Physics of a Spudgun

1916 Words4 Pages

Well it's quite simple actually. Spudguns use some of the same principles as internal combustion engines. Just as burning gas forces a piston out of a cylinder it can also force out a potato. A spudgun is a device that uses some form of propellant to project a potato across the sky. Usually these devices are made of ABS plastic sewer pipe. There are several major parts of the spud gun that these pages will refer to. These parts are the firing chamber, the igniter, and the barrel. The ignition device of a spud gun is simply put the spark generator that causes the combustion of the fuel in the firing chamber. This device is usually a charcoal grill lighter. The button on the sparker is depressed and a spark arcs across a wire lead and a ground wire. The grill sparker is installed in to the back of the firing chamber by means of threading, epoxy, and bolts. This sparker becomes a projectile if it is not well seated in the end cap of the firing chamber. It must be held firmly in place withstanding any pressure produced by the fuels being burned in the chamber. This type or igniter will work in most conditions including when it becomes wet with fuel. Other igniters exist but are not recommended as highly as the charcoal grill sparker. The Colmen lantern spin lighter which use a flint and striker can become gummed up with some fuels and is not recommended for use in spud guns which will use hairspray as a primary fuel. This lighter must have new flints installed when they run out. This type of lighter also will fail to function when wet with fuel. The flame style barbecue lighter is a click lighter that produces a small-sustained flame. This lighter rarely misfires but is very hard to install given the high pressures it would be subjected to. Also the fuel in the lighter it self must be refilled. Some Spud Guns use a spark plug and battery setup that involves more work as well as more components. The benefits of this style of ignition system is that you have the ability to remote detonate the fuel from a safe distance. By far the push button charcoal grill sparker is the recommended igniter. It is cheap, effective, relatively easy to install and long lasting.

Show More
Related

  • Describing 7.3 L Injectors and How They Are Put Together

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many internal parts to the injector. Starts with a barrel then moves down to a plunger then there is a check valve, below that is a spacer with the nozzle springs inside of it, lastly is the nozzle. All of these parts have specific and unique jobs. Nozzle has a needle in it that works kind of like a piston that once the pressure build up the needle forces forward and sprays fuel. There is a spacer above the nozzle with the nozzle springs that force the needle down. Above the spacer is a check valve, the check valve allows the right amount of fuel into the nozzle. The plunger and barrel are located above the check valve. It has a spring on the plunger that has to hold resistance of the pressure until it reaches the correct amount before it will let the injector fires. There is two internal o-rings one that is around the plunger and one that sets between the nut and body.

    Read More

  • Physics of Paintball

    1008 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Reason that people need a tank when they play paintball is because you need a way to force the paintballs out of the gun and this cannot be achieved effectively by just using a spring. What they decided to do was to fuel the paintballs by pushing them with a gas. The way in which they did this was to put the gases, either Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide or Nitrogen under extreme pressure until they turned into a liquid and once they are in a liquid form they can be blown into a tank which probably looks something like this.

    Read More

  • Physics of Paintball

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    It should be noted that there are many different ways that are employed to get a marker to shoot a paintball out of the marker. Nearly every brand of marker has a different firing system. All have several things in common. They all have some sort of tank with compressed air or C02 or Nitrogen. Then they usually have sort of bolt and hammer system which is cocked back and held in place by a sear which compresses a spring. When the trigger is pulled it releases the sear. The restoring force of the spring pushes the bolt and the hammer forward starting the paintball moving then the C02 is released propelling the ball outward.

    Read More

  • Advancements in Firearm Technology during the American Civil War

    1041 Words  | 3 Pages

    Prior to the invention of the Minié ball it was necessary for the bullet to be the same diameter as the barrel in order for it to engage the rifling. This made it difficult and time consuming to load because the bullet would have to be rammed down the barrel with some force. Due to this fact, muzzle loading rifles had not seen any previous use in combat. The Minié ball, however, changed this. The Minié bullet was slightly smaller in diameter than the rifle barrel, was conical in shape, and contained an iron plug in its hollow base. When fired the force of the expanding charge would force the iron plug into the base of the bullet, thus causing the base to expand slightly and engage the rifling. The Minié bullet, fired from a rifled musket, had an effective range of up to 250 yards, which was a vast improvement over earlier muskets and ammunition. The rifled musket firing the Minié ball became the most common firearm used by both sides during the Civil War, and the Springfield armory in Massachusetts produce nearly two million for the Union Army. (History.com, 2010)

    Read More

  • how to mare black powder

    3200 Words  | 7 Pages

    ignited. (High grade powder doesn’t even need a flame to ignite – it can be set off by

    Read More

  • The Gun Powderplot

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the early 1600s in England, King James ruled over the country. King James was named the successor to Queen Elizabeth I, whose reign covered the years from 1558-1603. During Elizabeth's rule over England, she enacted laws that were very harsh to those practicing Catholicism. Many had hoped that the anti-Catholic laws would change or even be overturned under King James I, whose wife was Catholic, but that didn't prove to be true. Not only did he "keep the old religious laws restricting Catholic worship, he even put new ones in place" (Barrow). Since the Catholic laws became more strict, people like Guy Fawkes decided to rebel and put a plan into action which would later be known as the Gunpowder Plot.

    Read More

  • Physics of the Browning M2 .50 Cal

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun is better known as the 'Ma Duce' to those who have had the pleasure of firing this heavy barrel machine gun. In 1919 John M. Browning developed the M2 .50 cal as an anti-aircraft weapon. The M2 was first introduced into the United States Military in 1933 and is used by many militaries through out the world today. Since 1933 there have been little changes made to this weapon system. The BMG (Browning Machine Gun) is a crew served, belt fed, air-cooled, recoil operated machine gun capable of firing in single shot or fully automatic.

    Read More

  • The Development of Warfare

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    The invention of gunpowder found its way into the artillery cannons in the fourteenth century, but this job was very dangerous because of the unpredictable reaction of the fired explosives. The early production of gunpowder was hampered by the cannon’s slow rate of fire, inability to travel swiftly, lack of aiming capability, and confusion on the mixture. The barrels were one to three inches in diameter and some were even mounted on the bottom of carriages. The development of gunpowder is momentous in history, because it marks the invention of modern warfare.

    Read More

  • The History of Guns in America

    1773 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first guns used in America were a simple machine where the person did most of the work. The user measured and put the powder down the barrel of the gun. Next some shotgun pellets were put in the same way. This was then all compacted and the gun was ready to fire. This reloading took over a minute before each shot could be fired and the guns weren't very accurate by today's standards. If too much powder was used then the gun could explode or if the powder were wet then the gun wouldn't fire. One of inventions during the Revolutionary War was a way to reload faster. The powder was already pre-measured and kept in little sacks. This made reloading faster because the user no longer had to measure the powder between each reloading. These guns were crude but in that day was a powerful modern invention that was considered very useful. The American Revolution was a political war to obtain what the people of that era wanted. By today's standards the destruction of gun was minimal so war was used to obtain political objectives.

    Read More

  • The Invention Of Gunpowder

    418 Words  | 1 Pages

    What do you think of when you hear and or say “gunpowder”? Well, you might say to make bullets heat or burst, but did you know it was a mistake when the chinese discovered it. “Gunpowder” was used to trade for different kinds of supplies. There has been numerous items,inventions, and ideas that have been traded along The Silk Road that affect our life today such as gunpowder,paper,and the compass. Gunpowder has several low explosive powders in it and the main powder is gunsand. Gunsand is used for when the guns bullet shoots out it’s to give it an extra boost.

    Read More

  • Essay On The American Civil War

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    Weapons like the Gatling gun, rifled musket and the minié ball gave firearms more range. The range for a foot soldier increased from 50 to 100 yards, and even up to 500 yards or more, levels which are five to ten times greater than what a firearm was able to reach during the Napoleonic Wars. Because of the lethality of these weapons, it is estimated that 625, 000 soldiers were killed during the American Civil War. The Gatling gun was used by the Union forces, and it is considered an early rapid-fire weapon and a precursor to the later machine gun. The Gatling gun was also used in the Anglo-Zulu War and in the Spanish-American War in the attack on San Juan Hill, which shows the continuation development of rapid-fire weapon. The Maxim gun, a faster precursor of the machine gun, was not invented until 1884. The Civil War also saw the use of ammunition called the minié ball. This would expand as it moved down the barrel of the rifle and helped the bullet spin so that range and accuracy were improved. The technological advance and lethal rifles also transformed the combat tactics, which greatly helped in achieving victories during the American Civil War and Modern Warfare as

    Read More

  • The Machine Gun

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Volley Guns” (Chivers, 2010, p.26) or also known as “Organ Guns” (Ellis, 1975, p.10) were first attempts at increasing firepower by adding several barrels at the firing itself, rather than simply attempting to increase the rate of fire. “Gunsmiths had long ago learned to place barrels side by side on frames to create firearms capable of discharging projectiles in rapid succession. These unwieldy devices, or volley guns, were capable in theory of blasting a hole in a line of advancing soldiers” (Chivers, 2010, p.26). An example of such weapons can be seen on July 28, 1835 when Giuseppe Fieshi unleashed terror on King Louis-Phillipe in Paris, France. He fired his 25 barrel “volley gun”, killing 18 of the king's entourage and grazing the King's skull. The weapon was ineffective however. Four of the barrels failed and another four ruptured. Two other barrels had exploded inside, grievously wounding Giuseppe. (Chivers, 2010, p. 27)

    Read More

  • The Development of The Cannon and Gun Powder

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    The developments of gunpowder and the cannon were the most important advances during the Middle Ages. If it weren't for these inventions, who knows how we would be fighting today, possibly still the wars of Ancient Rome. The development of gunpowder meant that soon the use of knights would be useless because of the projectile that could easily knock a knight off his horse, rendering him helpless. The gunpowder enabled this projectile. The development of the cannon goes hand-in-hand with the gunpowder. This invention enabled things to be projected by the use of gunpowder. This invention also stopped sieges, which ended the need of city-walls. The crude versions of these weapons were used during the Hundred Years War, between England and France. Eventually these inventions paved the way for the modern gun and other inventions like bombs. These developments were truly the most important things that came out of the Middle Ages.

    Read More

  • Partially Premixed Flames

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    Partially premixed flames are created by adding air in less than stoichiometric proportions to the fuel streams prior to the reaction zone. They occur either due to deliberate addition to the of air to fuel tube for enhancing stability of flame or due to flame liftoff from the fuel injector. In turbulent regimes they often occur because of local extinction and reignition events. Many researchers have reported their studies (1-8) to analyze the behavior of partially premixed flames. Libby and Economos (1) predicted a finitely thick reaction zone for partially premixed flames in contrast to a thin reaction sheet. Tsuji and co-workers (2-4) performed experimental investigations into the structure of partially premixed flames revealing the presence

    Read More

  • Small Arms Technology Essay

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    The invention and innovation of small firearms spans throughout the world and throughout multiple centuries. The main inventions during the early phases of small arms development quickly gave way to the next innovation, although they were slow to be adapted to military use due to the cost of their production. As time went on these innovations became more and more stagnant to the point of there being no major innovations in the field for close to two hundred years. However, after this stagnant period, there began another period of advanced innovation in the area of small arms technology. The goal of this essay is to understand and dissect the innovations that occurred during these two periods of advanced innovation and the cultural and historical factors that lead to them.

    Read More

More about Physics of a Spudgun

Open Document