Soon to be built soaker, need advice.

[Leonard]

Hey guys! I'v been lurking around this site and this is my first post.

I'v been building pneumatic launcher for a short while now and i decided to try my luck at water cannons. The reason is that i got disguted with weapons in general and building soaker was a good alternative.

Since i used to build spudgun and such weapons, i own a compressor and i was hoping to use it for my soaker project. But as i learned more from this website it seems that the most efficient soakers are the CPS types, wich could only be achieve by PUMPING water into a rubber tube or balloon.
In order to use my compressor efficiently, i could have pressurized a chamber full of water and then unleash the water afterwards, wich would have been very simple and fairly efficient. But i wanted to go with the CPS concept, so i came up with the idea that you can see in the drawing i uploaded with this post.

The air pressure would come in through the red thing on the left of the drawing, the pressure would then push the water contained in the chamber through the green tube. From there, the pressurized water would fill the orange tube (rubber latex tubing). The rubber latex tube now pressurized could be unleashed normally.

According to your experience, would that work efficiently? Im looking for your infinitly wise advices ^-^

Thanks, for any clarifications, just reply, i'll be 'round here.

[Drenchenator]

Welcome to SSC!

There is no reason that this shouldn't work; but it begs another question: Is this truly the best option? Pumping is simple--people choose it for that reason. Your system should work just as well as a pump to fill the chamber, but it's far more complicated than a simple pump. If you don't like pumping, I would recommend that you build a hose-filling attachment (like the one in this gun) and fill the gun that way. Performance still will be high, and you don't have to pump. Granted, it won't be as high as a filling a gun in the way you described, but it would still fill it without pumping.

If you do go ahead and build the air pressure filling apparatus, remember to not pressurize it past the latex rubber tubing's pressure rating, which I think is about 35 psig for a single layer of tube. Also, since you only want the chamber to fill with water, stand the filler up so that the air will rise to the top and push the water into the chamber. Other than that, it sounds like you know what you're doing, so good luck with the build!

[Ben]

Welcome to SSC!

Seems like too much work too me. It would work and I think some people discussed something similar for to fill QFD guns away from a hose before. If you're set on using an air compressor, try air powered CPS via an air pressure regulator. That would slightly more efficient than this system and use less parts. There's more information in the links below.

http://www.sscentral.org/physics/cap.html
http://www.sscentral.org/homemade/supercap.html

I would suggest McMaster-Carr part number 4956K11 as a pressure regulator. I think that is the one I am planned to use in my second constant air pressure gun.

[Silence]

I'll echo Drenchenator and Ben. SuperCAP is probably what you're looking for: a water gun pressurized by an (electric) air pump. But it all depends on the type of water gun you want. SuperCAP may not be the best choice in water gun fights, whereas a CPS soaker definitely would be.

Good luck!

[Leonard]

Thanks guys! that was the infos i was looking for. When im done building, i could take a few pic of the soaker and the shots, if anyone is curious. Im also ordering that regulator for mcmaster