The big news is that Potato Cannons are alive and well in sunny SA.

We (a group of crazy old kids) have hooked on to what seems a big thing overseas and figured "Hey we can build that!!!"We have been busy at this for about 2 months. Development has been pretty speedy and are already onto our Mark 3 cannon.

On this page we will bring you all the latest developments and info we have managed to source or confirm.

We feel it very important to supply you with the nitty gritty about our toys. We have put allot into them and are pretty proud of the results achieved.

THE BIG SPARK

       
Firstly lets start with the ignition system. We have up to now been reasonably happy with the basic piezo ingnitor. This gives us a spark of up to 1cm. We have connected this to two "spark plugs" used in gas fridges. Although they work well we don't think the expense really warrants the performance. Ideally we are looking for a cost effective transformer based system that up to now has taken more time to develop than initially thought.

THE BIG BANG

This is the Propellants job. We started with the basic Deodorant and obviously needed something better. We have tried everything including:
SHIELD DEODORANT: Worked very well but there had to be something better.
BUTANE: Works well but is expensive. Also works well in some guns and not in others.
PETROL: Only Alan was dumb enough to use this. A loud bang and hope nothing explodes.
DOOM: Not good at all.
LPG GAS: Um how dumb could we be. Not the safest. Although it worked very well.
QUICK START: This is the bitch. Man this shit makes such a loud bang you will shit yourself. It also seems to burn the cleanest, pretty cheap direct from manufacturer, forgiving on the amount used. The less you use the better. The only concern is the chamber seems to get pretty hot with the stuff, which is worrying because the hotter the product the less strength it has.

CHAMBER


Well the bigger the bang the bigger the pressure. So natural evolution forces us to high pressure uPVC units. The problem is things start getting expensive but the positives are: safer and a whole new world of attachments.

The pipe now being used is a 110mm outside diameter with a wall thickness of about 4-6mm depending on the pressure rating. This gives us a much safer environment. We still prefer to use the standard PVC end cap so that we know were the weakest point on the cannon is and therefore can make it as safe as possible, although Matthew has a high pressure end cap on his cannon (takes allot of screwing to get it on properly)

REDUCTION
You now need to go from 110mm to what ever barrel size you need. We prefer 50mm so that standard 50mm:2'' thread couplers can be used. This allows us to attach the barrel of  choice to the cannon. At this point anything can be done to the cannon. Either put in two 90degree bends or leave it straight.

BARRELS

The basic barrel is either 40mm or 50mm and we have now made ours detachable so as to allow for variation.

We have a collection of barrel's.
40mm

A smallish size projectile shoots well with the right gun. Accurate and far. A laser site is easily attached to any of the barrels.
50mm

A larger projectile with more velocity. Does some serious damage. Pretty accurate and far.
40/50mm Stub

Good for quick loading but shit in accuracy and distance.
63mm Tennis Ball or other projectile.

63mm barrel shown next to 50mm barrel.
The most impressive thing since the potato cannon. One kick ass recoil and bang. Launches up to 11 tennis balls at once. The now longer 1:1 volume barrels have still to be fully loaded but we recon up to 17 balls at once. Fires well, accuracy and distance consistent. We are still looking for other projectiles that fire as well. We tried 1/2 litre bottles but they don't fit all the way down, so therefore don't shoot as far. In my crazy state I forced a solid rubber cricket ball down the barrel. Well this shot so high it went out of sight and came down with serious velocity, breaking a branch off the tree and slamming about 100mm into the soft soil. COOL!!!! 
12 Bore Shotgun (not good)

12 x10mm aluminium barrels inside a 50mm barrel. Did not work well at all. If we were lucky we got 8 out of 12 shots to come out only going about 5 meters. SCRAP THAT!!!!
The basic formula of volume 1.5:1 is a good place to start when building. (chamber to barrel)

"U" BEND

Turns your straight gun into a "U" to help with accuracy when aiming at targets.

SPECS
With the help of Dougie's chronograph we have measured the potato at up to 475 ft/s. Averaging at around 420 ft/s. This, once again,  is pretty impressive considering.................
The distance measured is about 220m at best.
 

Extractor fan

We use this to clean out all the dirty air from the chamber between shots.