I made one of these........( See Video)

[ynneb]

The ones I made work every bit as good as the second one displayed in the video. They can even blast a potato right through a house door. (I had an old one)
The plans I used were these. http://tomacorp.com/ballistics/ballistics.html

You will need to click the start button for the video to play. It may take a few moments to buffer.

[Aksess]

Welcome to the wonderful world of spudteck

Here in the boondocks of Tennessee that is our national past time, Along with PVC full auto bb guns. muhahahah. Try this for real fun
http://www.burntlatke.com/bb.html

[ynneb]

Thanks for the link. I will definately give the bb gun a try some time too.

[Mcgyver]

yup spud guns are a laugh, you can't quite believe the power till you try it. now I've got to make the bb gun machine gun too!

maybe someone with more expertise can comment, but iirc using pvc is a bad idea. when i built mine the stuff if read said use abs because if pvc shatters it explodes into sharp shards. this rings true as its the same reason given for NOT using PVC for air compressor lines. what did mother used to say, all good fun until someone loses an eye?

[Geof]

Originally Posted by Mcgyver ...maybe someone with more expertise can comment, but iirc using pvc is a bad idea. when i built mine the stuff if read said use abs because if pvc shatters it explodes into sharp shards. this rings true as its the same reason given for NOT using PVC for air compressor lines. what did mother used to say, all good fun until someone loses an eye?

You remember correct Mr Mcgyver.

[ZipSnipe]

My roommates many many years ago (1990) would make a cannon from soup cans , duct taped together with both ends cut out except the one would have the bottom left in it with a small hole, pour lighter fluid, drop tennis ball in, shake, and light. It would launch a tennis ball straight up and out of sight. They would launch 'em over this 7 story hotel on the beach, while I,m out front in the ocean, surfing and they would land way out past the break. But its all fun and games until ya blow your earlobe off.

[epineh]

Originally Posted by ZipSnipe My roommates many many years ago (1990) would make a cannon from soup cans , duct taped together with both ends cut out except the one would have the bottom left in it with a small hole, pour lighter fluid, drop tennis ball in, shake, and light. It would launch a tennis ball straight up and out of sight. They would launch 'em over this 7 story hotel on the beach, while I,m out front in the ocean, surfing and they would land way out past the break. But its all fun and games until ya blow your earlobe off.

Lol, seems like the old tennis ball "mortar" as we used to call it was a pretty popular pastime for many "young-uns"

We made ours out of the old fasioned steel soft drink cans, taped together with a LOT of tape (we didn't have any of that fancy duct tape, just insulation tape).

Always remember the first and second attempt, first the tennis ball was only placed just on top of the top can, not rammed in (operation manuals were scarce when I was a boy, lol), drew straws as to who would light it, used a long stick with a metho soaked rag for ignition, everyon else hid behind something solid...FIRE !!! A (very) small pop sound and the ball travelled about 3 feet in the air.

Second attempt and we rammed the ball down a few cans, not expecting much to happen, friend in charge of ignition held a lighter to the small hole at the bottom... BOOM!!! after checking all limbs and appendages were intact there was a lot of laughter, and in future firings we used the stick again.

Russell.