Pneumatic Snowball Cannon

[HardOCP News]

Nothing says “Happy Holidays” like creaming your friends, neighbors and enemies with a pneumatic snowball cannon. I can’t believe one of you guys didn’t come up with this.

I know a lot of people make Potato guns, which are pretty much the same, but I find shooting food pretty pointless. Snowballs are funner, and less destructive. Your total cost for this will be about $45, if you already have an air compressor. If you don't, you'll have to buy one, which can be costly.

 

[|CR|Constantine]

I can’t believe one of you guys didn’t come up with this.

LOL PFFFFT....are you kidding? I have three of those hooked up to an overclocked P2 Celeron OC'd in an old refrigerator for guidance trajectory... and I live in South Florida.

 

[RoBo]

It's a beast.

If only I had snow. Science project of the year.

 

[GJSNeptune]

I had to stop reading after funner.

 

[Hurdler]

I can't wait for the first big snowstorm!

 

[Gambit]

GOOD LORD does that look dangerous. Somehow I don't see drilling into and threading the walls of a propane tank being a good idea. Granted the second version looks a bit more reasonable. I'd say look into a paintball CO2 tank (just let all the CO2 out first). CO2 tanks will hold a minimum of about 800psi safely and already has standard threads, etc.

 

[Lunas]

why let the co2 out? use the co2...

i have built one of these before mine is a vastly diffrent design the tank is made of pvc sch - 40 all rated for over 200 psi... had it at 185 once... checking maximum distance... half a mile... now i limit the pressure i use to 90-120 still goes half a mile... you can put all sorts of stuff in the air ones confetti, shirts, water, paintballs shotgun effect...

i have also made some ice slugs...

 

[Gambit]

Yeah you could. But the transfer of CO2 from liquid to gas takes heat. So the tank is going to chill when you use it. As the tank gets colder, pressure goes down... Depending on how much it goes down and what kind of system you have set up, it may work it may not. Hell, I'm not even sure if the stock pinvalve will have enough air flow to work properly.

 

[Lunas]

i was thinking more of a storage tank to fill a blast tank so you could fire it off more rapidly than if you just hook a compressor up to it. mine takes 10-15 min to get up to pressure using a tire pump.