How to make a RAILGUN!

Warning: if you screw up with this you could electricute yourself.

Step 1 Materials

For this you will need;

4 or 5 Disposable flash cameras (I went to a camera store and asked them for some and they took a big box with about a hundred in it, they sold them to me at ten cents a camera, I only got ten)
aluminum foil
plexiglass
wire
small switch
big switch
aluminum or steel rails
6 nuts and bolts
wire hanger

tools;

screwdriver
soldering iron
duct tape
wire strippers
wire cutters

Comments

[Rebreg]

Walgreens gives them to you free!

[theboy95]

Yep, got twelve for free!

[Kongel]

im thinking of useing a tesla coil and an induction coil in serise to boost the volts to around 700k to 900k and see how that works what do you thing

[bh0294]

I just started looking at all this recently... If i purchase a large capacitor such as this one:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/SoundStorm+-+3.5-Farad+Capacitor+with+Digital+Voltmeter+-+Black/3404668.p?id=1218399212520&skuId=3404668&st=capacitor&cp=1&lp=11

Will it work when wired correctly?

And I can set up the switches the same? And what size power source should I use to charge it up?

[fortpinepitch]

This 3.5F capacitor is huge, but I'll bet it can't take nearly enough voltage. If you want anything to happen, you need to look for several 160+ μF capacitors that can take between 300-500 V.

[tom10122]

did anyone actually get this to work? mine doesn't move it just sparks

[evandereems]

So my friend and i made something a lot like this, but when we discharge the capacitors on the rails, the projectile just jumps a little. What could be the problem?

[jmorey3]

Yeah im the friend... no idea... maybe we need to charge up the rails then put the projectile on?

[SabooZX]

So should the capacitors be 330V and 160uF?

[michaeleoni]

the only problem is to make shure you have somthing to hold the plasma together thats the only problem that and it cant toch nothing but the target

[michaeleoni]

did you know you can lanch plasma using a railgun

[jj.inc]

So you don't need anything to jump start you projectile, I know larger ones use compressed air or springs to avoid welding the projectile to the rails. Also does yours throw cool sparks and stuff, maybe even plasma?

[cex]

uhm... Yeah, for a railgun to have enough force to create plasma, it would need several megajoules of energy (if you saw the railgun from DARPA or the US Navy, that one shot took so much energy that it could've been used to power a city for a year).

To release sparks, a railgun doesn't have to be THAT powerful, but it still requires a fairly large amount of energy. In short, THIS railgun can't be used to kill people or do any heavy damage.

[jj.inc]

the biggest railgun (navy) was 33 megajoules or 30000000 joules, or a little over 12 horsepower, I see what you mean, but using a 12 hp engine to charge batteries for one hour couldn't power my house for a year.

[swagner4]

Yeah, thats just wrong. Joules are a unit of energy. Horsepower is a measure of power.

[jj.inc]

but power over time is energy right.
I just found all of this information,
Watt x Time = Joules This is 8948 time 3600 secconds = 32,212,800 joules which is a pretty good conversion for the one minute I put in.
Power x Time = Work (energy)

Joules/distance = Newtons
Work/distance = Force

So you can convert power to energy, its just a little more complicated than most conversions.

[swagner4]

Look, you cant just assume time. And the first guy was wrong as a city uses about 2 Gigawatts each year.

But charging and equations are not linear which you are assuming. By your logic you can convert Joules into cubic meters

[jj.inc]

I did it, I converted joules to liters of gasoline, one cubic meter equals 1000l so yea I will do that too. So because one liter of gasoline contains about 35 MJ I will just say that we have 35 MJ. That is equivalent too 0.001 cubic meters, hooray. I hate ruining peoples day.

[swagner4]

Wow i cant believe i fell for a troll. Kudos

[jj.inc]

BTW that wasn't off-topic, and I am not a troll.

[swagner4]

Look, I'm a double major in physics and chemical engineering and I am telling you that while I understand why you are thinking what your thinking, it is incorrect.

You are not converting. You are doing calculations. A conversion changes things that are equivalent. You can only change Joules into other energy units.

Further, you are ignoring inefficency, heat transfer, momentum and impulse, how magnetic fields work, charging and discharging of capacitors and other things.

Also, the electricity that is used is in watt hours when calculated.

That is what is what is wrong with what you are doing.

[jj.inc]

You could have just told me I was using the wrong word to explain what I was doing. Its really not that big of a deal. Yea, I did ignore all of that intentionally to say that in absolute best conditions with no energy loss, it still only provided a certain amount of energy. I don't see where I messed up this whole watt hours thing either. I provided time for every "calculation" I did, it doesn't have to be watt hours. I had 33 MJ I calculated that out to watts over a period of time. That is all I did, and that is all I needed to do. Do you understand this?

[jj.inc]

I am sorry, I just don't like it when someone says no your wrong, I just don't have any real numbers or facts to back it up so I will just muble around and insult you.

[jj.inc]

No, I am saying 33 gigajoules is equivalent to 12hp over 1hour. Which it is. I just converted the hp to watts, which is perfectly fine, then I plugged in the proper time which is in secconds, one hour = 3600 secconds. 12hp is very roughly rounded, and the concluded answer was extremely comparable. If I directly converted 12hp over to electrical watts with no loss of energy I would still only get roughly 9kw which would be enough energy if stored to run my house which consumes 3kwh for roughly 3 hours. Its a bunch of math, but it is well reasoned. I know it is difficult to understand converting between these to things.

Joules are a measure of energy (energy is defined as the ability to do work)
Work is power * time and is measured as an SI unit of joules
Power is the rate at which work is performed or energy is converted
Time is, well you know what time is

By looking closely at these properties you can conclude that power over time is work or hp over one hour is joules

When I use the word over I don't refer to a fraction or division problem I refer to something occurring over a period of time.

[nerd12]

How fast does the projectile go?
what can it punch through.
can you safely hold this?
if not you can make a remote turret with a camera and use it for defense :)

[popomaster]

is there anything that i have to be careful about touching in a disposable camera? and i mean ANYTHING

[Sedro]

yer take the battery out first then press a screw driver over the two wires coming out of the capacitor, after that no there is nothing :)

[popomaster]

oh, do i need to know how to weld?

[Xellers]

Not weld, solder. Or you could use a breadboard and some alligator clips.

[MisterHankie]

if spot welding is considered welding than isnt soldering also welding?

[omnibot]

Nope, welding and soldering are two very different techniques. When soldering you heat the metal to melt the solder and the solder and metal attach like a sort of metal glue by molecular forces, ie sharing the occasional electron. When welding you add enough energy two make the two metals fuse together as one and even share an electron-cloud. Yeah, I'm pretty nerdy.

[budhaztm]

soldering is like braising which is a form of welding

[popomaster]

lol, dont know what those are XD

[Sedro]

what exactly do you want to know. like do you need to know how to solder to get the capacitors out or make a railgun or what a bread board is (I'm guessing you know what alligator clips are).

[popomaster]

dont know what a bread board is or how to solder XD im 12......

[DYLEGO]

Don't listen to a word alwinovich says. People lie him don't deserve to be members here. Search around on instructables, and you will fine many things teaching you everything you need to know about electronics.

[alwinovich]

that you are 12 doesn't neccesarily mean that you can;t do this i'm 13 and already making things like this(flyback transformer, 2000uf coilgun and things like that) and if you don't know what a breadboard is, no big deal but if you don't know what soldering and alligator clips are and you are wondering if you have to weld in this project? just wait 5 more years and do some other k'nex guns first (not trying to be rude but if you don't know how to solder i give you a chance of 1 in 10 you will make this without getting injured/killed)

[2 stroke]

I learned how to solder when I was 12 and half years old

[DYLEGO]

dude, lighten up. when you started out, i guaruntee you knew nothing about this stuff. I certainly didn't. The point of instructions like these are to get new people into the hobby, not push them away.

[evanwehrer]

I'm 14 but I started soldering when I was 11, and just recently made a rocket launcher that shoots bottles out of stuff I had lying around.