Spud Cannon Plans

RacerSoaker445 · Post by **RacerSoaker445** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 7:14 pm

Spudfiles has a LOT of great homemade pneumatic potato cannons that could be adapted to shoot balloons easily.

Flannel · Post by **Flannel** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 7:24 pm

Wow, cool site. Wouldn't the water ballons bust in the chamber/tube/barrel due to the force/pressure? I was thinking about making a Trebuchet that launched water balloons...
That site has a lot of cool content, thanks for posting...

m15399 · Post by **m15399** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 7:34 pm

Well, water balloon launchers ARE spud guns... Just with a different payload.

Flannel, to launch water balloons, you put wadding (plastic bag, styrofoam or plasic cups) into the barrel of the launcher to keep it from bursting.

SSCBen · Post by **SSCBen** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 7:39 pm

Water balloons wouldn't burst in the chamber, most of the time that is. They're more likely to burst from the barrel itself, especially if no wadding is used. Catapults and trebuchets on the other hand won't get as good performance and will take a lot of effort to make well. I've made two or three water balloon catapults over the years with my Boy Scout troop and they never seemed to be useful for more than a distance test.

DX · Post by DX » Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:05 pm

For 3" PVC, a tennis ball can is as close to perfect as you will get using a common item with no modifications to it. You can load the barrel, and the protection will allow all the balloons to fire without breaking, and they will all travel the same distance. Plastic cups work second-best, but not nearly as effectively as tennis cans.

m15399 · Post by **m15399** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:55 pm

What if you got a male fitting for 3" pipe and then cut off the fitting part and just had the male part that goes into the pipe? It would make a good seal and could be used as a "shell" for water balloons if you put something on the back to keep the water balloon from flying out.

Flannel · Post by **Flannel** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:23 am

m15399 wrote:Well, water balloon launchers ARE spud guns... Just with a different payload.

I am sorry if I said that they weren't.

Ben wrote:Catapults and trebuchets on the other hand won't get as good performance and will take a lot of effort to make well. I've made two or three water balloon catapults over the years with my Boy Scout troop and they never seemed to be useful for more than a distance test.

Thanks for saving me the time.

m15399 · Post by **m15399** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:27 am

I am sorry if I said that they weren't.

Nah, I was just pointing that out to Racer.

Thanks for saving me the time.

I usually ask before I try doing something to make sure it's worth the effort. Of course, if it's something small or it's never been done before, it's always fun to try it out.