yvanblo Posted July 26 Posted July 26 Ok, here's a cool cannon I had about 20 years ago. I wish I had some pictures or videos of it, but I don't. Not sure if anyone has done this other than me. So, I got a steel pipe with an ID almost exactly that of a 2 liter bottle of soda ~4"??. It was about 6 feet long, and maybe 3/16" thick. Not a heavy gauge pipe, but more than strong enough for this purpose. I also happen to have a piston from an old diesel tractor that fit perfectly into this pipe. I also happened to find a rubber ball that when filled completely (no air at all) with water, fit snugly into the tube. I hope you see where this is going... To fire the cannon; 1. Push the rubber ball into the pipe until it's about 2 feet from the bottom end. 2. put dry ice into a 1 liter bottle 3. Put water into bottle and then cap it. 4. Quickly put bottle into pipe below the rubber ball. 5. Quickly shove the piston into the pipe, and prop the cannon up at a 45 degree angle. 6. Wait 7. Wait 8. Wait You never quite know when it will go off. But when it does, it makes a strange shredding thunk sound, and then the rubber ball is hurled with tremendous force down range. Our longest shot was right around 1100 feet. Which is quite impressive for a rubber ball filled with water! Sometimes it would flatten out like a frisbee and wobble through the air. It was quite a spectacular show! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my description and story of this odd cannon. I hope to remake it some day, and am quite sad that I lost it when we moved. Though I have to admit that I no longer have a place that is long enough and open enough to shoot it. And if someone got hit by that ball... yikes.
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