automatic water balloon launcher?

[patar_the_great]

I NEED IDEAS!!!! the only thing I have to go on is either a chain or ferris wheel clip

[Soaker Leader]

Sure you can do that but how will you pressurize it so fast to make it "automatic"?

-SL

[joannaardway]

A regulated CO2 supply could do it.

I suggest you check out one of these sites (and especially the forums on both):

http://www.Spudtech.com
http://www.spudfiles.com

They specialise in all kinds of air cannons, including automatic ones.

However, few people I know of to date, have ever designed a feed mechanism that will load a water balloon without shredding it. Automating them shouldn't be impossible.

One of them is Boogieman (although that is a combustion based launcher): http://www.advancedspuds.com/revolverx.htm
Another one is Ragnarok (my twin brother) - his design is a pump action one, but it's yet to be completed.

[SilentGuy]

The problem is that you need sabots for each water balloon. You'll want to have a supply that can easily be renewed, and you should also note that a regulator won't keep up with the flow of air out the barrel.

[Hunt_and_Annoy]

Oh god not this again. I wish you best of luck, but warn you that this is not an easy feat.

[patar_the_great]

is there any way to do it with a spring and plunger?

p.s. thank you joannaardway for that link to the revolver x

EDIT by SilentGuy: I merged your two posts. Usually, it's best to just edit an old post instead of double-posting when there's something you just remembered to say. The exception is after a day or two on a project or something, when another post will show people that something major has been updated. Thanks.

[patar_the_great]

Does anyone have any ideas for a chain fed design? If so email me at

[Hunt_and_Annoy]

Originally Posted by patar_the_great

is there any way to do it with a spring and plunger?

Yes. You'd still need sabots for the water balloons, but if you have time, money, a really strong motor, lots of space, and vast amounts of patience, it'd just be like building a giant airsoft AEG.

EDIT: Another thought, if you use co2, you might be able to use the action from a paintball gun, or a homemade thing much like it but bigger.

EDIT2: Here's a link explaining how an AEG works. You'd need to make your own, much bigger version of this, which I say again would be a pain.
http://www.icsbb.com/news/e_news_main.asp?id=41

[SilentGuy]

A plunger method is near impossible. You would need an incredibly strong spring, likely one that would match the force of a charged SuperCannon II. And also, remember that throwing a balloon by hand is incredibly efficient.

An AEG is far too different, and they can obtain decent performance because everything is small. Pneumatic, on the other hand, is generally better for all sorts of applications. Note that even paintball guns don't use springs. But back on topic, no it is not practical to use a spring.

[Hunt_and_Annoy]

I said an AEG type thing would be a best bet for plunger and spring, it would by no means be easy. I agree that pneumatic is easier and probably a lot better.

[joannaardway]

Talking about belt or chain feed:

http://www.neospud.com/cannons.html

Go down the page, click on CylBelt. It's not a very complete page, but it shows part of the concept.

It's probably totally beyond most people though. I'd struggle, and I'm an experienced cannon builder. I'd probably have help from my brother as well, and he's really experienced (he's built over 20 launchers of different types)

I had a full-auto design once, but my brother got hold of it, and as is typical with him, he looks at it, and somehow makes it 20 times better.

[Hunt_and_Annoy]

I had no idea anyone had actually succeeded at something like this, nice find.

[joannaardway]

There are hundreds of automatic cannons out there. Most of them use golf balls, paintballs or BB pellets though.

Auto-loading balloons is a challenge.