Water Balloon Pirate Canon

Threads related to water balloon launchers.
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JuchTurtles
Posts: 478
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:52 pm

Re: Water Balloon Pirate Canon

Post by JuchTurtles » Wed Aug 04, 2010 6:37 pm

Looks nice, mate! :cool:
The name's Juch, just Juch.
Also known as Commander JuchJawsTurtles, commander of the C0BALT TiDE team in The Ocean Volcano Union.
SPLASH! You're dead!

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MunkeyB
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Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:29 pm

Re: Water Balloon Pirate Canon

Post by MunkeyB » Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:56 pm

Arrrr Maties Here be our completed cannon.

Pirate Weekend 2010 was UNBELIEVABLE! And the cannon worked GREAT!!

Here be a few photos of the finished product:

Image

Image

The Cannon itself measures 54" Long and the carriage is 36" long and about 21 inches high.

We were running off of a 20lb CO2 tank that is tucked away in the carriage. We started out with 1500 psi in the tank and even after firing over 50 balloons at between 60 and 70 psi each we still had over 1100psi left.

Firing at around 60 psi we were averaging a range between 40 and 50 yards. Since we were constantly moving on the water it was touch to get an accurate distance.

We switched to a manual valve because the sprinkler valve we had was not firing consistently. We also switched our PVC sabot for a wax and paper cup tethered with a shoe string. This saved weight and fired the balloons ALOT further.

We will be working on fabricating a lighter yet more durable sabot but due to time constraints the paper cup worked BEAUTIFULLY.

All in all we could not be happier with this project. We have a few modifications to make before our next event but it's safe to say we made one hell of a SPLASH!

For all the pics from pirate weekend check out the picture the picture of me and me wife below.

Image

Thanks again for all your help. Once i can get video of the cannon firing I will post that as well.

~MB
Last edited by MunkeyB on Mon Aug 16, 2010 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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cantab
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Re: Water Balloon Pirate Canon

Post by cantab » Mon Aug 16, 2010 5:04 pm

I think this must go down as one of the notable homemades. It's the first homemade I know of where aesthetics is a major consideration. Most homemade WBLs and blasters look like a bunch of plumbing parts. This is something else altogether.

I would suggest you consider submitting this for consideration in the contest

http://forums.sscentral.org/t6184/

Your tech may be conventional, but your styling is excellent.
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MunkeyB
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Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:29 pm

Re: Water Balloon Pirate Canon

Post by MunkeyB » Mon Aug 16, 2010 5:15 pm

Cantab,
I entered us into the contest. Thanks for letting me know and I'm glad you like the cannon.

~MB

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MunkeyB
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Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:29 pm

Re: Water Balloon Pirate Canon

Post by MunkeyB » Wed Sep 08, 2010 2:52 am

As promised here is the video of us firing the CO2 Powered Pirate Cannon.

A few notes:
1)We have made a few changes including changing out the PVC sabot for one made out of Boeing Foam. Yes the stuff the use on airplanes. (Don't ask how we got it ;) LOL)

The foam cushions the balloons and as well as reduces the strain on the tether.

2) We were able to fire an entire bag of 150 balloons out of one 10 pound CO2 tank. Even we were impressed! We even bumped up the chamber pressure to 120 PSI and fired a onion over 100 yards.

3) Our next task is to add some sort of aiming system. It is more then a bit tough to keep the cannon set at the right angle.

And now on to the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkD_M8v-wO4


Hope you like it
~MB
Last edited by MunkeyB on Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

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