The Original Potato Cannon

Step 3: Install the ignitor

You probably saw in the last step a silver BBQ lighter attached to the side of the pipe, I tried using this, but it wasnt working, so I bought an $8 ignitor.

Drill a hole in the 3" pipe for the metal lead from the ignitor to fit, mount the ignitor using screws provided, you can slop some glue around the hole to make sure there wont be a gap where the flames will shoot out and burn your arm......

In order to create the arc (spark) to ignite the gas, there needs to be a metal contact between the lead from the ignitor and the metal chasis of the ignitor.

If you mounted the ignitor with bolts into the pipe, bend the metal lead to be within 1/4" of the bolt to make a spark,
I however put another screw in from the other side, but had to run a piece of wire from it to the metal chasis.
Both methods will work.

Comments

[ladieslilman98]

extreamly simple im doing this for a school contest nice ible

[ladieslilman98]

Cost?? total

[naruto553]

theoretically, you could do something similar to this with the ignitor from an extension lighter.

simply split the lighter, remove the ignitor, drill a hole in the pipe, put the ignitor in, test the ignitor, and seal the hole with epoxy. its cheaper and its easier for those of you out there who dont know how to modify an electrical circuit

[thepeanut1234]

how thick is your piping for the barrel?????

[Coding Kid]

Where did you get the ignitor? One year ago, I started making a potato gun, but the ignitor never worked. I firstly used a spark gap with a normal battery, didnet worked, then with a high voltage generator, but that fell apart...

[awsomehighvoltage]

You can find them in stores where grills and stuff are sold or take one out of a BBQ lighter.

[Coding Kid]

I found some on ebay, sold by 'cateringsupplies'.

[spooninbrian]

When I made one I used a Kerosine Lantern Ignitor. You have to buy flint to replace it everyonce in a while though.

[Dmoney17]

Where to buy the lighter?

[landynvo1996]

dude great idea hey guys what works realy well is i took 2 co2 paintball cylenders got a connector and mounted it on to the bottom with a hose make sure u have an on and off valve but its a realy easy way and is awsome

[7777777]

How do you make the trigger???????????????

[25malemelb]

me and my mate made 1 each and we had a realy fun time lol we went in to the woods and had a shootout ....nice work

[jhecker123]

Is it better to use a 1.5" barrel and 3" chamber like in this Instructable, or a 2" barrel and a 4" chamber like other designs? And is it better to have a long 5' barrel or something slightly shorter like 4'?

[CameronC]

i find that a capacitor discharge unit with at least a 200Uf capacitor on it works well albeit with some tweaking.this has been used in my special weapons dalek project for school.

[afartinthewind]

works well, but need to use other fuel than hairspray. it covers the electrodes. i like starter fluid (just a touch)

[bipolarbuddhist]

Is this a basic ignitor I can get from a local auto parts place?

[bipolarbuddhist]

Sorry I just realized it says BBQ ignitor. Thanks for this, I'm going to go make this tonight for a birthday gift

[the pro]

it is smart to line to combustion camber with rigid pipe (chimmey piping).

[mavogt]

actually puttin the ignitor in the cap is bad. PS i mounted a propane tank on mine and ran a valve inside and it works great. Also for an ignigtor i took apart a throw away camera and removed the flash light bulb and hooked the contacts up to the contact from my grill ignitor. It will ignite almost anything no matter what the air to fuel mix is and it is a larger spark. PS best position for ignitor is in the middle of your combustion chamber

[babybackribs]

like i said in comment over there, it doesnt matter how big your spark is, you need the right gas to oxygen ratio. i just happened to stumble accross this, i have made my own before i even saw this, and what i use is a BBQ grill igniter (Home Depot) and drilled two screws in on each side to almost touching, then connected one end of each to the screws and when you snap the ignitor, a spark jumps from one screw to the other screw, works quite well

[gameboy7oa]

i made mine like this but i ran into a problem with it. you have to clean the screws off alot because after a while the soot builds up and you wont get a spark. but to solve this problem i took the grill igniter and made a hole in the cap that comes off and put a small wire on the ignighter so it would spark. and tada my problem was solved and if it dose build enough soot to cover where it sparks then it will be much easier to clean or replace.

[babybackribs]

thats a pretty good idea, or just use propane, no hairspray goop to clean out :P

[werdbot]

I find that flint lighters work much better because they make a much bigger spark.