Potato guns

[pyro]

OK, my user name is Pyro because I'm a freakin' pyro-maniac. I have made rocket engines out of paint thinner cans, I have built my own custom fireworks by disassembling existing ones, I have blown out windows setting off acetelene+O2 bag bombs, so take my word for it: From my own personal research, here's the best potato gun recipe:

combustion chamber: 24" x 3" PVC, it MUST be schedule 40 solid PVC, the 260 psi variety. DO NOT use the foamed-core "non-pressure" drain pipe from Lowe's!!!

tapered reducer: 3" - 1 1/2" it's better than the squared off style reducer, structurally stronger, won't break as easy.

barrel: 5 feet of 1 1/2" PVC

at the bottom end, use a 3" cleanout plug.

Toward the bottom, a couple of machine screws jam-nutted through the PVC with the ends trimmed and sharpened, should have 3/8" spark gap in the chamber, as seen in the photos. I have tried spark plugs, they do not work as well. I installed quick-disconnects on my terminals and insulated the connectors with hot glue. Use purple primer first and the hot glue will stick properly. A $10 grill ignitor will work. I attached 2 foot long leads to mine. If the ignitor only has one connector, look for a shiny wire in the plastic on the side of it. That's the ground. Find a way to hook the other wire onto it. You have to encase the ignitor in thick hot glue, to keep the spark from leaking out and grounding on your hand while you hold it! The quick disconnects allow you to wash the gun in the lake.

The gun should be assembled with lots of purple primer and PVC cement. I also staggered rivets around my fittings. The rivets at the base of the barrel also prevent the warhead from being packed in too far, where you can't get it out! Grind the end of the barrel to a taper, this allows the potato to be "cored", so a perfect projectile can be loaded by twisting, and shaving off the excess as it goes in. Give it 2 weeks to fully cure.

Time to shoot!

Blow gently into the chamber to clear out any stale air or exhaust from the last shot. Spray some WD-40 into the barrel to lube the warhead. Or, you can also wet the potato down first to make it nice and slippery. Ram it down to the bottom with the tool of your choice, such as a long broom handle. Fuel can vary. Many believe that White Rain aerosol hairspray is the best. It contains a nice blend of alcohol and propane, but it makes the chamber sticky. Ether is hard to fire properly. Propane is excellent, and it's clean. If you use hairspray, spray it in the cleanout end off-center, so you get a nice swirl inside. A full 2 second spray works OK. Tighten the plug really good!

The spud gun should be held under your arm, with your other hand holding the top of the chamber. Do not hold the barrel, if the pipe reducer should break, so will your hand!

FIRE! have fun.

The photos show the complete weapon along the left, as well as the reducer, cleanout plug, etc. Note the custom graphics :D
Also, you can see the spark gap looking into the chamber, and the potato-shaving taper at the end of the barrel.

DISCLAIMER:
Please don't blow yourselves up! If you do, it's your own fault, and not mine. Please resist the urge to fire the weapon at people, animals, cars, jet-skis, wakeboarders, and jet boats. Build and use at your own risk!

-Chad the PYROmaniac

[Pete]

i have patato gun exactly like yours.
me and the guys like fireing it off and trying to do target practise on cans. Ive shot everything i can think of outta the gun. The more creative u get, the more fun!

Pete

[KaptainKirk]

ROCK THE BEST MORE JUICY !!

[TODD2002]

there are many good projectiles like those blue racket ball you get 3 in a canaster at the local sports store. turneps, large spuds, golf balls with a sock as the wading like a muzzle loader. have fun and be safe .

[Boaterbum]

Hey Pyro, I likre the graffix!!!! Thats awsome!!!
I had one a while ago, haven't played with them in years, the damn "Boyz in Blue' decided they were better to have it them I was... PRICKS....
Oh well, might have to make another one up, but I must say, I will have to leave it put away during the boating season, or it may wind up on a turrit mount on the Vector and aimed at them Damn Lake Lice!!!( jet ski's):D

[popeyebob]

I use a Colman lantern lighter on mine. It looks like a long neck lighter. It has a knob you spin, and a flint/spark wheel. I drill a 1/4" hole in the end cap/clean out cap and bolt it in. No wires or intermittant grill igniter to mess with, and it will ignite any fuel,every time!(Wallmart,about $5)
For fuel, I use regular gasoline in a fine mist spray bottle,adjusted to a very fine mist.(also from Wallmart)
I also chamfer the end of my muzzle from the inside to a sharp edge.It still cuts well,but you get a tighter pack as the chamfer tends to compress the item being fired.
Green walnuts are my missle of choice.

[pyro]

hmmmm...

Golf balls may work if you built a larger gun with 4" chamber and 2" barrel. that would be cool.

I know a guy that took a 10 foot piece of steel pipe with one end cap, drilled a little hole in the cap, put an M-80 in the end of the pipe with the fuse sticking out of the hole. He put a gold ball in there, and this thing was lethal. It would shoot at least 500 yds, maybe more.

As far as the spud guns, the recipe can always be perfected. I have helped others build several guns. We made one that was much smaller with a handle on the side. It was louder, but the distance was poor, because the potato leaves the barrel before the peak of the burn expansion, hence the louder bang.

We also made one that was 9 feet long, the chamber and barrel were still 3" and 1 1/2", big mistake. It was hard to get the fuel mix right, sometimes it would lob the potato like a football, sometimes no fire at all.

The Spud Scud II was stolen from a friend's garage during a party. It was the experimental spark plug model. The spark plug did not work as consistently as the machine screw spark gap.

[Scott]

I love the Name LOL! Get a chuckle every time I think of it! TX Pyro fpr postin' the dirs! Gotta make me one!

[AlaskaStreamin]

Hey Pyro,
I have one like yours but have a 4" combustion chamber. I reduce it to 2" and have female threads on the reducer. This way I can thread on any barrel I want. I have a "over/under" barrel using a "Y" and a 45*. The straight through pipe is 1 1/4" and the "Y" pipe is 1 1/2". This shoots way farther than the straight 1 1/2" barrel. I also have a 4" barrel for shooting rolls of toilet paper. Shoot it straight up. This is fun at parties as it unrolls when it comes down. Don't forget to use wadding!! You can saturate it with lighter fluid and have a flaming roll of TP!!!

BTW, the combustion chambers only produce 50# of pressure with paint, hair spray, or WD 40. A friend used acetelene and Oxygen and blew up his chamber. If in doubt, wrap it with several layers of duct tape. The black and white PVC & ABS pipe are rated at 250#.

P.S. Avocato's shoot the farthest!!!!!!!

Check out this site :http://www.spudtech.com/
This guy is nuts!! He "rifels" his barrels so the potatoes come out rotating. Here's a picture from his site.

[Boaterbum]

Wholly SHYTE!!!!! Man, your frickin' nuts! Thats awsome, how friggin far can that thing launsh an avacato???? You hunt Bear with that thing up there?!?!?!
Hmmm, that would mount nicely on the boat, think the DNR and the other Law guys would mind it?!?!?!?!
Hahaha... That think looks cool as hell man

[AlaskaStreamin]

Hey now, That's not me. It's a picture from the web site I listed above. I have one that looks similar but with a 6' barrel on a tri-pod. Guess I'll have to get some pictures of my interchangable barrels. :D

[G-Train]

Are any of you guys available to take a road trip to Camel Jockey Land for some Towel Head Target Practice.

JEEEZZZ, next thing you know Allison or Triad will have the Bow Mounted Veggie Accellerator Option available. Who knows, it may change Bass fishing as we know it.

G

[Boaterbum]

A Streamin', well, doesn't sound like your far off then, with the 6' barrel!! hahaha, still awsome!
Gtrain- That tunnel would look sweet and be very affective with a vegi accelerator mounted on each sponson!!!!!!!!!!!
hahaha, hell yea, I wanna go to the sand dunes over sees and practice, screw the taters though, lets take something with a it more punch!!!!!!! hahaha

[pyro]

I may build another one sometime soon that has a shorter 4" chamber, more compact. Ron, that picture is awesome! I gotta make one like that!

Acetelene and Oxygen is dangerous. Not good for spud guns. It can be ignited be static electricity. This blend burns instantaneously, with heavy expansion. The problem is, the potato can't leave the barrel fast enough before the burn hits max expansion (we're talking maybe 1 millisecond here), hence the chamber exploding.

Acetelene and Oxygen are great for 4th of july. Use a food storage bag, WET IT DOWN WITH WATER first to kill the static!!! Fill it up, 50/50, from the torch head. Fill it up LOOSELY, no pressure, and tie a TIGHT knot! Use a long strip of masking tape, light it, and run like hell. This is for sure louder than a real M80. One time an un-named individual made one with a kitchen size garbage bag, and it blew out windows a block away and set off car alarms everywhere. Please don't try that, you WILL go to jail for a long time, or you'll kill yourself.

[BarryStrawn]

You also don't want to fill a tractor tube unless you have a very large field way out in the boondocks, a long fuse, and a reliable vehicle. Leaves a nice crater. I sure hope the FBI isn't listening. Do you know the one about 55 gallon drum, water, carbide and a candle?

[AlaskaStreamin]

Man you guys are NUTS!!!!:p

We figured the best barrel length by starting long and shortening it until you start to see flame out the end. You want the projectile to exit the barrel right at the end of the burn. 4' was our magic length.

We've shot about everything we could find in the produce dept. Corn is cool but it flops end over end. So does cucumbers. My dad swears by his 2" barrel but my 1 1/2" shoots just as far and I use the bagged potatoes. He has to get the bakers at a much higher price.

We have pistol grip handels on the chamber with the igniters drilled in for the trigger. I'll get a picture and post.

I ordered plans a few years ago for a 6 shooter rapid fire spud gun. It has a removable cylinder with six 1 1/2" tubes that are 1' long. You load up each tube and clip it in the frame. As you pull the leaver, the barrel slides foreward, the cylinder rotates, all while a air pump is clearing out the chamber and through a venturi, siphoning in starting fluid. As you pull back the leaver, the barrel slides back, clamps down and it fires. It looked like it would take several weeks to build. I still don't have that much time to put into building it.

If anyone is interested, I'd copy the plans.

[G-Train]

Try this Website for some more interesting tater gun plans.

http://www.xinventions.com/main/spud/home.htm

Greg

[KeninSC]

If you really want to get the potato excited. Dump some oxygen in the combustion chamber with some ether. We were putting potatos THROUGH 7 ply-plywood @10yds that we had received some overseas equipment in. I highly suggest you reinforce the combustion chamber and the first 2 feet of the barrel with fiberglass strapping tape. (Don't ask me why I suggest that.)
Ken

[pyro]

Potatoes are great, but here's a list of hundreds of other cool projectiles that can be shot out of a spud gun. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/p_s_parsons/
Some of these objects require a 2" barrel. The ones that involve soaking the projectile in gasoline are my favorites. I'm going to try some of these ideas this weekend.

-Chad the PYROmaniac

[Greg Moss]

guy's that 4" chamber is low power. I have a chamber that is 6" and Made to be double thick The pipe that goes between the end with the clean out on it and the reducer is just long enough that the chamber is double thick. I reduced the 6" down to 1 1/2" and with a 2 second shot of white rain it will lob a spud a couple of hundred yards. I use a coleman lantern stricker for my ignitor. Works kick ass I will have to get a picture posted. Shoots a 4' flame out the end of it look cool a night.

[pyro]

Hey, Greg, did you read my recipe at the start of the thread? Mine has quick-disconnects on the sides to unhook the ignitor, and wash out all that white rain in the lake! :D That's the way to go, total washability. I'm going to try some of that flaming fireball gas-soaked toilet paper this weekend. that sounds cool. Lots of good things on that link that you can chuck with your spudgun.

[Arizona Hotboater]

Ive been looking for a new hobby. I think I just found it. How bizarre!

Vegetable accelerator! What a great name!

[Greg Moss]

My buddy has one that uses a 3/4" barrel and shoots radishes has a 2" chamber that is about 1foot long that sucker will shoot a radish for a looooooooooonnnnnnnngggg way. he uses a pistol grip glued to the chamber and let her rip. He has a electric spark from a gas grill it just misfires some time have to click it more than once to get it to fire. Mine with the flint first time everytime.

[Arizona Hotboater]

Hey Greg,
Are you retailing them things? I'm not kidding. I dont have time to build one right now. :D Anyone made one out of steel pipe so ya dont have to worry about losing any fingers?

Marc AZH

[pyro]

They only develop about 15-40 psi typically. The pipe is good for 260 psi. The combustion can almost always push the potato out easier than it can blow itself up. I hold mine below the barrel in case the reducer blows off.

[BarryStrawn]

Components or complete launchers available from http://www.spudtech.com

[pyro]

Sorry, I posted the wrong link. Here's the list of projectiles you can shoot with a potato gun:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/p_s_parsons/shoot01.htm

CHECK IT OUT!!!

-Chad the S&F PYRO

[Arizona Hotboater]

Thanks for the info dudes!
AZH

[pyro]

I fired a "one gun salute" last night at 10:30 out over the water. That really broke the silence. I fired it on a blend of propane and methanol.

I'm at work right now. Minutes ago, I creaded a small shooter. I drilled a hole in a 20 oz. bottle cap, superglued a piece of 3/4" brass tubing onto the cap. I poked a 1/8" hole in the bottom edge of the bottle. Shoot some methanol inside, pack a projectile in the brass tubing, and aim a small pocket torch at the little hole in the bottom. It really kicks! So far, it fires tape balls really far, and I have also packed gravel into it, I bucked the trash bin out back, the buckshot rained down everywhere. after about the third shot, the bottle starts to get really deformed from the heat of combustion. fun stuff.

[AlaskaStreamin]

Here's my gun with the interchangable barrels.

[Arizona Hotboater]

I went to the web site for projectiles. This was my favorite.

"Dead Birds. This is cool...put them in feet first, really cool if it is winter and they are frozen, they will act like darts." :D

[pyro]

Remember this thread? He he he...
The "Spud Scud SS3 Vegetable Accelerator"
I run it on straight propane now. Very predictable, and easy to dispense fuel using an old torch nozzle on a Coleman canister.

This summer I may build the "SS4 Pneumatic", this one will be air-compressor powered rather than combustion, much more powerful.

It seems that the site posted earlier in this thread (things you can shoot out of a potato cannon) is now a dead link. There is only one other such site I found, and it's not very comprehensive. I should make my own site with a new list of spudgun projectiles...

www.spudtech.com <== Great info at this site, you can buy kits, components AND complete guns, many of them are HUGE, LOUD, and DEADLY.

Having some fun in the alley behind the shop today...

[ALLISOMAN280]

guys be carefull I heard that a potato gun fell into soem kind of explosive device and isx a felony to have in possesion!!! by the way I have one also!!!!

[pyro]

NOT SO! The ATF says that they are legal:
http://www.spudtech.com/content.asp?id=13
At the bottom of this section, the ATF gives general exception to recreational potato guns:

We have previously examined that certain muzzle loading devices known as "potato guns." These potato guns are constructed from PVC plastic tubing. They use hair spray or a similar aerosol substance for a propellant, and have some type of spark ignitor. We have determined that these devices, as described, are not firearms provided that they are used solely for launching potatoes for recreational purposes. However, any such devices which are used as weapons or used to launch other forms of projectiles may be firearms and destructive devices as defined.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
Firearms Technology Branch, Room 6450
650 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20226

Many cities and towns have ordinances against USING potato guns within limits of their municipality, so check with local laws before using your spud gun.

Hairspray is nasty and sticky. Use plain, ordinary propane. Enriching the propane with alcohol to simulate hairspray's active combustibles produces no performance gain, in my opinion. Plain alcohol can be used, but I find that it's harder to get the fuel/air mix right, it doesn't always work. Propane is easy and predictable, one you get the hang of how long to open the propane torch valve into the chamber. Too little won't light off. Too much produces a slow, weak shot.

Otherwise, owning a spud gun is not a crime.
Launching potatoes is not a crime.

Using your spud gun as a fireball launcher: (this may be illegal)
fold 4 to 6 sheets of paper towel in half, then roll it up like a burrito. Tie a piece of string around it to hold it together. Soak it in gasoline, and load it into your combustion-type spud gun, it needs to fit somewhat snug for max distance. The shot will usually light the projectile on fire as it leaves the barrel, and it will burn as it flies through the air, even at high velocity. When it strikes its target, burning gas will splatter and set the target on fire. I tried this one time, it was COOL, we all stood there headbanging like Beavis and Butt-head, as the fireball set the neighbor's lawn on fire.

-Chad

[Boz]

Picked up my first one two days ago. Strange this thread would pop up yesterday.
Have yet to use it though.

[pyro]

I started this thread three years ago. sometime since then, the board marked all of my older messages "PYRO, Guest", and it won't let me edit any of the old posts.
We were playing with the spudgun the other day, and I thought it would be cool to bring this thread back to the top.

Everybody should have one of these for those times when the jet-skiers get out of control. Regulate!!!

[triple dude]

You should put an NRA sticker on that thing. ;)

[halveb]

Is that your spud gun or are you happy to see me. :D