Make a poweful (green) railgun!

Step 5

fire!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6cV10QEGGk

Make sure your target is strong enough, mine was better then expected. I suggest a cardboard box to catch ricochet, with metal plates on the inside. Behind the target, put some blankets to make sure.

Railgun's are all about innovation. If you have a resonable idea, try it. If you intend to actually do research, some instruments would be nice. I made a rogowski coi (on my site).

Comments

[thanatos370]

You want a big gun? use 3/4 in. solid steel projectiles. that will pack a punch.

[tazerboy]

Also, GreenD having a 350volt 330uf capacitor is very weak,( around 20joules). Especially, when you are trying to make a railgun, because railguns are not that
efficient in the first place.I would recommended at least 100 joules( three 450v 470uf), to get some effective muzzle energy.

[drozzle]

Railguns are much more efficient than traditional firearms. A well made medium size railgun can have around 30kj of force, that is almost as much as the worlds largest rifle.

[tazerboy]

yes, but you are forgetting that i am talking about a railgun powered by 20 joules,
and when you said 30kj I believe that is how much the energy the capacitor bank produces, and not the railgun. Due the fact that the largest rifle produces around the thousand joule range or a tiny bit higher. not nearly as powerful as 30,000 joules. However i could be wrong, can anybody attest or object?

[alphapyr0]

those sized cacitors will work your power supply and transformer are what depended upon for the output to launch the projectile.
but the capasitors alone are yes pretty weak.

[tazerboy]

true that.

[tazerboy]

well, as long as his rails fits nicely with the projectile there shouldn't a problem
with the arcing. However you gotta admit having plasma arcs with the projectile looks pretty damn cool.

[GreenD]

Cool, but it seems like almost all of your energy is going into creating plasma, and not actually accelerating your projectile - it may be better to have a lower voltage, no?

I plan to make a smaller hand held one using the small 350 volt, 330 uF capacitors. I like this idea though. Have you experimentedwith lower voltages?

[rp181]

400 volts is already low, you want as high voltage as possible. Higher voltage, higher peak current

[lucek]

he dose have a point you are wasting a bit of energy on that flash that's not getting converted to kinetic energy.