Help in a small way for kids to make a potato gun

[JohnH]

One think I notice is with kids (up to around age 14) is that there is no big deal with dealing with a dude in a dress.

The parents also don't make a big deal that I wear a dress while I talk to them.

One of the kids - a boy about 14 years of age needed a larger drill bit - so I lent it to him. Then he needed duct tape. So I lent it to him, and he brought back the roll.

Then I went over in my dress to see how they were coming along - they had a fireplace lighter that was almost out of fuel. I did not have another functioning fireplace lighter, so I couldn't help them.

There were 3 boys and 1 girl - all of them wearing pants. It was no big deal to them that I was wearing a long sleeve cotton maxi-dress.

So all of you who are concerned about corrupting kids with your wearing dresses - those fears are absolutely unfounded.

[Loni]

omg...when i read potato gun i thought how bad this must be..

living in California we can not have such simple things for fun. (crime to have fun here).

people are so worried we will scare there kids by seeing us in a cute dress, and here is "john H " helping build a fun gun.
what a life.

.

[StaceyJane]

Did you not see the episode of Bones where someone was killed with a potato gun?

[JohnH]

What can I say - I live in God's country.

There was some fellow who was driving cross country.

He stopped in at a Roman Catholic church in New York city. There was a phone on the wall - with a sign of "$10,000 to talk to God."

Then he drove west. Next stop was Pittsburgh, PA. He goes into another Roman Catholic church and sees the same thing.

Then he continues the next day to drive west, and he stops in Indianapolis. He goes into another Roman Catholic church and sees the same thing.

Then he decides to drive long and hard the next day. He makes it all the way to Texarkana, Texas. He goes into another Roman Catholic church and sees that there is a phone on the wall, and the sign says, "25 cents for a direct call to God". The guy is wondering - why is it so cheap in Texas? A priest walks up to the guy and puts his hand on the guy's shoulder and says, "Son, you're in God's country and it's only a local call".

And, oh by the way, I'm Lutheran!

John

[JOJO44]

A bunch of my siblings and I was out on our back porch yakking away when someone said it would be fun to have a potato gun here. Well, I said, just a minute then went down stairs and brought one back up with me.

After launching a dozen or so seed potatoes, a brother wanted to know how far it could shoot.

After a few test shots, I pulled out a "secret weapon". A golf ball.

Believe me, a golf ball travels a long, long way when fired from a spud gun.

PS: Be safe! The closest house behind us is approximately three miles away.
A golf ball would probably kill someone up to a hundred yards away. (I wonder if mythbusters would check that one out?)

[Danni Bear]

A bunch of my siblings and I was out on our back porch yakking away when someone said it would be fun to have a potato gun here. Well, I said, just a minute then went down stairs and brought one back up with me.

After launching a dozen or so seed potatoes, a brother wanted to know how far it could shoot.

After a few test shots, I pulled out a "secret weapon". A golf ball.

Believe me, a golf ball travels a long, long way when fired from a spud gun.

PS: Be safe! The closest house behind us is approximately three miles away.
A golf ball would probably kill someone up to a hundred yards away. (I wonder if mythbusters would check that one out?)

jojo, they did and a golfball fired from a potato gun will shatter a cinder block at 50 yards or break through a sheet of 1 inch plywood.

Danni

[Miss Misery]

Try making the potato gun so you don't need to use a combustable propellant. We used 3" PVC in a T arrangement w/ a ball valve installed near where the leg of the T attaches to the cross piece. Cap and seal the ends of the cross piece and add a valve stem to fill chamber w/ compressed air. 40 psi shoots a potato really well! From the book Backyard Ballistics - those 14 yr olds will love you if you show them that book - their parents, not so much!

At a later date, we can discuss how to make a UFO.

[JOJO44]

Schedule 40 should handle a hundred pounds easily, hmmm, I wonder.
Question, I understand a pressure tank and ball valve, but why the 'T'?

[Danni Bear]

Schedule 40 should handle a hundred pounds easily, hmmm, I wonder.
Question, I understand a pressure tank and ball valve, but why the 'T'?

JoJo,
the two legs off the tee give you the pressure tank and volume needed. the third leg and valve give you the barrel of the gun. lol

Danni

[Loni]

even a dry bomb is a crime here. dry ice and ? make a great non combustible propellant. just not as easy to get or contain as simple air psi.

[gwenbeth]

This thread made my day! Seeing a that starts out about cross dressing and ends up with technical information on potato guns tells me in in the right place.

BTW for younger children, start off by showing them how to use 1/2 inch pvc pipe as a blowgun for nerf darts.

[JohnH]

people are so worried we will scare there kids by seeing us in a cute dress, and here is "john H " helping build a fun gun.
what a life.
.

During Halloween I was the one handing out candy. I was wearing a floral dress and 2.75 inch wedge heel sandals. A couple of the mothers even waved to me.

John

[Miss Misery]

JoJo,
the two legs off the tee give you the pressure tank and volume needed. the third leg and valve give you the barrel of the gun. lol

Danni

You got it Danni. Plus, put the valve stem on one end cap and a pressure gauge on the other. The biggest concern for me was how well the caps were glued - should be at least as strong as the pipe but .....
Also, bevel the end of the barrel so it will cut your spud to the appropriate size as you load.

Practical use - I needed to get a line thrown over the roof of my barn. No problem, poke the end of the line through the spud, knot it. Load and fire.

[Janie]

Well.....I have a pneumatic powered spud gun also. T shaped and use an automatic(electric) lawn sprinkler valve powered by a 9V battery and fire it electrically. With the electric valve it dumps the air instantly at the touch of the button. It also has a pressure regulator with gauge for repeatable performance. Ya.....I know.....tend to get carried away with the things I do (that too).

[JohnH]

This thread made my day! Seeing a that starts out about cross dressing and ends up with technical information on potato guns tells me in in the right place.

With such a response to the potato gun that I see here, I can tell that we are a bunch of overgrown boys!
It's great that we can get beyond just talking about crossdressing and talk about stuff that is near and dear to the male heart!

John

[Annaliese2010]

Would you consider a French Fry gun? That would be way safer because the mass of the projectile is much reduced. Besides the contraption would be easier to design...um, I think? Oh wait a minute...could still put out an eye so...better not!

[danielleb]

One think I notice is with kids (up to around age 14) is that there is no big deal with dealing with a dude in a dress.....

Then I went over in my dress to see how they were coming along - they had a fireplace lighter that was almost out of fuel. I did not have another functioning fireplace lighter, so I couldn't help them.

There were 3 boys and 1 girl - all of them wearing pants. It was no big deal to them that I was wearing a long sleeve cotton maxi-dress.

Those kids would have dealt with Freddy Crougar if it meant they could get their potato gun working.:battingeyelashes:

But more imortantly what were they doing with a fireplace lighter??? Didn't anyone teach Ya'll you gotta use a barbeque sparker!:D Use a 3" resivior and a 1" 1/2 barrel, with your leftover hairspray, good for over 300 yards!!!;)


So all of you who are concerned about corrupting kids with your wearing dresses - those fears are absolutely unfounded.
Ya, seems you're gonna take care of that for us!:hugs:

[awesomestuff]

HAHA I'm so glad to find such a thread on here, makes a mechanical engineering student such as myself feel at home.

If your interested in kicking it up a notch, if you charge the combustion chamber to about 4 atm, the higher concentration of oxygen will allow for you to use 4 times the amount of propellant (propane is easiest for this) and still maintain the 4 to 1 ratio required for adequate ignition.

The only downside to this method is that a rupture disc is necessary because a standard ball valve could not open fast enough for the entire mixture to ignite and not blow up the chamber. The rupture disc is used to maintain an air tight environment within the chamber until the pressure exceeds an amount a little bit more than the standard pressurization (i.e. like 5 atm) which takes place during the combustion cycle. I ran the numbers on such a reaction a few semesters ago in thermodynamics and you could theoretically break the sound barrier while still within the structural limits of SCH 40 pvc with a factor of safety to boot. Just make sure to keep your hands at your sides or the blast may just throw your skirt clean over your head! :)