My New Toy

Not automotive related but w/e :lol:

Thing's a beast.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a167/CBFryman2/Picture033.jpg

i just test fired it an hour or two ago with a paper wad loosely crumpled at a 10ish degree angle...shot it 30 feet. and it was dark so it had a pretty blue and orange flame out of the barle. its set up to perfect ratio's of combustion chamber volume to barle volume.

it has 2 sparks for a more efficent burn, i was smart and wired them in series.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a167/CBFryman2/Picture034.jpg

me friend and i are going potato launching tomarrow night...ill see if i can get a pic of it in action with the pretty blue flames...

We built one of those as well, and they're lots of fun. Ours had only one spark though.

My friend has one, no sparks, uses a compressor.

We've shot a golfball maybe about 300 feet into the lake behind his house.

Wired in series with 2 sparks wont have the same effect as it wired in parallel. If you wanted it more efficent, wire it in parallel.

In series, then 2nd spark isnt going to have the same power as the 1st, maybe half if your lucky.

In parallel, they both get the same amount of current. Which means they both spark to the full amount.

wong...in series you get equal spark on both ends, in parallel you get a spark on which ever path has the least resistance ;) as this is an extremely high resisance circut.

Cool. Is it a HEMI? What does it run in the quarter?

How about some specs on it???

My friend built one a couple years ago that was about 70 inches tall. We used one of the twist lantern sparkers, it worked a lot better than the grill starters did when we tried them. We could get the 'taters to go about 600 feet or so without much trouble.

35" Barle made of 2" Sch 40 PVC
2" to 4" sch40 PVC reducer
10" of 4" sch40 PVC combustion chamber
4" screw on end cap
Epoxy w/ notches cut in the PVC was used as glue and 1" screws at each connection
2" screws where used as the electrods for the sparker
$10 sparker from lowes
after the end cap and reducer its a little over 4" long
so far i havent launched a potato (need to stop by the vegtable stand and pick up some).
been playing around with it and so far Hairspray gives the best combustion though i havent tried reight guard deoderant which uses propane as an accelerant instead of butane (butane is the downfall of most other deoderants such as old spice of Axe) and i havent tried straight propane, depending on the velocity it shoots potato's im going to fire it at this wooden box i have with a nail in the potato to see if this is the new line of nail guns...lol
i shot a gold ball with paper wadding at the box and put a little dent in it and i used Old Spice body spray which uses butane as an accelerant.

im thinking of shortening the barle or even putting a screw on cap and making a "versa barle" system.

ill get some distance figures this weekend if possible.

If both sparks have the same resistance, youll be getting an even amount. And even if it was uneven, the resistance in the circuit will be lower then the lowest resistor if I can remember correctly.

You do know there is an off topic section for all non automotive related stuff, right?

yes i do...but this is where MOST of the cooler peeps hang out...
besides combustion and racing go hand in hand and combustion and spud guns go hand in hand... related...

yes i do

Then post in the right section.

besides combustion and racing go hand in hand and combustion and spud guns go hand in hand... related...

Lighting farts on fire and combustion go hand in hand, yet we dont see posts about that all over here, do we?

I touch my penis with my hand...you scratch your face with your hand..

is my penis and your face related?





Sorry i had to. :icon16:

I touch my penis with my hand...you scratch your face with your hand..

is my penis and your face related?





Sorry i had to. :icon16:

Owned with a capital P...

wow...ok that was gay.

Cassie, just STFU since this is the non specific...

Well, it is the RACING non specific

mmhmmm....and cassie acts like im the first to place non racing realted stuff in here...
especially since my other thread is about racing...

I dont see a problem with this thread here, why dont we have a discussion on V.E. Chris, that would be auto related as well if that's what someone's looking for.

You want specs you got 'em... ive laucnhedevery food product in my house that i could conceive and fit into the barle. this includes:
Orange
Biscut
Raw Egg
Hard Boiled Egg
pakcets of ketchup
breakfast bar

and a few non food products includeing:
1" PVC wraped in a rag as wadding (took out the end of a branch)
3/4" Bolt wrapped in paper as wadding
and
little shampoo bottle filled with water

The orange was probably the farthest at an estimated 100yds (i fired it into the woods into a wild grape vine patch...only my dog and the neightbors cat knows what is back there). all except for thoes that fell apart (egg, biscut, breakfast bar) had about 4.5 sec of hang time meaning i had it angled way too high.

after a little (cough lot) of trig/physics i came up with the exiting velocity of the orange to be 150mph give or take.

but check my math if you dont beleive me (and understand this before you try and throw up a BS flag).

Vf = Vi + A * T

0m/s = X + (-9.8m/s^2) * (2.25s)

Vert Vel. = 22.05m/s

Sin45 = (22.05m/s) / X

X = Barle Vel. = 31.2m/s

31.2m/s * 100 = 3120cm/s

3120cm/s / 2.54 = 1228.35in/s

1228.35 / 12in/ft = 102.4 ft/s

102.4 * 5280 ft/mi = 540672

540672 / 3600s/hr = ~150mph

But to check this w/ my estimated distance

22.05m/s * 4.5s = 99.225m

99.225m * 100 = 9922.5cm

9922.5 / 2.54 = 3906.5in

3906.5 / 36 = 108.5yds....

close enough for government work :lol2:

oh so that means 0-150mph in ~ 2.5ft

My potato gun > F1, F50, Murschelargo, and Bugatti Veron

Whered u find the sparker at lowes? I searched but Im somewhat curious how you installed it.

in the grille section...there was 2 boxes of them.

As for installing it i simple screwed 2 screws that where long enough to make a 1/8-1/4" gap and soldered the leads from the sparker to each screw making a circut.

I touch my penis with my hand...you scratch your face with your hand..

is my penis and your face related?





Sorry i had to. :icon16:
I won't lie sometimes you scare me.

this is my first time in this part of the forums, and this scares me.... thats freakin' awesome though, you need to shoot something that will explode in mid-air, try using bottle rockets and fuses and stuff and stick them into a potato, and hope it doesnt' prematurely explode, 3-4 bottle rockets crammed in a potato and fired straight into the air would make a lot of mush

hehe, onion soaked in vinegar over night is sapposed to make a purple trail of flames...lol trying it tomarrow night

Okay the rednecks down the street from me make thier potato guns work just as well without all the 1337T3cHnozzz work.. Its just a potato gun. Explosions, fire, destruction all cool...

acting like you need formulas to build one correctly, not cool....

i dont need formulas... however there is a science to everything. it it means louder boom, bigger flash, or potato goes out of sight sooner... flexing your brain is helpful.
THAT is just seeing how fast the potato is travleing the hard way, in actuality it is probably well over 150mph as i didnt account for wind resistnace. and there arent many radar detectors that go much higher than 150mph ;)

Rednecks can make their 383 fast in their home garradge...

but if it means it goes faster, sounds better, and is all around sexier and more reliable... Chevy and Ford are willing to put a little thought/mathmatics into it...where as dodge is that redneck putting the hemi in every other vehicle they can shove it into.
other companies like BMW, and Mercedies put evne more thought into the cars we get and millions of dollars of science into F1 cars...
and then Porsche, VW (lamborghini), Ferrari, Maserati, excetera take it to the max to make the fastest, sexiest, best sounding cars around...

which would you rather drive? a dodge charger with a Hemi?
Or a Ferrari F430?
the only condition is to get the ferrari you have to flex your brain.

man, you have too much time on your hands

why dont you be like a normal kid and drink and smoke or something

Ford, Chevy, Ferrari, all of the above aren't building potato guns out of PVC pipe...

Flexing your brain..hmm.. I guess I'm not too guilty of that*looks at his car* NVM...

you really dont get it do you? Unlike 99.99% of high school students, i take what i learn and apply it to things i enjoy and take it a step or two further by using what i learned to make what i enjoy even more enjoyable or to apply it and figure other thingso ut on my own... i figured out motion in two directions and projectiles weeks before we covered the chapter. I applied what ive learned an figured out in physics to estimate the exiting velocity of the potato.
i didnt put it there to seem like i was cool or smart, i put it there for anyone who questioned it could check my mathmatics to make sure i calulated correctly.
Besides specs where asked for. you ask for specs on cars 0-60 and top speed are commonly included with horse power, wheel base, and GVW... you ask for specs on a gun Barle velocity is very common if not standard.

and just to piss you off more i am going to use Chemistry to figure out exactly how much propane to inject to get maximum burn efficency (and therefor gas expansion) into my next gun which will be strictly propane bassed.

I geuss i could throw up some formulas with Boyles and Charles laws and how many moles of oxygen are in X volume of air and how many moles of propane i would need to make the ratio's perfect and and ballenced chemical equasions and what volume at X pressure and temerature will give this number of moles to make sure my calculations are correct for anyone who would liek to check my mathmatics... but i geuss if it preforms just like thoes rednecks and their potato guns in a sence that they both shoot potatos further and faster than you can throw them then i may as well not because i will be told i am stupid or uncool...

you really dont get it do you? Unlike 99.99% of high school students, i take what i learn and apply it to things i enjoy and take it a step or two further by using what i learned to make what i enjoy even more enjoyable or to apply it and figure other thingso ut on my own... i figured out motion in two directions and projectiles weeks before we covered the chapter. I applied what ive learned an figured out in physics to estimate the exiting velocity of the potato.
i didnt put it there to seem like i was cool or smart, i put it there for anyone who questioned it could check my mathmatics to make sure i calulated correctly.
Besides specs where asked for. you ask for specs on cars 0-60 and top speed are commonly included with horse power, wheel base, and GVW... you ask for specs on a gun Barle velocity is very common if not standard.


ok GOLF CLAP

I don't get it. I never took those classes.

People who throw out math equations like that dont sound smart. They sound sophmoric. Its like...I need to feel smart about myself. Congrats, you can spit of math formulas. Now, can you break down the severl theories of political science, tell me what Supreme Court case overturned (or at least severly modfied) Roe v. Wade, explain why the Nazis lost WWII, or apply Plato's myth of the metals to our current society and its problems?

wow that was an interesting read, sounds like to me someone is a bit insecure. and i actually heard that carb cleaner works better then most other things, friends tested it. but what do they kno, they didnt use all those formulas.

and i dont think it pisses ne1 off, it just makes u sound like a retard who is begging to be accepted in the world.

Carb cleaner has agents in it which will brake down the PVC and weaken it over time. Not safe.
Propane is a fast clean burn that does not gunk up the electrodes (like hairspray does which means you have to clean the screws every 10-15 shots or after the gasses have a chance to settle/condence) and has no caustic agents in it to harm the PVC.
if you have an ABS or metal gun then Carb Cleaner is perfectly ok. but im not going to use ABS because it is not pressure rated. sch40 PVC is generally rated to 240psi on the conservative side. ABS, if rated, is rated to 10PSI. Not that ABS doesnt work but it is a honey comb of air pockets, greaty for light weight and isnt as brittle as PVC but PVC is a lot safer for doing what i am doing.

Cassie, Political science is far from what i am intersted it. In actuality Politics annoys me to the point i refuse to watch any news other than news making fun of news (ie the Daily Show and the Colbert Report). It isnt that i dont want to know what is going on in the world but there isnt a single TV station broadcasted here that is neither extreme left wing or too right wing for me. i get enough extreme right wingism every time i ride with my dad who listens to nothing but Bill O' Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, or similar talk stations. Not that these men arent intellegent, because they are extremely intellegent and a lot of the things they talk about are very interesting. However they seem to do nothing but want to hear themselves talk sometimes.

What interests me most is how any why things work. Physical things, not human made things in which no one can be right or wrong.