Made my first homemade!

Build a homemade water gun or water balloon launcher and tell us about it.
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Dare3219
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Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:39 pm

Made my first homemade!

Post by Dare3219 » Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:44 pm

Hey I just wanted to say this I'm glad someone made a website like this because I'm sick and tired of all the weak water guns on the market. I followed one of those sets of instructions on your homemade list and it worked out pretty well :)

http://www.fatdarren.com/gun1.jpg
http://www.fatdarren.com/gun2.jpg

Only problem is the pump isn't perfect, it starts leaking air at high pressure. There are also small leaks in the pressure chambers at high pressure but the gun still fires with a good range. Not bad for my first time :)

-d

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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Fri Aug 11, 2006 12:23 am

Welcome to Super Soaker Central! Glad to see someone who liked our guides.

Nice water gun. I like the use of the PVC pieces to make a separator. That probably is something I should try instead of blocks of wood or foam. ;)

The pump problems you will be able to fix by changing the seals on the end. I've found that which seals work for which people really depends on who you are. Right now what I think works best is a single O-ring on a wodden dowel rod with a knotch cut in the end to hold the O-ring... works perfectly for me. No leaking at all.

Leaking from the pressure chamber can be fixed if you have access to a small torch. It's called fillet welding. If you'd be interested, I can scan in a few pages from a plumbing book I have that will explain how to do it to PVC.

Second water guns usually turn out better though, so good luck with whatever else you make!

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Fri Aug 11, 2006 12:31 am

Welcome to Super Soaker Central! Hopefully you can continue building homemades, perhaps even a CPH.

I also like how you used PVC to stabilize all the parts. I'm using duct tape to hold together the pump and barrel of my homemade, and I'd recommend that unless you can and want to recycle some of the parts in the future. Of course, if it can be applied cleanly, PVC cement would be even more solid...

Anyway, you built a very nice gun! Are its stats very different from what the standard APH got? Also, why is there blue writing on the side of some of the PVC--in other words, what are the PVC specifications?

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DX
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Post by DX » Fri Aug 11, 2006 2:30 am

The blue is just that company's style for the specifications. Most likely Bristol Pipe. Charlotte Pipe uses red, others use plain black. No difference though, PVC is PVC.

Nice first homemade. It is quite tall, but if it's comfortable to use then that doesn't really matter. Definately get an O-ring for the pump, they are very cheap and do allow for perfect seals.
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Dare3219
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Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:39 pm

^_^

Post by Dare3219 » Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:14 am

Hey thanks for all the advice guys...ben that would be awesome if you could send me that info on fillet welding. If I could just get a little more pressure out of the pump that would be perfect. And yeah that blue writing on the PVC is just a bunch of specs, I don't think it's too significant. A friend of mine works at home depot so he seemed to know what he was picking out hehe.

I'll do a little fine tuning and try and post the results later.

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:23 pm

Ben and the Drenchenator are camping this week, so I'll just guide you to the recent thread entitled "Dry Ice." Post #6, by the Drenchenator, pretty much includes links to all the pages on fillet welding, with the last one as one large compiled photo.

Hmm...nice to know that The Home Depot does carry pressure-rated Schedule 40 PVC. Lowes doesn't have it (not for me and not for others who have talked about it), and I had heard that The Home Depot doesn't have it either. Maybe I'll go there once it finishes getting built north of the city. Anyway, thanks for the tip!

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DX
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Post by DX » Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:20 pm

Hmm...nice to know that The Home Depot does carry pressure-rated Schedule 40 PVC. Lowes doesn't have it (not for me and not for others who have talked about it), and I had heard that The Home Depot doesn't have it either. Maybe I'll go there once it finishes getting built north of the city. Anyway, thanks for the tip!
Really? I have never seen any hardware store, local or large chain, which doesn't carry pressure-rated pipe. In fact, I've only seen drain pipe at a few stores and Home Depot's PVC selection was all rated, at least the last time I was there.

Maybe the pressure rated pipe disappears once you leave metropolitan areas? Cause I personally would be totally shocked to walk into a hardware store and not see any.
Mess With the Best, Get Soaked Like the Rest!

2004 Red Sox - World Series Champions
2007 Red Sox - World Series Champions!

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:25 am

Ahaha...sorry for the confusion. What I meant was pressure-rated pipe in diameters of 3" (industrial measurement, not the actual size--for Schedule 40 PVC, it's actually a bit larger than marked) or larger. So far I have only seen it in plumbing stores, although that's not always a bad thing--especially since both Lowes and The Home Depot are inconveniently far. Fortunately, I live in the northern part of the city, so that part of the county is a bit closer than it might be.

Then again, another assumption I made was that the backpack was built using 3" PVC. And yet another assumption was that the piping was pressure rated, although I have cause to believe that this assumption was correct--and I hope so for Dare3219's sake.

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DX
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Post by DX » Tue Aug 15, 2006 2:23 am

At least here, pressure rated pipe of 4" and smaller is common, although more likely to be found at Home Depot and Lowes. Even pressure rated 6" is readily available at those larger chains.

It doesn't really matter if pipe used for a backpack is rated. Backpacks aren't under any significant pressure...
Mess With the Best, Get Soaked Like the Rest!

2004 Red Sox - World Series Champions
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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:32 am

Which stores have pressure rated pipe really is a lottery depending completely on where you live.

Here initially (back in 2003) I tried Home Depot and Lowes. Home Depot lacked larger diameter pipe fittings and also lacked pressure-rated larger diameter pipe. Lowes had pressure-rated pipe up to 3 inches and fittings up to 6 inches.

Now it seems that Home Depot has the better selection of pressure-rated pipe and as good of a selection of fittings. I've bought pressure rated pipe up to 4 inches there, but have not looked at the larger pipes for a pressure rating.

I've also checked other stores such as Nolands' (which I believe is a local plumbing supply store) and a definitely local one that I can't remember the name of. McMaster-Carr was also another place I tried when 4 inch pipe was more difficult to find locally.

All you can do is check around or order off the internet. I've got it marked on my organizational papers for our website update to make that especially clear. Some people seem to think that PVC is extremely difficult to find, so where to look how to be extremely obvious or else they won't figure it out. I get a lot of emails, especially from people not in the US who seem to believe that I know where to get PVC in their local area... no I don't! If I don't live where you do, I really couldn't recommend much.

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:43 pm

I'll try The Home Depot when they finish building it...it's been in the works for a while now. Other than that, my options are limited (or is it a good thing?) to smaller plumbing supply stores and hardware stores such as Ferguson's and Ace Hardware. I'm pretty sure shipping from McMaster-Carr will increase the price excessively, especially compared to the price of PVC. PVC is extremely cheap for what you get--less than $2 for 5 feet of 1/2" PVC, perhaps with even better deals at a different time!

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