for "low quantity" purchasing.
If you want efficiency in your coilgun but don't have the tools, time, or effort to make your own projectiles buy HERE, you can customize your rod cuts for a considerably low price and you don't have to do the tedious work, and the steel is low carbon, which means higher iron content and more efficiency. Also they sell acrylic for my casings, which is a plus.
Projectile Fabrication
Now this is the "Hardest" and most time consuming part. In order to make the projectiles, cut the heads off of the nails using a Dremel tool with a reinforced cutting disc (will wear quickly) or a large grinder with a cutting blade.
You can also use a hacksaw with a steel cutting blade, credit for this idea goes to member jondo huang, I never even thought of it. This is the preferred method as it is cheaper and the cut is much better.
Then cut the rest of the nail to the correct length ( They should be 3/4 to 5/4 the length of the coil). If you are looking for efficiency, i.e. velocity, simply grind the edges of the projectile to a rounded flat surface and not pointed.
Mine are sharp so they can do more damage. In order to do this I placed the projectiles in a drill press and used the grinder to grind the edges down, if you use the Dremel you can get a smoother finish and finer point. This can be a long process, but well worth it.
You can glue smaller diameter straws to the end of the rounds to stabilize them, usually the longer the round, the longer the stabilizer will have to be.
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for every shot without wait would take that many capacitor banks
Making it fully auto is a bit harder, you would need really big capacitors (capacitance, not voltage) and an astable pulse to trigger it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spijkers_(Nails).jpg