Introduction: SPUDZILLA !

About: hi i enjoy making ludicrisly over the top and complex devices.... Being an ameture engineer, I refuse pick the easy option, but rather the one that seems best, which inevitably devolves into a weekend of hacki…

ok, the fact of the matter is that led throwies SUCK! the one big reason is that you are limited by the fact that you can only throw so many so far!, so me being a logical sane person i thought" Hey I should use a cannnon!!" so i headed down to my labrotory and this is the result: oh, did i forget to mention its great at shooting other things too. E.G. potatoes, shaped rounds, MUD, watemelon, golf balls(really good at that one), paper shells packed with flower, anything you can fit down the barrel.


Hey thanks goes out to my brother, instructables member Capt.Kirk for helping me make throwies for the project

Step 1: Create the Cannon

ok so im fairly certain that this has to be legally classified as a firearm, my evidence for this is one day i packed the barrel full of bb's and shot it at my fence where now all those bb's currently reside imbedded in the fence!

so to construct the cannon just follow the schematic ive drawn, it'll provide enough info to get almost all of it built, but the main valve is were a schematic just will not do. by the way its a really good idea to use two part gorrilla glue epoxy for the pipes rather than just abs cement, shure it may cost more but i wouldent skimp on it, it could cost you a limb or your life! if any of those parts where to come loose. the reason for this is that i designed this to operate around 250 psi ! so its the only way to ensure a adequate seal between each pipe and fitting

Step 2: Dealing With the Valve.

so alot of problems with phneumatic valves is that they are soo slow! even those fancy valves that people make from sprinkler valves, also not to mention that the volume of that which air can travel through those valves is relitivly low compared to the system that i engineered, also sometimes the position of the valve makes it ackward to operate the cannon, so i have came up with the end-all be-all solution to this problem! the system i engineered can do the following: close the valve automatically, the firing trigger can be placed anywhere and is easy to use , the speed and duration of the valve being opened can be adjusted in the field without tools , can be easily modified to fire remotely either via a small solonoid valve or by two long air compressor hoses, and most importantly IT WORKS EVERY TIME! ive yet to have had a single failure in the system since it was constructed

but the concept is that you use a phnuematic cylinder to pull a chain that goes around a sprocket bolted to the valve to rapidly open the valve.

Step 3: Getting Compressed Air Anywere!

another problem is that phnuematic cannons have to have a source of compressed air to function, so on my cannon their are three ways to get compressed air:
1, use the built on compressor with a external battery, usally a car battery
2, use a bicycle pump.
3, use the quick connect adapter with a one way valve to draw air from a compressor

personally number three is always my first choice, because my shops compressor tops out around a nice deadly 195 psi, im fairly certain that this could set a record in spud chuckin.

Step 4: Making Cannon Safe LED Throwies

a problem with this kind of use with throwies is the fact that if they are taped together they will just be destroyed by the velocity they exit the barrel! so instead of tape, we must solder each led onto their battery

Step 5: Loading the Cannon!

so just to ensure that all the throwies are expelled from the cannon you must make a wadding, just take some paper and fold it lengthwise until you get a strip thats around  two inches wide. then roll the strip and shove it down into the bottom of the barrel. then pour all your throwies down the barrel, and if you'd like put another wadding down the barrel to keep all the throwies in place.

Step 6: The Fun Part!

ok, so i was really dissapointed when i saw the video i recorded with my camera, turns out the auto exposure really jacked up the brightness so it looks like friggen mid day:( but still it shows an excellent demonstration of the cannon in action! , oh by the way USE HEARING PROTECTION! i found out the hard way how loud this is, the dinky micrphone in my camera just does not do it justice.
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Gorilla Glue Make It Stick Contest

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Gorilla Glue Make It Stick Contest