Potato cannon

New Avon Arms
Mungo

Mungo

Well-Known Member
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As an Easter holiday project to do with my son, we’ve decided to have a go at making a potato cannon.

All the instructions we’ve found online seem to be American, and refer to parts or dimensions of parts that aren’t available here.

Has anyone built one and can they share instructions and/or suggestions?

Thanks!
 
Mungo said:
As an Easter holiday project to do with my son, we’ve decided to have a go at making a potato cannon.

All the instructions we’ve found online seem to be American, and refer to parts or dimensions of parts that aren’t available here.

Has anyone built one and can they share instructions and/or suggestions?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
convert them to metric, as the plumbing world is now metric ie 15mm copper pipe or 30mm waste pipe.
However you valve fitting will be in BSP. use 25.4 as you base line for converting :tiphat:
 
I had one long ago. I would start with a PVC eccentric reducer -160mm to 50mm, about 300mm of 160mm PVC pipe, 1m+ of 50mm PVC pipe, a 160mm screw cap fitting for the back, pvc solvent cement, an electrical gland fitting for the combustion chamber to insert a gas fire lighter. Chamfer the end of the 50mm barrel so that it cuts the spud nicely when loading. Mine also had pop rivets at the joints, not sure how essential they were.
 
Last edited:
takbok said:
I had one long ago. I would start with a PVC eccentric reducer -160mm to 50mm, about 300mm of 160mm PVC pipe, 1m+ of 50mm PVC pipe, a 160mm screw cap fitting for the back, pvc solvent cement, an electrical gland fitting for the combustion chamber to insert a gas fire lighter. Chamfer the end of the 50mm barrel so that it cuts the spud nicely when loading. Mine also had pop rivets at the joints, not sure how essential they were.
Click to expand...
The bait launchers have a fill chamber non return filling fill port gate/dump valve and woooooohssss :)
 
Mungo said:
As an Easter holiday project to do with my son, we’ve decided to have a go at making a potato cannon.

All the instructions we’ve found online seem to be American, and refer to parts or dimensions of parts that aren’t available here.

Has anyone built one and can they share instructions and/or suggestions?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

www.instructables.com

Build a Potato Cannon - British Version

Build a Potato Cannon - British Version: This version (of the very, very many potato cannons on Instructables) is helpful if you're UK based and have to work around the crappy stocks you find in our hardware stores, which, unlike American hardware stores, seem to assume you're an idiot who…
www.instructables.com www.instructables.com
 
I built one a couple of years back.
Sourced all parts from Pipestock
I would not be using B&Q grade PVC pipe fittings, it wants to be thicker walled than that. All joints were solvent weld with pressure adhesive.
I didn’t follow any plans, just kind of guessed at dimensions.
Cheap hairspray was the best propellant.

The results were incredible. My launching tube was 50mm internal bore, furthest shot was 318m

It would be fair to say that I had way more fun than my children!
 
What ignition system are people using ?

The last one a friend made used a piezo igniter taken from a redundant gas fire if l remember correctly, it could launch spuds way over the top of the farmhouse in the village, great fun for us maybe not for the farmer. I think the propellant was WD40 ?
 
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