Requesting some engineering brainpower. Solve this for me!

[Two Dog]

Y'all are a bunch of smart, creative super nerds. @SteveO

Someone can figure this out without designing me a Rube Goldberg thingy.

Now that we're living in rural Virginia, these are the kinds of projects I can't help doing. My girls and I just finished building an air cannon earlier this evening. The design calls for pressurizing it with 35 PSI and the authors say they've launched lemons a full hundred meters. There's a huge park nearby with plenty of runway for experiments and even bigger farms for the fall pumpkin trebuchet build.

While putting it together, I noticed the PVC is rated for 280 PSI. The little handheld compressor can put out 160 PSI and fill up a semi truck tire. I can buy a different one that will put out 240 PSI. Hmmmm.....I sense an opportunity here. This is doable.

Check out the screenshot text thread. I'm dying to see how far it can launch shit.

Although perhaps that's a poor choice of words.

Cheers,
Chris
p.s. I've already decided against the "hair spray plus cigarette lighter cannon" that two local shop guys I met earlier have already built. Along with the portable propane tank version he used for shoreline fishing. One of them put a potato through the side bed of a friend's pickup by accident and Dad/Son would launch frozen ice "bait bullets" from their fishing boat before shooting an expensive fishing pole 1/4 mile away. LOL.

 

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[The Sandman]

Y'all are a bunch of smart, creative super nerds. @SteveO

Someone can figure this out without designing me a Rube Goldberg thingy.

Now that we're living in rural Virginia, these are the kinds of projects I can't help doing. My girls and I just finished building an air cannon earlier this evening. The design calls for pressurizing it with 35 PSI and the authors say they've launched lemons a full hundred meters. There's a huge park nearby with plenty of runway for experiments and even bigger farms for the fall pumpkin trebuchet build.

While putting it together, I noticed the PVC is rated for 280 PSI. The little handheld compressor can put out 160 PSI and fill up a semi truck tire. I can buy a different one that will put out 240 PSI. Hmmmm.....I sense an opportunity here. This is doable.

Check out the screenshot text thread. I'm dying to see how far it can launch shit.

Although perhaps that's a poor choice of words.

Cheers,
Chris
p.s. I've already decided against the "hair spray plus cigarette lighter cannon" that two local shop guys I met earlier have already built. Along with the portable propane tank version he used for shoreline fishing. One of them put a potato through the side bed of a friend's pickup by accident and Dad/Son would launch frozen ice "bait bullets" from their fishing boat before shooting an expensive fishing pole 1/4 mile away. LOL.

View attachment 44841
View attachment 44842

You don't know how much energy you're playing with here. FYI, OSHA bans PVC for shop air lines (typically ~100psi) due to the failure mode. Yes it's rated for it but if it does fail (typically from getting bumped) it fragments and sends out plastic shrapnel. Don't hand those girls a charged pipe bomb.

That said, with new PVC and careful handling it'll be fine. I've done it myself but not to 160 (I doubt your pump will make it that high). I wouldn't let my kids handle it at those pressures.

The valve is junk and more limiting than pressure. Get an electronic sprinkler valve instead.

For fun and education get some 2 liter bottles and make dry ice bombs. You'll have more respect for the energy you're holding after seeing those go off.

 

[eramart]

Kevin did some experiments with PVC and pressure:

View: https://youtu.be/KqstP9ics2A