Pressure Chambers Are How Strong?!?

Build a homemade water gun or water balloon launcher and tell us about it.
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Winston Churchill
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Joined: Tue Jun 22, 2004 4:15 pm

Post by Winston Churchill » Tue Jun 22, 2004 8:03 pm

okay, this is my first post so here goes. :)

I've looked at all the designs for homemade guns and thought they were cool. But I want to take all of this one step further. I want to use a cordless, battery-powered air compressor to pump my gun for me. Its maximum psi is 250 psi. What can I use that would hold that kind of pressure? :blink: Should I just go with a weaker compressor or stronger chambers or both? I plan to carry the 4 lb., relatively small, compressor in a water tight backpack. All of this is to make water fights more fun (or painful, im really not sure why I want to do this actually). If I could get some input on this that would be great! thanks!
<span style='font-family :O ptima'>"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."

"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job."
Sir Winston Churchill

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SSCBen
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Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2003 1:00 pm

Post by SSCBen » Tue Jun 22, 2004 8:15 pm

Welcome to SSC,

If you use schedule 80 or higher PVC it probably could hold more than 150 psi. Why you would want PSI that high is beyond me, that's getting dangerous. I would stay with schedule 40, normal PVC, and keep the pressure under 140 psi. What they don't tell you is that portable air compressors are loud, eat batteries like pizza, will pressurize slowly for a soaker and cost a ton. They would work best in a smaller gun IMO. I don't think anyone other than Xray has done anything with portable air compressor. I don't think you'd want the portable compressor to get wet either. ;)

What would be better is an idea a member had a while ago, and did. I forget who it was, but the idea was the have an air chamber and a water chamber. The air chamber is filled with high PSI compressed air, and there is a regulator feeding that air into the water chamber. The regulator keeps the PSI constant, so this is effectively constant air pressure. If you add the portable compressor that might make the gun even better.

I have designed my own single pump system, but I don't think it will be very practical and I'm going to try it eventually. Don't ask about it because it probably won't work good.

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BlueSmudge
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Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2004 10:57 pm

Post by BlueSmudge » Wed Jun 23, 2004 6:03 am

Well, this idea came to me when I was making designs for no-pump WBL. I hav't really thought of it in a soaker. It would probably need to be a PR gun. you could use a paintball tank which hold a steady 3000 PSI. You can then use a pressure regulator and bring the PSI down to like 120. Needs some thought, and would be expensive in the beginning, but probably would save you money on batteries.
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