Pirate ship water cannons?

Build a homemade water gun or water balloon launcher and tell us about it.
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CPiazza912
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Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 11:52 pm

Pirate ship water cannons?

Post by CPiazza912 » Tue May 15, 2007 12:09 am

I need your professional assistance! I am building a pirate ship for the pirates festival in Olcott NY. We want to put on a water cannon to spray the crowd, but we also want to participate in the war later after the parade. My pirate ship will be built like a kids playhouse on a trailer, so it will be a big one. We are thinking that we can safely store one or two 55 gallon drums for the water cannons.

Does anyone have building plans that you can help me with? I was thinking along the lines of something that we can pump up, or we can attach a compressed air tank. The cannon itself can sit on a tripod so it can swivel, and run a hose into the 55 gallon drum.

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Specter
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Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 4:57 pm

Post by Specter » Tue May 15, 2007 12:18 am

sounds like fun. I'll think up some plans since I'm into the building aspect of things. but right now I'm playing wiffle ball in my front yard so I'll post back later. :)

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C-A_99
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Post by C-A_99 » Tue May 15, 2007 12:21 am

If it actually floats on water, you shouldn't need a water tank at all.

Well, obviously, you'll have to do quite some water routing and have quite a lot of guns, or nozzles at least. See if you can pressurize the tank with a good air compressor, otherwise you have to get a ton of LRT, which isn't even that powerful. (plus it'll make your ship smell lol) If you want each gun to be more individualized, just have everyone carry a CPS or something and refill with the drum, otherwise try to get the drum to pressurize if you can. (though it'll require a load of power to do so) And each gun should have some tubing or hose to route water to the area from the tank.

But seriously, why do you need that much firepower? Must be a ton of people after you and your crew huh? : p

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Specter
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Post by Specter » Tue May 15, 2007 12:42 am

C-A_99 wrote:If it actually floats on water, you shouldn't need a water tank at all.

Well, obviously, you'll have to do quite some water routing and have quite a lot of guns, or nozzles at least. See if you can pressurize the tank with a good air compressor, otherwise you have to get a ton of LRT, which isn't even that powerful. (plus it'll make your ship smell Hey, that's funny!) If you want each gun to be more individualized, just have everyone carry a CPS or something and refill with the drum, otherwise try to get the drum to pressurize if you can. (though it'll require a load of power to do so) And each gun should have some tubing or hose to route water to the area from the tank.

But seriously, why do you need that much firepower? Must be a ton of people after you and your crew huh? : p
you probably missed it but he said its for a parade. the ship will be on a trailer or something (like a float i assume?)

and to the original poster, if you can give me some rough dimensions of how high you would like it, and the length / width of the trailer ( or how wide/ long you want the ship) i'll try to whip something up.

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Tue May 15, 2007 1:44 am

Welcome aboard, me scurvy matey! You missed Talk-like-a-pirate day on the forums. :rolleyes:

Sounds like you'll be needing a good CAP (Constant Air Pressure) system, and it sounds like you have the power to support one. Check out Ben's SuperCAP - you can probably build a much larger version. Don't worry about chamber width or any references to force; pressure, the tubing, and the nozzles should be your primary concern.

Search for "firehose nozzle" on McMaster-Carr or look for part number ______ and its siblings - which Ben used for SuperCannon II. Your system will probably be able to support a nozzle at least the size of what Ben used (1/2" orifice).

The main concern I have is with excessive power. You could probably injure or kill somebody if you hit them point-blank. If you want some inspiration or if you just want to be impressed, check out the [url=http://forums.sscentral.org/t4126/]Mother of All River Cannons[url]. That thing is powerful, and I'd expect any setup like it would be powerful. Only shoot from a great distance, or vary the pressure as necessary. Remember that if you have a high pressure and regulate down, the original high pressure will still be inside the water chamber.

Sorry for jumping straight in, but this is exciting! What do you think of using a CAP system? I'll warn you, it's not going to be very cheap, but it'll be powerful. Your other option, I suppose, would be a massive CPS (Constant Pressure System - uses a rubber bladder) water gun, probably with a powered pump anyway.
Last edited by Silence on Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

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