coud you guys post and tell my dad how safe a standerd tennis ball cannon is? (steel cans several layers of masking tape etc.)thanx

They're not, I have a freind with two fingers because of those bitchs

oh gee thanx how did he lose them?

You silly goose! I don't have any friends, I'm just putting on a show for your dad

good i was hoping that but really i need him to know or else i dont get to use it

I've never used one but pvc sounds safer

PVC would be a better idea, but if it shatters you're screwed. Cover the PVC with something to manage the shrapnel- a leg off a pair of jeans works well, or a fine wire mesh. Other than that, it's as unsafe as anything else us backyard ballistics guys would make. 'Course, I still have ten fingers and sight in both eyes.

Ah, another Anarchy Cookbook reader.

You can't make soda can tennis ball launchers anymore. They don't make the rolled steel cans anymore, so finding the parts will be a bit tricky.

What you CAN do, though, is build one from PVC. Just make a basic potato cannon with some 2.5 inch schedule 40 PVC for the barrel and tennis balls should fit perfectly.

If 2.5 inch schedule 40 PVC pipe isn't available in your area you can use 2.5 inch sch 40 conduit. With the pressures generated a hairspray combustion cannon it should be quite safe... Provided you aren't the one getting shot with it.

~Zero the Inestimable

Go here: http://members.aol.com/sph911/spud/

Those are the ones you should look at. The combustion ones are for beginners, pnumatics once you've built a couple combustion ones.

zero i am a former anarchist cookbook reader and they still make slimfast cans out of steel if i couldent find steel i wouldnt have made it

Zero, Is everything in the anarchists cookbook pure rubbish?

most of it is.

Read this, it will show you all the bullshit recipies: http://members.shaw.ca/raydawg/text/cockbook1.1.txt

what p[ropellents would work best?

hairspray

what about wd-40 or a flashlike composition but with calcium hypochlorite and aluminum

I hear eather is the best propellant, but im not really sure. WD40 should work just fine.

any other ideas?

yeah just build a pipe cannon. there pretty safe. a friend of mine accuacly bought one to school. load an orange add some gas and hold a lighter to the hold and "booooomp". shit it was cool. the thing i found with pipe cannons are if theres too much gas in there the thing doesnt explode but instead just shoots fire out the end for a few seconds. youd better dubble check that with zero or rat first. i dont wanna get you killed

Right. You need to have enough air (oxygen) in the chamber for the fuel to burn. If you have too much fuel or too little air then the fuel will burn partially or not at all.

Hairspray, butane, and starter fluid work wonders. I've never had any luck with WD-40 or bugspray or any of the other bizzare things people use.

~Zero the Inestimable

zero any times for how long i should spray it and i thank you for your concern static

for this much work wouldnt it be better to make a potato cannon with reduces and every thing?

pipe cannon /spud gun same thing. thats what im talking about. ive plaved with 2. the good one was shaped like this

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kinda like that. it was bout 2m in length. the side and back of the Y connection unscrewed. un screw the back put a orange in (check its fit) gas added the screw cap replaced and a lighter held to a hole in the back and boom off it went. i think the Y connection was used for lack of parts but i dont know. i also heard you can use a bbq electric starter in stead of a hole. after every shot the thing was waved around to air the cannon out. it was beautiful

Edit - This should fix your digram. We'll see if UBB will throw it back in my face.

[This message has been edited by Zero the Inestimable (edited 04-26-2002).]

The amount of fuel you use depends on your chamber size. I have a 3x11" (or thereabouts) chamber on my golfball cannon, and I use exactly three seconds' worth of hairspray in it. In general, if your cannon won't fire you probably used too much fuel. If it doesn't fire very hard you may have used too little. Experiment until you get it right, then write it down...

Static isn't a concern at all. These things are hard enough to get to fire when you want them to - I've never heard of let alone experienced an accidental ignition.

~Zero the Inestimable

when i said static i was talking about static_firefly and thanking him for his concern -he didnt want to get me killed

Ah. Well, that's what you get for using no punctuation and no capitalization.

For the record, there it is.

~Zero the Inestimable