Idea regarding PC arrangement: would it work?

[Aurum]

Ive only come up this quickly, im already getting doubts about this, but hey, could help someone else come up with more ideas of their own at least.

I know its not explained well, but make of it what you will....

[SSCBen]

Those layouts would reduce length, but they'd also increase turbulence in the water flow slightly, reducing flow and range slightly. If you're just interested in whether or not they'd work, they will work but they won't be as advantageous for performance as the original design. The most advantageous (for performance) simple air pressure design would use a piston chamber so you can fire at any angle, have the least turbulent flow, and have a more compact design. No one's done that yet in an APH style water gun.

If you want a shield it would be easiest to just put a plastic sheet on the side of your water gun.

[Silence]

You can do pretty much whatever you want. Here are some examples of wacky water guns:
(Note: All these links go to waterwarfare.com, which has been plagued by trollers and is offline. Ben may be able to open registration again for a while if you want to register, but in the meantime I can link to the images here.)

N-Rev Challenger


WaterWolf's Silver Bullet


N-Rev Classical


N-Rev R-Cannon


In your design, I'm not sure why the pressure chambers need to branch off of a tee. Design 1 could use a cross (basically, a four-way fitting), and design 2 could be like the air pressure homemade but with a 90-degree elbow for each chamber. You could also consider having an APH style with the pump high enough to go right over the inline pressure chambers. Or if you added a piston or a bag to separate the air and water, you could flip the entire gun over - that would be more conventional with the pump underneath and the barrel on top.

So you can do anything, really. If you want the pump on top for whatever reason, or even on the side, feel free to do so.

[Aurum]

Wow, thanks for the insight. Also, thanks for going through all the effort of posting all these pics for us to see. Much Apprechiated

[Drenchenator]

There are really only two things you should consider when thing about chamber placement in an air pressure water gun:

• Will the chamber be upright?
• Can I reduce the number of bends from the chamber to the firing valve?

The answer to the first question should be yes and the second no. In all, an air pressure gun should have an upright (air on top) chamber with just one bend to get to the valve. The bends greatly decrease performance because they create turbulence. More importantly though, the gun can't shoot if the chambers aren't upright because the air won't push the water out; it has to float on top of it and push it out.

[aEx155]

There are really only two things you should consider when thing about chamber placement in an air pressure water gun:

• Will the chamber be upright?
• Can I reduce the number of bends from the chamber to the firing valve?

The answer to the first question should be yes and the second no. In all, an air pressure gun should have an upright (air on top) chamber with just one bend to get to the valve. The bends greatly decrease performance because they create turbulence. More importantly though, the gun can't shoot if the chambers aren't upright because the air won't push the water out; it has to float on top of it and push it out.

That is, unless you use a piston like in Ben's Supercannon II. Pistons and LRT are some ways to have horizontal PCs.

[Silence]

Right. In the pictures I linked to, the first and third water guns use vertical chambers, the second uses CPS, and the third probably uses a piston.

The ideal layout, as Ben mentioned here, would be a piston in a single horizontal pressure chamber so the water can shoot straight out the nozzle. That's what SuperCannon II uses, but with air pumped into the rear compartment. Nobody has built a water gun like that in which you pump water into the chamber.

EDIT: No problem about posting the pics. It was actually interesting to see all these unconventional homemades at WaterWarfare.com.