H.A.W.B.S. (High Acceleration Water Balloon Sabot)

Threads related to water balloon launchers.
Post Reply
User avatar
zeda.beta
Posts: 683
Joined: Sun May 03, 2009 10:49 pm

H.A.W.B.S. (High Acceleration Water Balloon Sabot)

Post by zeda.beta » Wed Jun 16, 2010 2:44 pm

Okay, so I have a potential design for a water balloon sabot that could survive high accelerations. The picture details a sabot with a rubber cradle on the inside. When the acceleration occurs, the rubber of the cradle will stretch, instead of the balloon onto hard plastic. And when the acceleration stops, the balloon will continue forward out of the sabot. (Sorry about the attatched file, I couldn't get it to insert properly.)
Attachments
HAWBS.JPG
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Quack damn you.

User avatar
C-A_99
Posts: 1502
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:09 pm

Re: H.A.W.B.S. (High Acceleration Water Balloon Sabot)

Post by C-A_99 » Wed Jun 16, 2010 7:21 pm

Sounds like a potential improvement on this design. The tricky part is shaping the rubber to cradle the balloon as well as possible. The cradle should be shaped as similar as possible to a balloon at it's normal size.

This leads to another question. Which way is the best to orientate the balloon when loading it? It would seem that having the knot point either outside the barrel or inside would be best, but this position may be more prone to rupture. On the other hand, if the knot is facing the side, it won't launch very evenly and will most likely result in a bad trajectory.

User avatar
martianshark
Posts: 689
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2009 10:24 pm

Re: H.A.W.B.S. (High Acceleration Water Balloon Sabot)

Post by martianshark » Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:41 pm

Interesting, but it might be hard to make.

User avatar
Silence
Posts: 3825
Joined: Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:01 pm

Re: H.A.W.B.S. (High Acceleration Water Balloon Sabot)

Post by Silence » Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:58 pm

You could make it a bit smaller - just large enough to cradle the balloon, maybe a little deeper. When the balloon accelerates, it'll act like a liquid settling under extreme gravity, as its inertia will "pull" it towards the base of the sabot. The perfect shell would maintain the shape the of balloon and entirely prevent friction with the barrel, to reduce stress on the rubber.

In your design, which way would the cradle stretch? Is the mouth supposed to close up around the balloon?

User avatar
zeda.beta
Posts: 683
Joined: Sun May 03, 2009 10:49 pm

Re: H.A.W.B.S. (High Acceleration Water Balloon Sabot)

Post by zeda.beta » Fri Jun 18, 2010 7:00 pm

Ideally, the cradle would stretch downward, (but paint is very limited in the shapes I can draw) and the inertia of the balloon would be contained until it finishes accelerating.

Edit: Yeah, sorry about the confusing drawing, but I wanted to use the cradle in an existing sabot made from a cup.
Last edited by zeda.beta on Thu Jul 15, 2010 3:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Quack damn you.

Post Reply