Swany Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 ... I havent tried to fire it yet, my bp is really shitty right now. Rather self-explanitory, no? That is ridiculously cool. How the hell did you make that? Looks really neat and like it took some work. Good for you. I say you try some NC, this way cleaning the barrel just got a whole lot easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeppelin Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 I made a new topic as this cannon does not fit in the film can caragory Homemade Solid Propellant Cannons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pa_pyro Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 For my cannon I used a medicine bottle with a bic pen for the barrel. To close the bottle I use has a loose fitting lid so if too much pressure builds up the lid will pop off instead of shattering.(hurts like heck if it hits you though) For the igniter i use two needles stuck into opposite sides of the bottle with the piezoelectric ignitor (barbecue sparker) wires attached. It easily shoots pieces of potato across the room. It looks awesome if you fire it at night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe609 Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 i tried one of these ages ago with a curry powder pot and a lighter piezo thingy as the trigger and a pice of AL tube 6mm to fire bb's out of. filled it with a bit of wood varnish spray fired it and the lid blew off the end, the threads on it were so small and plastic, bloody deafening. never fired it again afetr that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bombboy218 Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 I did the pill bottle and pen tube thing but took a q-tip and cut it in half and put a drop of alcohal on the end and stuck a needle in the end of the uncottoned end of the Q-tip and it made a cannon powered tracer blowdart type thing it was pretty cool till hte cannon didn't fire when i pushed the button but like 4 sec. afer when i went to unscrew the cap it stuck in my foot a good 1/3 inch it hurt like hell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gottagotomoz Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Sorry to bump an old thread here but: I gave one of these a try today, just to kill some time and to settle my curiosity with these. Following instructions off of the website, instructables.com, I was able to make one. The only problem is, when I spray a mist of perfume, or some Axe body spray it never seems to fire. I don't think it's that I'm not getting correct air/fuel ratios but who knows. Any suggestions? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankRizzo Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Ethanol (perfume) has an explosive limit in air between 3-19% by volume. Propane (Axe) has an even narrower range of 2.1-9.5% There's not much air volume inside a film cannister, so you only need a tiny squirt. Methanol or ether are much more forgiving in their flammability range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 If you're worried about explosive limits, there is always Acetylene. More appropriately for acetylene there is non-explosive limit, which lasts from about 0-2.5%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinneticEnergy Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Hmm, never thought of that. I think I'll go looking around for some calcium carbide . @Mumbles, would it be better to look for it under the chemical name? Or by it's trade name(bangsite)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Oh, I'd highly suggest against using it. It's pretty powerful for such a small weak cannon. I think you'd be more likely to blow it up than to actually get a good launch. I really only mentioned acetylene as a joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinneticEnergy Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 I wasn't referring to using inside the film can cannon, but thought of using it inside of one of my other metal cannons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GalFisk Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Bangsite is finely powdered CaC2 specially made for model cannons and such. Tecnhical grade (look for calcium carbide, or just carbide) is big grey lumps, you have to grind them yourself, but it's probably a bit cheaper. It's used for killing rodents in the ground (by gassing them, go figure), and for use in carbide lamps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinneticEnergy Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 Bangsite is finely powdered CaC2 specially made for model cannons and such. Tecnhical grade (look for calcium carbide, or just carbide) is big grey lumps, you have to grind them yourself, but it's probably a bit cheaper. It's used for killing rodents in the ground (by gassing them, go figure), and for use in carbide lamps. Yeah, I know whats it's used for, and which is finely powdered, I was asking which would be more easily obtainable... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GalFisk Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 Hm, that I don't know (unless you happen to live in Sweden, in which case the technical grade can be found in paint stores). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinneticEnergy Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 Nope, I'm the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gottagotomoz Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Today, I decided to figure out what was going wrong with my film can cannon. I decided to look for a better fuel, and ended up using straight butane. I stripped some insulation off of some wire I had laying around, took a disposable flint lighter, and pulled out the flint wheel, and attached the insulation over the butane nozzle of the lighter. I proceeded to punch this through the cap of the film can, so that my wire insulation is now a 'gas line'. Close the cap, hold the lighter's butane button down for 5 seconds, press the piezo igniter and pop! Great so that you can get the correct fuel/air ratio every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justanotherpyro Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 I made a small Q-tip gun a little while back. I got tired of trying to get the fuel:air ratio right for every single shot. Carburetor Cleaner is a good fuel, but it was hard to get a small spray and not a big one. So I made this one from some stuff around the garage.http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/justanotherpyro/IMG_1872.jpg With a 7 second shot of butane it will put the blow gun dart 3/4" inch into a piece of pine point blank. Though its not accurate worth a damn passed 5' or so. As long as I blow air down the barrel 2-3 times after each shot it will fire first try 99% of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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