chrisbrenton.org

Weekend project

Chris — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:03:22 +0000

What to do on a quiet weekend? Build a torsion Ballista of course! Decent size with good draw action. Good for shooting projectiles about 35′. Still need to add fletching to the bolts. Just could not wait to do a test fire. Drawn and ready to fire. Even without tuning the bolts [...]

Things that go BOOM in the night

Chris — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:04:58 +0000

Both potato cannons worked as expected. They survived both the trip up on top of the van as well as the weekend abuse of being fired and left out in the rain. Here are some clips of the pneumatic cannon: 100_1695 100_1696 Range was approximately 75-100 yards. Given the tank was not designed to hold [...]

Test firing of the pneumatic cannon

Chris — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:48:27 +0000

The pneumatic cannon is complete! Ran a pressure test on the tank this morning. Filled it to typical tire pressure and let it sit for an hour. Needle on the gauge didn’t budge. This is a good thing. Here’s the completed unit: After sleeping on it, I was starting to think that maybe the warning/suggestion [...]

LOL! Well they can’t mean me!

Chris — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 02:36:23 +0000

Note the section circled in red. Keep in mind this is the air chamber that will get pressurized just before firing the pneumatic cannon. I’m sure they did not intend for that warning to apply to me. I’m a professional after all. Out of time to test it today so I’ll find out in the [...]

Almost complete

Chris — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:56:15 +0000

My daughter decided the potato cannon stand needed a bit of color. Here are the results: Looks a bit to me like camouflage from the Avatar movie, but I’m not a pre-teen. Also decided to RTV over the electrical connection on the potato cannon. This will reduce the chance of someone getting shocked. Not very [...]

Mixed results

Chris — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:42:47 +0000

Before the rain descended, I was able to get in some test firings with the kids. Here’s some Quicktime vids with the results. First, the good news. The potato cannon works as expected: IMG_1750 The catapult works, but will need some structural tweaking before I can ramp it up to full power (sorry for the [...]

A potato cannon stand

Chris — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 12:07:36 +0000

Decided I wanted to build a stand for the potato cannon. Figured this way you don’t have to wrap your arms around it during ignition. More distance, the better. Here’s the basic design I came up with: and here it is with the potato cannon in place: The wooden dowel used to set the firing [...]

Sometimes the pics speak for themselves

Chris — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:22:56 +0000

More to do, more to come, C

Feeling small…

Chris — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 22:28:15 +0000

Assembled the unit outside of the shop and here’s what it looks like: Pretty funny as the top is almost level with the window on the next floor up. Now that’s its built, I’m convinced that top bar is not going to stand up to the abuse. As much as I hated to do it, [...]

Project 2: Potato cannon complete!

Chris — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 22:15:33 +0000

Compared to the catapult, the potato cannon barely seemed like a project! Only took a few hours, in fact my wife completed the assembly while I focused on the beast. The secret to a good potato cannon is getting a clean insertion that provides an air tight seal. Any air that can sneak by is [...]