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The Auto Loading Potato Cannon

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Well, I made a trigger system for a potato cannon that, when you push up on the trigger, it opens a small 1/2 valve and sprays the AXE body spray into the now open valve. When you release the trigger it shuts off the AXE, and shuts the valve. Then you can pull back on the trigger which is connected to one of those "long-lighter sparker" it jumps a small arc across the combustion chamber- igniting it. Now, all of you potato cannoneers like me can appreciate the speed and ease of this system, you no longer have to unscrew the back of it, tilt it open, spray it in, close it before it escapes, make sure the threads are lined up, find your igniter, aim, then fire, - That all takes about 30seconds, well this system (once it is already loaded with a projectile) only takes 3 seconds. The only problem I have now is that it looks like a bomb. Soon I will be making this cannon into a six shot revolver, my next instructable, and most B.A. potato cannon of all time. Happy shooting!
GO INSTILL FEAR IN THY NEIHBORS!

28 comments

Nov 24, 2011. 2:52 PMshenzer says:

I lke the concept but make the apperance cleaner. Bundle wires and so on.

Nov 8, 2010. 4:37 PMPizzapie500 says:

TOO...COMPLICATED! X(
Can't you make this all mechanical?

Oct 20, 2010. 12:59 AM

jpoopdog says:

this whole thing would work alot better, if it used a pray system that works the same as that of an inhaler cartridge

Jun 28, 2010. 12:48 AMnatospec says:

Anyone ever try using an auto charging Flash cap stystem out of a kodak to make a mortar ignigtor, like the shell would have an open space at the botton that you would spray, then drop into the barrel. At the bottom it would cross two wires on the pos And neg of the capacitor causing it to discharge and ignight the gas, launching the shell out. Anyone think this would work? Flash caps create a preaty powerful spark when they discharge( popped a couple tiny cauterized burn holes in my hand when me And my friend were tazing each other with then the otherday, And yea it hurt, still does 8 days later.)

May 8, 2010. 7:43 AMfreddysserpent says:

I have a suggestion where to source a metal springloaded butterfly valve but you will have to cut the valve out of surrounding housing . Go to a wrecked car that has efi and take the butterfly valve from the air intake . many cars run butterfly valves about the size you are after and they are housed in aluminium as a rule. i would suggest a turbo car as they are generally heaver in build

May 4, 2010. 6:19 AMnutsandbolts_64 says:

Oh man! I thought this is gonna use some kind of advanced spud gun tech.

Apr 18, 2010. 1:31 PMphyscocreator (author) says:

Im gonna try and post a video soon of it working and firing, i dont have any blue prints of it since i just made it out of random stuff that worked for it that i happened to have in my room. i think im gonna update it tho since i changed a couple different things on it with the arching mechanism, upgraded that to a 12,000 volt bbq pulse ignitor that arcs thru 3 different points and therefore causes a faster combustion and more powerful shot. i fired it at a 1/2 in thick plywood board using a golf ball and it went strait thru and kept going, made a perfectly round hole too, pretty funny.

Jun 23, 2009. 8:17 AMeverett1992 says:

would you mind telling us how you made yours. im working on a similar project and am running into a small problem. after the first shot there isn't enough oxygen in the chamber for there to be combustion, so now i have a pump action potato cannon that still needs to be opend up to fire again. would just adding a fan do the trick, and what is the proses of firing yours ie. pull lever, press button, ext

heres the link to mine if anybody has advice
http://www.instructables.com/id/potato-cannon-rifle-prototype/

Apr 18, 2010. 9:09 AMphyscocreator (author) says:

sorry, i havent been on here in a while, what im intending to do is use a large butterfly valve, roughly 2 inches in diameter to blow air into the chamber. as of right now i still havent gotten the time to make it into a revolver, the fan im going to use is actually ripped off of a old dishwasher but with one of the motors from a old powerwheels cars to spin the fan instead of the AC motor originally on it. i just kind of rigged the DC motor onto it btw. I still havent exactly figured out how im going to rotate the barrels accurately so it lines up but i think a locking mechanism will do the trick. its going to be very heavy tho bc of all the additional stuff, im gonna be using a computer backup 12 volt battery mounted as far back as possible to counter the forward weight from the extra barrels. I need to post a video of it, ill work on it.

Jun 23, 2009. 8:21 AMeverett1992 says:

nevermind i spoke to soon, i see you seem to have the same problem. for my design i just used 1/2 ball valves, but they do make larger ones. the problem with a revolving barrel is that you would loose pressure from both gaps, i was thinking revolving first but settled on bolt/pump because you can cover and seal the cartridge with the slid. im making the seal tighter by gluing pices of rubber from bike tubing around the barrel.

Jan 7, 2010. 12:35 AMdietpoop says:

a similar design 2 my friends baloon popper, ill have 2 ask him about the pressuriser

Oct 6, 2009. 3:46 PMmattccc says:

will you post a video of it working

Jun 18, 2009. 6:59 PMphyscocreator (author) says:

i was thinking a butterfly valve but i dont know where to find one, i doubt that home depot would have something like that but i havent checked. If anyone knows a place to find one of those vavles or something i could use in its place let me know. I was thinking about sealing it up but just havent got around to it. ive been busy with some other projects and stuff. Once i get the valve i can finish the cannon, it just hasnt been at the top of my priorities list recently.

Apr 13, 2009. 5:04 AMAnanand says:

Yes, like Ryuu Kasai said, can we see a video of how it works? I'm very curious. Also, any info on your progress with the revolver? Any pictures of you building it? Thanks

Apr 13, 2009. 8:13 AMphyscocreator (author) says:

Thanks, I have been really busy with schoool lately and ran into a problem with the valve. I need a valve that can open about 2 inches in diameter to allow air to flow by smoothly so that the fan can push out the co2 for the next shot. The valve also must survive presures of at least 200psi and survive 200 F ( just to be sure) and open and shut quickly. want to get it finished though, but i need the valve. Another problem i ran into was that the arch i was the arch i was using wasn't hot enough to arch after the first shot and had to let it air out completelybefore i could use the arch to launch agasin otherwise i would just use the lantern ignitor. I got a 6,000Volt car transformer- It adds weight but it archs every time, even in low oxegene enviroments. I also thought about hiding all the wires but it is kind of frankinstein-like.

Apr 23, 2009. 5:08 PManatin1 says:

i have an idea for a valve that might work if you ever heard of a butterfly valve it would be perfect,the mythbuster used on their chicken cannon

Jun 13, 2009. 6:34 AMjmeister15 says:

I remember that! On the steam cannon too

May 21, 2009. 12:25 PM

d2j5 says:

that is like the most epic / epicly complacated potato cannons ever X D lol i love it

May 18, 2009. 9:12 AMcommander1332 says:

if you have seen Future weapons on Discovery, build a grenade launcher like the one that he demonstrated, but modify it to shoot Spuds ;D

May 18, 2009. 9:09 AMcommander1332 says:

could I get a set of blue prints?

May 11, 2009. 9:46 PMWhitedude0728 says:

O ma goodness :o...... VIDEO

Apr 10, 2009. 10:47 AMThePyroManiac says:

Perhaps for ecstatics you might want to hide all the wires in a corrugated pipe? If you don't wish to undo all the wires and put them all back in again, you can just cut open the corrugated piping and sleeve it over. Just my take. Great build.

Dec 27, 2008. 5:54 PMLentamentalisk says:

OK, you have the fueling part, but what about oxygen? No combustion is possible without sufficient oxygen, and without opening up the back, you have no way of venting the previous combusted gases, or adding new oxygen. I suggest you check out www.SpudFiles.com You will be amazed by the quality and ingenuity of the work found there.

Apr 10, 2009. 10:45 AMThePyroManiac says:

All hybrid/advanced spud guns have fans installed in them. It is beneficial in two ways, mixing air from the atmosphere into the combustion chamber as well as creating an equal fuel:oxygen mix inside the combustion chamber for an even burn. I have been using SpudFiles for almost a year now too. Nice to hear someone else using such an awesome help site. ;D

Feb 13, 2009. 5:32 PMphyscocreator (author) says:

Lentamentalisk, I would like to think you for your constructive critism but for the six barreled cannon, I already have a fan that I ripped off a broken dishwasher. I removed the AC motor and placed a 12volt DC motor from a power wheels car that, whe turned on, outputs enough air to put store bought fans to shame. The only problem is that it will burn up the wires if it runs for more than 5 min. Powertotheslaves: it really didn't take very long to build- I like the frankinstein comparision though.

Jan 3, 2009. 12:20 PMRyuuKasai says:

Can we have a video of this in action? Pretty please?

Dec 24, 2008. 7:12 PMfoolsterinc says:

One word wow... that is the only thing that could describe this. I am happily waiting to see the finished potato cannon with the 6 barrels, one would think that this is good, wait till your next one is done, can't wait! If only you could make it fully automatic… think of it… amazing. Well coming back down to Earth this is one B.A. mother and like I said earlier wow is the only thing that can describe this besides the most B.A. mother on the whole block.