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Potato cannon

The potato cannon is such a national American pastime. A cylinder with a slightly larger diameter is attached to a durable pipe with a diameter slightly smaller than a typical potato and a meter and a half long. A potato is inserted into the pipe “from the barrel” (in this case, since it is larger than the pipe, when stuffed, the potato is peeled off and becomes tightly ground, and the juice acts as a lubricant), and an “active element” is introduced into the cylinder on the other side - a little gas from the cylinder or some kind of aerosol. The lid is screwed on at the back, on which a piezoelectric element from a gas lighter with a button on the outside is attached. Then it’s simple - you press the button, the gas explodes and the potato flies away. Depending on the type of “active element,” the flight range will also change. With ether, the potato flew almost 200 meters!

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Popular Mechanics magazine has 2 tutorial articles on making potato cannons: and Hooligan Inventions: Cheap & Fun. Here is one of them:

Vegetable artillery: We are preparing a cannon

Our readers love weapons very much. Among them there are many people who are familiar with first-hand various types weapons: designers, testers, military personnel, as well as those for whom sport shooting, hunting or studying weapons history has become a favorite hobby. However, among those who want to read and talk about weapons, there are also those who have never in their lives held in their hands anything worse than a water pistol. This is, of course, a mess. We decided to arm all loyal PM fans to the teeth. Every month we will tell you how to use available materials with your own hands to create something that shoots far, flies high, burns well and delights those around you with a deafening roar and festive fireworks, having first tested each recipe from your own experience. We decided to start with an artillery weapon that has long become a classic in America and is rapidly gaining popularity all over the world - the potato cannon.

An artillery gun is a complex engineering structure designed to decide the destinies of people. Of course, it should not look like an extra part from the sewer system. Decorating a cannon, giving it an appearance that inspires fear and awe, is an obligation

Pressure deficit

The first and, perhaps, the most serious obstacle for us on the path to our own potato cannon was the total absence in stores and construction markets of the capital of pressure water pipes made of polyvinyl chloride, the main building material for homemade artillery. The only PVC products that are widely available everywhere are sewer pipes and fittings of any diameter, configuration and even color. You cannot shoot from them - these pipes and their connections are not strong enough to work under pressure. The nature of the general concern of sellers with sewerage problems while completely ignoring the water supply system remains a mystery to us.

In our area, water supply is often laid from metal-plastic or polypropylene pipes. In terms of their properties, they are not inferior to PVC, the only difference is that polypropylene pipes and fittings cannot be glued together; to connect them, an expensive welding machine with a whole arsenal of special attachments. Do not fall for the persuasion of sellers who claim that polypropylene can be welded with a lighter. We have seen from our own experience that, even with a powerful gas burner, it is impossible to reliably and evenly connect such pipes, therefore they are not suitable for building a cannon. For the sake of the experiment, we made a carriage from polypropylene pipes.

A week-long search led us to a specialized store, where we were able to purchase two three-meter sections of PVC pressure pipes, designed for pressure up to 10 atmospheres, as well as all the necessary fittings. Let's say right away that building a potato cannon requires creative flexibility: the lack necessary materials on sale may dictate serious design deviations from the original design. In particular, based on the available parts, we equipped our gun with a removable barrel, and made the breech part non-removable. This design has an advantage over the traditional one, with a threaded plug at the rear of a non-separable gun: the gun can be loaded from the breech, rather than pushing a projectile through the entire barrel. On the other hand, screwing a heavy barrel into place is more difficult than a small plug. To prevent gas from escaping from the breech during assembly, you need to act very quickly.

Finally, obeying the will of circumstances, our gun turned into a howitzer. Guided by the availability of strictly defined fittings for sale, we purchased pipes with a diameter of 63 and 90 mm (internal diameters 55 and 80 mm, respectively). At the same time, the barrel length turned out to be equal to 18 calibers, which allows us to classify our gun as a howitzer.

Mindful of spring holiday, we dedicate our creation to beautiful ladies. Meet "Barbie from Hell", the most formidable weapon emancipation in the spring/summer 2008 season! A lacquered pink cannon on a gold carriage will make you look stunning

Working with light

Along with the pipes, we purchased a special glue for PVC, as well as a solvent necessary for degreasing the surfaces to be glued. To say that these liquids smell bad is to say nothing. When working with toxic drugs, you should never neglect a respirator, goggles and gloves: PVC glue causes irritation to the mucous membrane of the eyes and respiratory tract, and can damage the skin if in direct contact. It is better to glue in a well-ventilated area. Otherwise, assembling the potato cannon is very simple. When sawing off the required sections of pipes, you must try to ensure that the cutting angle is as close to straight as possible - then the joints inside the gun will be smooth, which promotes uniform combustion of the mixture.

The ignition system of our gun is based on an ordinary kitchen piezoelectric lighter. This is the most accessible, but also the most capricious type of ignition. Mechanical lighters from kerosene lamps, which we have not come across for sale, and stun guns, which themselves are weapons that are dangerous to use. A piezo lighter produces a very weak spark, which is not always enough even to ignite the gas mixture. The reliability of the gun's operation depends entirely on the location and condition of the ignition electrodes.

The second critical factor in the performance of a gun is fuel. First of all, we tried the hairspray recommended in one of the recipes. The heads of the screws screwed into the plug of the breech of the gun acted as electrodes. The tests were carried out in a barbaric way - by vertically installing the breech in the middle of the editorial office and trying to set fire to the gas injected there. The first portion of varnish flew into the air in the form of a large fireball, making a long howling sound. The audience was impressed, and the cannon fired varnish a second time for an encore. But the third time did not happen: after the combustion of the propane-butane base, the unburned part of the strong-hold hairspray covered the inner surface of the combustion chamber and the electrodes with a thick layer. The ignition stopped working, the varnish demonstrated its complete failure as a fuel.

Tests of the deodorant also did not give the desired result. Finally, in a sports store we came across the ideal fuel - a pure propane-butane mixture in cans for a camping burner. Such fuel burns completely without contaminating the electrodes. We were able to achieve truly stable operation of the gun only by sharpening the electrodes for better spark formation and moving them to the center of the combustion chamber. For a weak piezoelectric lighter, sharpening the electrodes and finely adjusting the optimal distance between them is not just desirable, but a vital procedure.

Goodbye potatoes!

Finally, the day came for the first field tests of the potato howitzer. We have installed firing position in a vacant lot, about a hundred meters from the metal fence, to which they hoped to throw a potato. We disassembled the cannon, tightly installed a potato into the barrel, cut with a special caliber - a piece of pipe identical to the barrel with sharpened edges (by the way, if you make the cannon non-removable, you can sharpen the barrel itself), generously injected gas into the breech, wrapped the barrel, optimistically plugged your ears and pressed on the lighter button. “Zilch,” the gun whispered plaintively and sluggishly moved the projectile half a meter down the barrel.

It was all about the quality of the mixture. The combustion of gas requires oxygen, which is contained in the air. Only a flammable mixture with the optimal gas to air ratio can ignite. The situation was getting more complicated cold weather(it was -5 0 C outside), at which the gases mix less well. Our personal experience showed that for a good shot, a second press on the button of the spray can is enough. After each salvo, the combustion chamber of the gun must be purged to remove combustion products and refill the chamber with air. For purging, we specially took with us a pump with a long hose.

IN printed edition It is impossible to quote the comments with which we saw off the potatoes flying across the sky far beyond the fence, into the unknown. According to our estimates, the shell flew at least 200-250 m. Judging by the lack of response comments, nothing vital was happening behind the fence, and we did not deny ourselves the pleasure of firing a few more volleys. Therefore, we consider the above scheme to be fully operational and confidently recommend it to readers! We ourselves sit down to design an advanced gun with dosed fuel injection, multi-point ignition, forced ventilation of the combustion chamber, a quick reload system and a muffler, in order to talk about it in one of the future issues of the magazine.

Safe salvo is our choice!

We remember well one instructive story. For test purposes, the breech stood vertically in the editorial office. The ignition electrodes located at the very bottom of the combustion chamber could not ignite the combustible mixture - apparently, the gases were mixed at the bottom at the bottom. Many of us have more than once approached a non-working cannon and, looking inside, looked at the spark. At one fine moment, after numerous “idle” ignitions and without the slightest refueling, the cannon suddenly went off, spewing out a ball of burning gas. Fortunately, at that moment no one was admiring the spark. Since then, we have lost all desire to look inside a gun without protective glasses and the use of a full arsenal of protective equipment has become mandatory.

Glasses. During operation, anything can happen, from glue or aerosol getting into your eyes to an explosion of a poorly assembled gun. Gloves. Hands must be protected from toxic glue, electric shock from a piezo lighter, and burns from burning gas. Earplugs. The potato cannon can shoot very, very loudly. Earplugs help protect against eardrum damage. Respirator. PVC glue irritates the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract.

The editors are not responsible

When work on the howitzer was in full swing, we learned that several of our readers, each of whom ate the dog at the manufacture of the real military weapons, also tried their hand at creating a potato cannon. One of them made a working apparatus, but quickly lost interest in the vegetable hobby because the implement was unstable. The second received burns while trying to fire a gun with a poorly secured chamber plug, resting it on his stomach, and then, when adjusting the ignition, he lost his eyelashes and eyebrows, trying to examine the spark in the combustion chamber with gas residues. The experience of our readers suggests that building a potato cannon is not easy. engineering problem, fraught with a number of dangers. When creating a weapon, you do so at your own peril and risk. Safety rules are the first thing to consider during the work process.

Basic safety rules

• All work must be carried out by adults or in the presence of adults.
• Use only flammable liquids recommended in the instructions. Stay away from gasoline, alcohol, ether, liquid oxygen, " quick start“- these liquids can easily tear the plastic body of the gun.
• Use only building materials specified in the instructions.
• Take any changes to the design of the gun as seriously as possible.
• Carefully follow label directions for use of adhesives, solvents, and other chemicals.
• Keep all containers with flammable liquids (glue, solvent, propane-butane, paint) at least 10 m from the implement testing site.
• Before each shot, make sure that there are no people or animals in the line of fire.
• Warn others about the planned shot.

Potatoes - not only delicious vegetable. It is also a real weapon in the right hands. Piterstory met with Ural design engineer Andrei Pavlov and found out how to turn potatoes into “bullets” and launch them 300 meters.

Andrey
Design engineer

We have collected potato cannon about two weeks ago with a friend. Actually, this was the idea of ​​my friend Nikita. At first I didn’t have a very positive attitude towards it, but it turned out to be very interesting to shoot from such a gun. After a shot, for example, a powerful bang is heard, which you wouldn’t expect from this design. At the same time, the cannon has very strange ballistics - it is absolutely impossible to predict in which direction the potatoes will fly, so targeted shooting We weren’t successful with the targets.

I don’t know if there are any clubs for potato cannon shooting in St. Petersburg, but I have come across sites of similar communities in the USA more than once. American enthusiasts are “upgrading” their guns. For example, they install automatic supply of shells on them.

How to assemble a potato cannon?

Andrey
Design engineer

Almost anyone can assemble a potato cannon - some specialized knowledge there is no need for this. In addition, there are enough manuals on the Internet for assembling and operating the gun. For example, my friend and I assembled this one in an hour and a half, and spent about 500 rubles on materials. To assemble a cannon you will need several plastic pipes from any plumbing store, self-tapping screws, construction tape and the piezoelectric element of any lighter.

How to launch potatoes 300 meters?

1. The potato (or other suitable vegetable) is pushed into the barrel of the cannon with an improvised cleaning rod.
2. A small amount of flammable material (for example, flammable aerosol or propane) is supplied to the combustion chamber, and the combustion chamber lid is closed.
3. The shooter ignites a flammable mixture of aerosol and air inside the combustion chamber using a piezoelectric element from a conventional lighter.
4. The combustion process begins inside the combustion chamber, gas mixture expands in volume and pushes the vegetable projectile out of the cannon barrel.

Andrey
Design engineer

The projectile can fly either five or three hundred meters, depending on how it is loaded. In addition, my friend and I came to the conclusion that after each salvo the combustion chamber must be ventilated from combustion materials, otherwise they mix with the combustible mixture and an explosion does not occur. By the way, it will not be possible to increase the flight range or the power of a shot by increasing the aerosol concentration in the combustion chamber - due to the lack of air, an explosion simply will not occur

Andrey
Design engineer

Naturally, we did not fire the cannon at either people or animals. But we must remember that a cannon, even a potato one, is still a cannon. For example, when shot at a wall from five meters, the potato will literally break soft-boiled. Therefore, when handling this “weapon,” it is imperative to observe safety measures.

1. When assembling the gun, I do not recommend using tape, glue or other similar materials, since the gun can simply tear apart during firing. We used self-tapping screws as a fastening element, and used adhesive tape only to ensure relative tightness;
2. Before firing, it is advisable to once again check how well the moving parts, for example, the combustion chamber cover, are secured. We had a case where the lid was blown out by an explosion;
3. It is better to shoot in a deserted area, since a shot at a wall from five meters will tear the potatoes into small pieces. For example, Andrey and his friend are starting a potato plant in the Gulf of Finland.

Not just for fun

Oddly enough, the system of launching vegetables into the air can bring practical benefits. For example, similar mechanisms are used at football matches to launch T-shirts into the stands of the stadium. In addition, using potato weapons, you can scare away birds, which some farms use, and simulate the effect shock wave in laboratory experiments. An analogue of the potato cannon is even used in the aviation industry - with its help, testers test aircraft engines for bird strikes. True, in this case the gun will be called a chicken or duck gun.

Potato cannon, in English. - Potato cannon or Potato gun is the favorite pastime of those who love both tinkering and hooliganism, and at the same time want to remain within the law. Probably, the harsh Russian cops will react poorly to such a hobby, but, having successfully originated in America, the potato cannon also successfully spread throughout the world, only in a few countries it was banned.

For such a gun you will need: PVC pipes, which are used in plumbing. Namely - a cover, a coupling, an adapter, a pipe with a diameter of 50 and a tee with a diameter of 110. You also need to have on hand: a hacksaw, a knife, liquid nails, and tape.

Let's get started slowly gather, this unit. On the 110 tee from the end side we attach the roof, first spreading it with glue. On the opposite side, also on the glue, we place the coupling. Having secured the coupling, let the glue dry a little and insert the adapter from 110 to 50 pipe into it. The lid will screw on the side; it does not need to be glued by inertia.

Next we will make the barrel for the potato cannon. Take 2 meters of plastic tube with a diameter of 50 and cut it in half. Cut the second half lengthwise with a knife. Then we put the cut pipe on the whole one. In this way we strengthened the thin pipe of our trunk. Next, we reinforce this trunk with tape. After you have wound 2-3 layers of tape, glue the barrel into the combustion chamber (the part we made first) and go through it with tape again.

After all the plastic parts are assembled, let's start filling. After drilling the holes, screw a screw into the combustion chamber. A spark will jump between it and the wire. A cheap piezo lighter for gas stoves was chosen as a spark source. There are two wires coming from the piezoelectric element, we screw one to the screw, the second at a distance of 5mm from it. We screw the lighter itself to the gun body with tape, leaving the spark button free.

Operating principle and first tests of a potato cannon

We take potatoes slightly larger than the diameter of the trunk and press them into it with force. Next you need to push it further with something. For this purpose, you can make a cleaning rod from a ski pole. We push the potatoes to the end of the barrel, but not into the combustion chamber itself. To do this, you can make a notch on the ramrod so that you can see where to push the projectile.

Then we take an aerosol can with acetone, unscrew the cap, spray a little into the combustion chamber and close it back. We press the button of the piezo lighter, the explosion of the projectile is pushed out by burning acetone vapors.

and, being completely delighted with it, they promised to build a more perfect model in the future. And now, three years later, we were again drawn to the vegetable artillery. Last time we were pleased with the accuracy and range of fire, and now we decided to improve the rate of fire. Let us remind you: in order to load our first classic gun, it was necessary to unscrew the barrel, blow out the breech with a pump, install a potato in the barrel, supply gas from a can and quickly assemble the weapon.

Shells for loading into the magazine must be prepared in advance. They are cut from large potatoes using a piece of pipe with a diameter of 63 mm with sharpened edges. In the design of the gun we used four types of pipes. A 63mm pipe is used as the barrel. The combustion chamber has a diameter of 90 mm. The arc connecting the breech and tail is made of 50 mm pipe. A rammer is made from it, which must enter the trunk and push the potatoes into it. Finally, the magazine jumpers are cut from the 25mm diameter pipe.

We have not yet decided to go for a fully automatic gun. Although such designs exist. They are controlled by a computer controller, and all recharging operations are performed by numerous servos. The potato cannon does not produce serious recoil, the energy of which could be directed to mechanical reloading, so we limited ourselves to manual reloading, but with a lightweight magazine for six shells, automatic system purging and supplying gas to the combustion chamber.

Turbocharged gun

To reload our gun, the shooter moves the combustion chamber back, grasping a special handle. In this case, a purge window is released from under the housing, which is located exactly under the fan. The fan automatically turns on and blows through the combustion chamber, filling it with air and freeing it from combustion products. At this time, the shooter turns the magazine, placing another potato opposite the entrance to the barrel.

On the diagram gray pipes, corners and tees are shown, and adapter rings are shown in brown. When selecting components, be careful: the catalogs indicate the outer diameters of pipes and adapter rings. This means that an adapter ring with parameters 90x63 mm fits onto a 63 mm pipe, but does not fit into a 90 mm pipe - only into a suitable tee or coupling with the corresponding internal diameter.

A cylinder with a propane-butane mixture is attached to the body. A tube is connected to it, the other end of which is fixed exactly above the purge window. At the final stage of charging, the shooter briefly presses the canister button to supply gas to the combustion chamber. Thanks to the operation of the fan, all the gas enters the chamber and mixes well with the air. Now you need to quickly, before the gas flies out of the rammer hole, push the combustion chamber forward and secure the handle in the locking mechanism. In this case, the rammer, attached to the combustion chamber at the front, will pass through the magazine cylinder and push the potato into the barrel. That's it, the gun is ready to fire.

The automatic operation of the fan is very simple. When the combustion chamber is retracted to full speed, the button installed on it rests against the body. In fact, it is the button that serves as a limiter for the backward movement of the breech. When moving forward, the handle performs the same role. The most important part of the design is the locking mechanism. It is a corner screwed to the body through which the handle is wound. Without such a lock, during a shot, the combustion chamber, instead of sending potatoes along the barrel, will roll back on its own.

The store is the most the hard part designs. It is made from an adapter ring, lengths of 25mm pipe, six cylinders cut from 90mm pipe and twelve saddles. The structure is assembled absolutely reliably using glue. Note that the central adapter ring is attached to the axis between two similar couplings. They are also fixed with glue. The diameter of the cylinders is significantly larger than the diameter of the rammer, making it easier to push it to the barrel. The potatoes are held in the center of the cylinder by foam pads.

Plumbing designer

What a blessing that there are pipes and fittings made of polyvinyl chloride in the world! As a solution for installing a water supply system, they are completely unpopular, but lovers of technical creativity can build from them whatever their heart desires. Working with PVC pipes is reminiscent of playing with a construction set: assembly requires a minimum of plumbing work, since from the variety of fittings available for sale, you can select ready-made “bricks” for almost any design.

When choosing a set of pipes and fittings, you need to remember the following. Firstly, you should choose pipes for pressure water supply, and not for sewerage. The latter are not designed to work under pressure, so a gun made from them may explode. Secondly, do not confuse PVC pipes with the more common polyethylene pipes, the connection of which requires a special welding machine. PVC pipes and fittings are designed for adhesive connections. It is important to remember that PVC glue causes irritation to the mucous membrane of the eyes and respiratory tract, so you need to work with it in a respirator, in a well-ventilated area.

Finally, when selecting adapter rings for connecting pipes of different diameters, you should be very careful not to confuse the inner and outer diameters. Looking at the diagram, you might think that the design of our gun has too many unnecessary parts, those same adapter rings. This is due precisely to the desire to select elements of matching diameters so that they can be easily assembled without any mechanical modification.

Two long screws screwed into the pipe at an angle to each other form an excellent ignition system. Self-tapping screws are better than screws because they do not come loose and have a pointed end, which has a beneficial effect on spark formation. By turning them in one direction or another, you can adjust the gap between them. A special feature of this design is the “tightly” sealed combustion chamber. Therefore, before gluing the plug to the pipe, you should make sure that the ignition system is assembled and working, and that the handle is screwed securely and is not going to come loose. Repairing a sealed combustion chamber in the event of a breakdown will be problematic. For a similar reason, you should not use low-quality fuel: hairspray or deodorant. This will quickly lead to contamination of the electrodes, which can no longer be cleaned.

We couldn't do without plumbing work at all. The fact is that our gun requires a number of movable joints, and none of the standard fittings are designed for the pipe to pass through it. On the contrary, all adapter rings have coupling connections - special stops that secure the fitting to the end of the pipe for ease of installation. We had to grind off these stops using a drill.

In addition to PVC pipes and fittings, which the diagram will help you choose, to build a gun you will need an 8-centimeter computer fan, a 9-volt battery, a piezoelectric kitchen lighter, several metal corners and mounting profiles, as well as a can of propane-butane mixture for camping burners, which can be purchased at a sports store.

We were very lucky with the gas supply system. On one of the paint cans lying around in the editorial office, there was a button with a sprayer, the diameter of which exactly corresponded to the thickness of an aquarium hose, which had also been lying idle since time immemorial. All that remains is to put the hose on the button, and the button on the cylinder with the propane-butane mixture.

Laughing Gas

The air-fuel mixture is a capricious thing. Learning to feed just the right amount of gas into the combustion chamber is the main skill of a potato shooter. A mixture that is too lean will not ignite, and a mixture that is too rich will not ignite either. I would like to urge all experimenters to be careful, admitting, as an example, their own sloppiness. While practicing firing blanks, we significantly over-enriched the mixture. Desperate to set it on fire, we left the gun with the bolt closed. Returning a little later, we tried to flick the lighter again. During this time, the excess gas has evaporated, and the mixture in the combustion chamber is well mixed. As a result, the gun slammed so hard that half the employees on the floor had their ears ringing for half a day. So we learned, not without joy, that our gun is capable of firing from anywhere greater strength than we thought, and also that you should never shoot indoors, even with blanks. And now we always use headphones or earplugs on the street.

Most computer coolers are designed for 12V voltage, but will work fine on a 9V battery. Don't be alarmed by the fact that there are four wires coming out of the fan. To make it work, the black wire must be connected to the negative terminal of the battery, and the yellow wire to the positive terminal. The fan is turned on by a button attached to the combustion chamber. When the breech is pulled back to reload, the button presses against the body, starting the purge process.

When assembling the gun, we expected that we would have to pay for the convenience of reloading in terms of range. A multi-shot gun is structurally more complex than a classic one, and its design has a “bottleneck” in the literal sense of the word: it is a rammer, the diameter of which is smaller than the diameter of the barrel. In addition, the purge window and the same rammer are places of potential leakage of working gases. That is why we strongly do not recommend using weapons for hand-held shooting.

Our forecasts turned out to be wrong. Through blowing with a fan ensured better filling of the combustion chamber with oxygen and better mixing of air and gas. Therefore, the pressure in the chamber during the combustion of the mixture increased, and with it the firing range increased. So we can safely recommend that you repeat our experience. Go for it, but be careful!