Boat Mounted Canon

Build a homemade water gun or water balloon launcher and tell us about it.
cbgroves
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:24 pm

Boat Mounted Canon

Post by cbgroves » Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:33 pm

Hey guys, this is my first post. I need some advice. My family and some friends go down to the lake a lot. We are always down there with a few different boats, and everyone has water guns (mainly just the kind that you pull water out of the lake with and immediately push it back out). My family has a pontoon boat, so we need some fire-power. What I want to do is build something that does two things. 1 - use the lake itself as the reservoir and 2 - scare the crap out of the other boats. I'd like to keep this less expensive, but I'd love to hear any suggestions you all could have for me!

User avatar
SSCBen
Posts: 6449
Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2003 1:00 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by SSCBen » Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:40 pm

Welcome to SSC!

The easiest thing to use would be gas or electricity powered water pumps. However, these pumps get expensive fast if you want decent flow (and gas is getting more expensive by the day) and you said you want to keep costs down. With that being said, you might be able to modify this electric water gun to suit your needs: http://www.amazon.com/Buzz-Bee-Tarantul ... B000NKCQ1I

The second easiest thing to do would be some sort of piston water gun. There are homemade varieties of these described in detail in our homemade water gun section and you could adapt them to work here with little problems. This is a manufactured option you could use as well: http://www.buzzbeetoys.com/USglobal/WWW ... 01790.html

The disadvantage to those two easiest options is that they can lack power. If you really want to scare people it gets more complicated.

Interestingly I've actually received a similar request at our SSC store. At the moment I'm considering using some sort of air pressure based system that is just a scaled up smaller air pressure system. The problems with this design are expense and that it is hard to use. It can not draw water automatically from the river/lake/sea/ocean (okay, let's call it a "source") unless you want to make the design even more complicated. The easiest way to do this would be having a stationary tank that requires being refilled with buckets when empty.

Any sort of pressure vessel would do. I'm considering using an old propane tank I have and modifying it like the tank in this water gun. Once I have some ports to attach to, the remainder is easy. You attach a ball valve to fill, a tube to let the water shoot out, and a tube to pressurize the vessel from an air compressor and/or air tank.

The individual I'm working with may lose interest and thus nothing will happen but I can keep you notified and post a guide as soon as it's complete. It's not a hard task to scale up any of the homemade water guns on our website (which is all you'll need to do here), but if you want to see something more specific I can help too.

Let us know if you have any questions or comments. Also, if you document your progress or make a guide, it would be very helpful to people in the future. This is a common question for me by email at least and I often can't offer much more help than "scale up what's on the website."

cbgroves
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:24 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by cbgroves » Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:44 pm

Awesome, thanks for the advice. The piston idea you mentioned in the second suggestion sounds like the best bet to me. I tried once before and just wanted to mod a supersoaker to drop the line into the lake instead of a backpack, but all I could find were the lame supersoakers they sell now. They are all small and the range and output were terrible, plus not very intimidating :D That brings me to my next question. The link you gave me on the second Idea was a gun with a hose that I guess dropped into pool or whatever source you are using and you just pump the water at people. This sounds pretty perfect to me but I need to know a couple things. First how well do you think it would pump water through a 5 or 6 foot hose? And second, is it possible to do a homemade this way? I would rather have a big scary looking gun then that little kiddy one. We were talking about building a mount and making it huge with as much as range/output as we could, weight is not an issue because it will be mounted.

Thanks again for your advice, I'd love to hear what else you can tell me!

User avatar
Silence
Posts: 3825
Joined: Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:01 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by Silence » Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:50 pm

The only project we know of that shoots a large stream of water and uses the river was the Mother of All River Cannons. However, it is probably out of your price range. The only other types of water gun suited for river use are piston pumpers such as the Stream Machine and regular water guns with a line straight to the water.

Something like the MOARC is probably way too expensive. Sky-Guy, who built it, said he used a 40 PSI gas pump - but definitely with high flow. And with ranges of up to 90 feet even without the best nozzle, that just goes to show that flow and stream size matter more than pure pressure. If you can find a similar pump that's being sold on the cheap, that would be great. Unfortunately, the eBay page no longer exists, archive.org is experience technical difficulties, and I doubt even Ben made a backup of the page. So I'm not sure what one should look for. But any gas pump probably has enough flow for the job.

cbgroves
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:24 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by cbgroves » Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:00 am

wow. That would be really awesome, but I'm sure way out of my price range. I think the piston idea is what I want to go with, just need some direction about what to do and where to start. I dont think I really want to go with anything other then good ol' manual power.

aEx155
Posts: 325
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:13 am

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by aEx155 » Sat Jun 14, 2008 1:34 am

Ben wrote:It's not a hard task to scale up any of the homemade water guns on our website (which is all you'll need to do here),
I have an idea for what you could do:

If you want electric/gas, then you could do this: chose CPS or APH, then scale it up (like Ben said), but use a small electric/gas high pressure pump (30-40 PSI) as the pump source. The fact that the pump doesn't need high flow (because it's connected to a pressure tank) means that the price would be lower than the MOARC, but still pretty good.

I'm not sure whether or not this would be out of your price range; jet pumps here seem like a good thing to look into, but they might be too expensive.

Otherwise, like you said, manual power is the best thing you could do if you're limited on budget. If you want good, then it's going to cost you (like most other things). How much are you willing to spend? That would give you a sort-of "complexity limit".

EDIT: I just made this design. Made from copper, it's based on the already available air-powered diaphragm pump, but this one uses pistons, which means you could build it yourself easier. You just need to get an air source and a method of control, and you would have a powered pump (air pumps, CO@ cartridges, and HPA tanks are examples of cheap air sources (except the last two) that would be cheaper than buying a water pump) that you could use in a APH or CPH configuration.

Image
Last edited by aEx155 on Sat Jun 14, 2008 3:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Specter
Posts: 474
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 4:57 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by Specter » Sat Jun 14, 2008 3:45 am

It might not be extremely high pressure but it can be made to have somewhat good pressure so heres my idea:
Since you want it on a boat. I thought, why not use a bilge pump. They're used on boats already, and you can probably fit it to the outside of your boat somehow. Then create a PVC housing to look like a cannon that can be mounted somewhere on your boat. Have a larger size tubing go from the pump and switch to a smaller diameter tubing at the cannon, mounting the tubing inside the PVC.
The only thing you would really have to pay for are the pump (which would be the most expensive part) some length of [marine] tubing, and the PVC pipe. You can create a nozzle of sorts on the end of the tubing by using a hose barb, can be brass or plastic. The brass would be more expensive. You can get good cheap plastics items from www.usplastic.com. I suggest ordering their catalog since its free. (I have 2 of them 1 old one and a newer one). The smaller the tubing/fitting you go to, the more pressure you should have.

There is one downside to this however. You have to wire the pump into your boats electrical system and mount a switch for it. You also have to figure a way to mount it on the side of your boat or maybe connect a tube to the inlet on the pump.

[edit]
this is probably the item you would get to create a nozzle on the end of the tubing
with this tubing (this is by the foot so buy just what you think you'll need.)
Last edited by Specter on Sat Jun 14, 2008 3:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
My "arsenal": Customizable APH, Storm 600 pistol (still haven't finished fixing this), launcher- Model:AB1.0(Decommissioned), AB1.5, soon AB 1.1(2"rebuild) maybe ill get something else in the future
My site Image My website/forum is back up and running, for the most part after it having been deleted in october

aEx155
Posts: 325
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:13 am

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by aEx155 » Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:43 am

Specter wrote:It might not be extremely high pressure but it can be made to have somewhat good pressure so heres my idea:
Since you want it on a boat. I thought, why not use a bilge pump. They're used on boats already, and you can probably fit it to the outside of your boat somehow. Then create a PVC housing to look like a cannon that can be mounted somewhere on your boat. Have a larger size tubing go from the pump and switch to a smaller diameter tubing at the cannon, mounting the tubing inside the PVC.
The only thing you would really have to pay for are the pump (which would be the most expensive part) some length of [marine] tubing, and the PVC pipe. You can create a nozzle of sorts on the end of the tubing by using a hose barb, can be brass or plastic. The brass would be more expensive. You can get good cheap plastics items from http://www.usplastic.com. I suggest ordering their catalog since its free. (I have 2 of them 1 old one and a newer one). The smaller the tubing/fitting you go to, the more pressure you should have.

There is one downside to this however. You have to wire the pump into your boats electrical system and mount a switch for it. You also have to figure a way to mount it on the side of your boat or maybe connect a tube to the inlet on the pump.
I wouldn't recommend bilge pumps for two reasons (although I'm no expert so I wouldn't use these as sources):

1) Bilge pumps, I believe, are made for high flow at low head (pressure), mainly because they're made for emptying water from a boat, not for pressurizing it in any way
2) Price; it might cost too much for a pump like this to operate well.

User avatar
C-A_99
Posts: 1502
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:09 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by C-A_99 » Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:09 pm

If you plan on using air pressure with any kind of air pump, I'd suggest a penuatic water balloon launcher which would put the pump to good use and scare the crap out of anyone you fire at.

For the simple piston guns, my suggestion for such would be to mount a PVC pipe w/ a nozzle on the end to the boat, then on the other end is the pump that the user pushes. Basically, its the same idea as the waterzooka. Not a continuous stream, and not terribly kickass, but it gets the job done cheaply and easily, and its easier to get better range w/ than the traditional pool cannon. The pump would draw water from a simple tube that goes into the lake. (the tube should be attached to the boat instead of free-dangling.) However, I don't have any specific ideas on how to mount them securly. If you want a launcher, it might be better to use a large elastic one instead of a PVC pneumatic cannon. (using whatever is available to anchor the large slingshot) Either way, it seems like the boat is large enough for both.

How many guns do you plan on mounting on there?

cbgroves
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:24 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by cbgroves » Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:51 pm

I was only planning on doing one stationary gun. The waterzooka is the way that I'd like to go, but it looks like you have to draw the water in the front to fire. I would like it mounted with a line dropped down for faster and better shooting. Can anyone help me out on how to do this? Something similar to the set up here http://www.buzzbeetoys.com/USglobal/WWW ... 01790.html that Ben linked me to.

User avatar
SSCBen
Posts: 6449
Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2003 1:00 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by SSCBen » Sat Jun 14, 2008 9:11 pm

The guy who made the waterzooka made a modified design to do that: http://forums.sscentral.org/33244-post15.html

The check valve immediately in front of the nozzle ideally would be replaced with a "swing check valve" to prevent the water stream from being interrupted (increasing performance). Larger swing check valves like 3/4 inch of 1 inch should do well. Note that with this type of valve you'll have to pump the water gun with the gun pointed up.

cbgroves
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:24 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by cbgroves » Sat Jun 14, 2008 9:27 pm

Awesome, that is the direction I would like to go. So in order to use this I would have to point the gun up everytime i pump? Is there anyway to just pump/fire over and over pointed in the same direction?

User avatar
SSCBen
Posts: 6449
Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2003 1:00 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by SSCBen » Sat Jun 14, 2008 10:11 pm

As long as the angle is high enough to close the front valve it should be fine. Any angle over horizontal should do that.

If you're on a boat I'd assume that you're shooting at other boats or people so you'll want the best range you can get so you should angle your water gun anyway. Unless you're shooting down this won't be a problem. Air pressure water guns have a similar problem (you can only shoot at an angle if there is no piston) and it's usually not limiting.

You should be able to modify the valve to add a small return spring which should allow you to shoot at any angle.

User avatar
Drenchenator
Posts: 807
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 12:00 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by Drenchenator » Sun Jun 15, 2008 12:37 am

Swing check valves should get better performance because the path to the nozzle is less obstructed. The problem they create though is that you can't shoot down using them (well, technically, you can--the water will just fall out though). You can still you regular spring check valves without any issues like those, just keep in mind that it won't have that slight edge in performance.
The Drenchenator, also known as Lt. Col. Drench.

cbgroves
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:24 pm

Re: Boat Mounted Canon

Post by cbgroves » Sun Jun 15, 2008 1:43 am

So would anyone be kind enough to help me out with plans to this? I've never built a homemade at all before.

Locked