Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Build a homemade water gun or water balloon launcher and tell us about it.
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scottcara
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Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Post by scottcara » Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:22 pm

Hello smart people,

I am so glad that I found this forum and hope that you can help point me in the right direction. Currently I am building a play fort and swing set for my children and I would like to put a water gun piped in from my home on the third level via a swivel mount. I currently have 1" PVC that I ran last year nearby for irrigation that I can put in a T connector and bring a lot of volume and pressure to the area.

What types of designs would work well for a home made PVC or other water gun connected to my home water supply? I have approximately 60PSI on the line. As a bonus, I would like to put in some sore of actuator to meter the amount of water so the kids don't just spray endlessly (think big brother-little sister.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Scott

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Drenchenator
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Re: Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Post by Drenchenator » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:04 pm

Welcome to Super Soaker Central!

We keep getting requests for this kind of thing all the time, so I'm surprised we haven't got much for you.

You already have a pressurized water line though? That would help a lot. All that you really need at that point is a valve to control the firing and a nozzle. A simple ball valve would work with a PVC end cap for a nozzle. After that it's just cosmetics.

You can use a ball valve at your water source to control when and how often they get to use it. It's probably the simplest solution.

I'll have to get back to you for more designs. I know there are several similar things on the forums (here's one I could ring up quickly).
The Drenchenator, also known as Lt. Col. Drench.

scottcara
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Joined: Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:51 pm

Re: Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Post by scottcara » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:15 pm

Ball valve is good but sometimes hard for a kid to open themselves. Yes to the pressurized line via 1" PVC. First I am going to put a simple shower head down on the first level and a "fun" project for my son and I to complete a gun turret on the third with a water gun. I like the idea of some some of push button on the gun or nearby similar to the ones that are in water parks that only allow a certain amount of water to be released during each firing.

My son is eight so its a good father/son project and of course, I am looking to maximize pressure to the head... What kind of head should I use if I construct out of PVC?

Thanks again,

Scott

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Silence
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Re: Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Post by Silence » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:50 pm

Welcome to the forums!

It sounds like you need an efficient hose device more than anything else. So here are a few parts you could use from McMaster-Carr:
  • 6484T15 - conical brass fire hose nozzle with 1" female threads. This is the smallest-size conical nozzle that we know of, but with a 5/16" orifice it should balance safety and range. The only concern may be price, simply because there's no identical nozzle in plastic.
  • 4882K215 - 1" PVC pipe nipple - male threads to male threads. Note: product 4882K215 is a little longer than necessary, just so there's enough space between the two fittings to hold on to it using a wrench when screwing on the fittings.
  • 4876K13 - 1" PVC ball valve - female threads to female threads. Even brass valves will be incredibly hard to turn without a long torque arm (as detailed on the Supercannon II page).
  • 73605T98 - garden hose barb to 1" male threads
  • a garden hose clamp to hold the hose onto the hose barb
You could use two male adapters and a length of your 1" pipe instead of the pipe nipple, if you want more space to attach a swiveling device. You could also downsize to 1/2" or 3/4" to reduce cost and to be able to use an easier-to-turn valve, but then you'd have to use either a reducer to go to the 1" nozzle fitting or a small hose barb as a nozzle. The extra flow and better nozzle may justify a 1" setup, though.

At any rate, make sure your PVC is all pressure rated. There's already so little PVC here that there's not much to worry about, and even the pipe nipple could be copper or brass instead. But things like fittings are very rarely pressure rated; even McMaster-Carr doesn't carry pressure rated 1" male adapters.

Making a swiveling device could be done in a variety of ways (for example, two perpendicular "axles," or maybe a single ball). We don't exactly specialize in them so it's hard to recommend a single easy way. It may be more fruitful to just go to Lowes, the Home Depot, or another hardware store and ask to see what's there.

Anyway, good luck and have fun building! ;)

aEx155
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Re: Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Post by aEx155 » Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:55 pm

An idea for metering:

Connect a small, resettable timer (EX: one that counts down from 1 min. , then resets) to a sprinkler valve along with the firing valve. That way, the gun would only fire a minute at a time with every push of the button.

If you want to set time limits on the gun, you could use a sprinkler valve hooked up to a sprinkler timer to set when the gun could be used.

Yeah, a lot of people here will say that sprinkler valves don't have good flow; if you want more flow, then use more valves...compromise is sometimes needed; sprinkler valves are the only way I can think of to easily create a metering system

Another thing you could do is have a pressure tank connected to the main line via a temporary valve; the firing valve is connected to the tank.

You would have to fill the tank before you could use it, and you could only use it if you filled the tank. It would be even better if you made the tank fill slower so the kids would have to wait to fill it up.

As for the swiveling mount, you could try something like this:

Image

That picture should help explain the things I've said.

I'm good at designing these kinds of things; just ask and I probably will have an idea for what you could do.

scottcara
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Re: Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Post by scottcara » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:52 am

Thank you so much, I really like the diagram and advice on the nozzle. I like the idea on using the sprinkler valve to electronically control the circuit for a certain duration of play time as it is a relatively inexpensive way to control flow to the gun. One challenge will be for example if I set the timer on the "zone" to go off for ten minutes or five minutes then the gun will work automatically during that period but not outside of it and will require me then to manually go back to the box and activate the zone on the control board. I was thinking more along the lines of your second idea whereby there's someway the kids could entertain the possibility of having control for a metered amount of water for a short (say 30-45 second) period of time. Are there any automated inepensive devices that will interrupt the flow of water near the gun and close the valve intermittently by say pushing a button, pulling a chain, or other sort of kid friendly mechanism?

The swivel mount picture is awesome and thanks for that as well. I will post pictures as I get closer to completion of the project. I am very appreciative for all your expert posts as I am a novice and really enjoy the time with the kids to do this together.

Scott

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Silence
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Re: Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Post by Silence » Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:31 am

The problem with sprinkler valves is that they really do constrict the flow. They're essentially piston valves, but they're smaller, have a couple extra turns, and use diaphragms instead of pistons, which narrows the flow area. Their only redeeming feature is the electrically-actuated solenoid, which is actually removed for spud guns but is used in irrigation. The only electrical alternatives are actuated ball valves, which are ridiculously expensive.

It's probably more practical to just use a valve/nozzle assembly and shut off the water line by turning off the hose. A solenoid sprinkler valve is only necessary with an external water source as in aEx's design, and getting complex timings would require logic either hardcoded in a circuit (as in an egg timer) or programmed with a microchip (like the Arduino). That said, you could still use a sprinkler valve, depending on how much range you want. At any rate, get the largest size you can! :)

aEx drew a good swivel piece, but there are a few tweaks you may want to make:
  • First, I wouldn't try rolling your own "swiveling connector." You could either make the large disc rotate around the pipe (which wouldn't require a seal, then), although then the hose might get twisted eventually. Preferably, just buy a "swiveling connector." I'm not sure what they're really called, but they do exist.
  • If the horizontal axle is moved a little bit ahead of the vertical one, the length of flexible tubing could really be reduced. Of course, with a plain garden hose instead of a full setup, you wouldn't even need a seal in the vertical segment, as the hose could just hang around (it would look messy though).

aEx155
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Re: Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Post by aEx155 » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:01 pm

scottcara wrote:As a bonus, I would like to put in some sore of actuator to meter the amount of water so the kids don't just spray endlessly
scottcara wrote:I like the idea of some some of push button on the gun or nearby similar to the ones that are in water parks that only allow a certain amount of water to be released during each firing.
I would believe the think that scottcara is talking about is the type of gun at a water park where you have to press a button to fire...one press of the button allows a certain amount of water to be fired. That way, rather than using the water gun constantly, it is interrupted in order to restart the firing process.

I have more to post; I will add more when I get the time.

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Drenchenator
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Re: Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Post by Drenchenator » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:44 am

SilentGuy wrote:The problem with sprinkler valves is that they really do constrict the flow.
aEx155 wrote:I would believe the think that scottcara is talking about is the type of gun at a water park where you have to press a button to fire...one press of the button allows a certain amount of water to be fired. That way, rather than using the water gun constantly, it is interrupted in order to restart the firing process.
I'd actually think that sprinkler valves would be perfect to this--a set of them that is. One is just a firing valve and controls the flow to the nozzle. The other controls when water enters the chamber, essentially a refill valve. The chamber could be some latex rubber tubing for simplicity. To use the gun, open the refill valve to fill the chamber. Then fire using the firing valve. Repeat as necessary.
The Drenchenator, also known as Lt. Col. Drench.

aEx155
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Re: Advice on building water gun for my kids swingset

Post by aEx155 » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:57 am

Drenchenator wrote:I'd actually think that sprinkler valves would be perfect to this--a set of them that is. One is just a firing valve and controls the flow to the nozzle. The other controls when water enters the chamber, essentially a refill valve. The chamber could be some latex rubber tubing for simplicity. To use the gun, open the refill valve to fill the chamber. Then fire using the firing valve. Repeat as necessary.
That's what I meant when I said this:
aEx155 wrote:Connect a small, resettable timer (EX: one that counts down from 1 min. , then resets) to a sprinkler valve along with the firing valve. That way, the gun would only fire a minute at a time with every push of the button.
...and this too:
aEx155 wrote:Another thing you could do is have a pressure tank connected to the main line via a temporary valve; the firing valve is connected to the tank.

You would have to fill the tank before you could use it, and you could only use it if you filled the tank. It would be even better if you made the tank fill slower so the kids would have to wait to fill it up.
When I talked about a sprinkler valve here:
aEx155 wrote:If you want to set time limits on the gun, you could use a sprinkler valve hooked up to a sprinkler timer to set when the gun could be used.
I meant time limits, for setting when the gun could be used (EX from 2 PM - 7 PM)


I think Drenchanator understands what scottcara is trying to do the most (no offense to anyone else, though...)

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