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My coilgun

last photo ←

These are just some pictures of my coilgun. I would make a video, but the dang thing stopped working. In desperation, i removed the relay and rewired it, but the charging circiut was fried. But here are some pictures of it anyways!
u should not wind a coil by hand, and th coil should be 5 times as much as this coil. The cap. bank should also be much larger

25 comments

Jun 26, 2009. 7:17 PMhg341 says:

how many winds are you useing on you coil

Mar 2, 2010. 5:50 AMeneergcam (author) says:

oops, wrong instructable :) i didnt do a good job on this instructable or coil, so i would check out my other instructable and follow those steps, but i think it was like 30 winds or something, haha, pitiful

Mar 2, 2010. 5:48 AMeneergcam (author) says:

i didnt go by winds, i went by the length, which was 2 and a half inches, and 10 layers of that.

Jun 27, 2009. 8:01 AMeneergcam (author) says:

i used a 22 gauge wire and wrapped it around 30 times, 5 times around.

Feb 28, 2010. 5:56 AMcowscankill says:

Is it okay to use a skinnier or thicker gauge? Is there a difference?
(I plan to buy 800 ft of 24 ga)

Mar 2, 2010. 5:47 AMeneergcam (author) says:

eeh, its better to use thicker wire, but it doesnt really matter, 24 gauge sounds good :)

Mar 2, 2010. 1:45 PMcowscankill says:

Okay. I found out that I can get 22 gauge also, but sense thicker wire is better, how thick should I get?
Thanks for the reply.

Mar 3, 2010. 6:07 PMeneergcam (author) says:

Uhm, yeah man, 22 is fine. anything bigger is just overduing it. it should work perfect with 22! and yeah, no problem. i think your the kid that told me to make a mini coilgun! i tried and got really really far, but then i think the circuit broke, and i had it glewed in and everything :( sorry :P

Mar 4, 2010. 12:51 PMcowscankill says:

Haha possibly :P
Sorry it broke, but hey, it was fun, right? haha.
Another quick question: is it really necessary to use a relay switch?

Mar 4, 2010. 1:10 PMeneergcam (author) says:

and oh yeah, i turned this gun into a new one with a stock! i might take some photos later ^-^

Mar 4, 2010. 3:21 PMcowscankill says:

Awesome! I was thinking, would it be possible to just use two pieces of steel as the trigger? Would that stick too much?
Maybe if there is another kind of metal...
Copper?

Mar 5, 2010. 3:59 PMeneergcam (author) says:

you jsut descibed a normal switch haha, it would work in theory, but it might shock the CRAP out of you if you touch the other piece at the same time! and i dont really know why you couldnt just get a simple high amp switch lol,

Mar 4, 2010. 1:09 PMeneergcam (author) says:

oh yes it was! haha, and oh, let meh tell ya! so, a relay is suppose to handle higher voltage than regular switches, but when i used mine, it "welded" (for lack of better wording) the inside of the relay together. So I used a large switch that was like a toggle and a momentary switch, meaning it was a toggle switch that went back to the off position by its self, like a trigger, for my new and improved coilgun.

Jan 13, 2010. 10:29 AMmax0506 says:

Hello guys
I am making a coilgun made of a disposable camera and some capacitors.
I have made a drawing with google sketch-up. Could you please check if I have made all the connections right? ( I am not an expert ……… yet)

www.elektronica_stuff.webklik.nl/page/voorpagina
please reply

Oct 7, 2009. 3:37 PMeneergcam (author) says:

Just use the info from my other one to make a original or one like this. I really dont want to make another ible.

Oct 7, 2009. 10:27 AMmettaurlover says:

post this one-i want one tat doesnt use up a toy gun... cause i dont have any lying around.

Oct 1, 2009. 5:24 PMeneergcam (author) says:

I would not suggest using these, but 5 80Mf capacitors

Sep 30, 2009. 4:30 PMMadBricoleur says:

how many capacitors were in this? what kind?

Jun 25, 2009. 4:16 PMTheWelfareWarrior says:

How well did it shoot bits of metal?

Aug 12, 2009. 5:29 PMTheTeslaWarrior says:

lol teslawarrior vs. welfarewarrior

Jun 25, 2009. 7:32 PMeneergcam (author) says:

i didnt have time to test it that much. Me and my grandpa will make another coilgun later this summer, so we can test that one. I built this one with no help (im only 13)

Jun 25, 2009. 8:17 PMTheWelfareWarrior says:

you're only a year ahead of me when I started making projects.

Jun 26, 2009. 10:37 AMeneergcam (author) says:

ive been doing this stuff since first grade:)