The All Mighty Spud Cannon

We know, we know. You've heard it all before and you know everything there is to know about spud cannons, orange guns, spud bazookas, etc, but were gonna tell you anyway.

You will need:

- 30 cm of 90mm PVS/ABS

- 90-120cm of 40 or 50mm PVC/ABS

- 1x 90 threaded coupling

- 1x multiple reducing bushing (smooth bushings work too)

- 1x 90mm threaded end cap

- 1 x 90mm slip coupling

- Coleman lantern sparker (flint kind)

- piece of dowel or skinny wood 'bout 80cm long

- propellent e.g. hair spray, deodorant, flyspray butane

- PVC glue

- something to shoot (good ammo listed later on)

Method:

1. Trim and lightly sand the ends of all PVC parts

2. Glue the 90mm threaded coupling to one end of the 90mm pipe.

3. Place the reducing bushing into a vice and saw off part of the small end at the 50mm mark, leaving enough left to glue the 50mm pipe to. This step is not necessary if you are using 40mm pipe for the barrel.

4. Glue the 50mm pipe into the prepared reducing bushing.

5. Apply PVC glue to the outer edge of the 90mm pipe and push it into the slip coupling.

6. Apply glue to the 90mm end of the reducing bushing and push it into the other end of the slip coupling.

7. Drill a hole into the end cap and insert the flint sparker. This is hard to explain but luckily we found a diagram which helps explain what to do. Click here to see it.

8. Sharpen the end of your barrel on a bench grinder.

9. Wait at least 24 hours before attempting to fire it.

How to fire:

1. Push the potato (or other ammo) into the top of your barrel. The sharp edge you created should slice the spud so it fits perfectly into the gun.

2. Use the dowel to push the projectile all the way to the bottom of the barrel.

3. Spray the propellent into the fat end of the gun (known as the combustion chamber) for 3-6 seconds. Hold the can upside so more gas gets sprayed in than liquid.

4. Quickly screw the end cap on, hold the gun tightly and flick the sparker to fire when your ready.

Stuff to shoot:

- potatoes

- apples, oranges, pretty much any fruit that will fit.

- empty glue gun tubes (you can reuse these)

Heres an interesting thing I heard. Push your fruit into the barrel then poke it back out. Stick it in the freezer until its rock solid, then cram it back down the barrel and shoot it. I heard this can pierce car doors. Any one wanna test it for me??

Tip:

Try firing on an angle and/or with the wind to increase your range. It usually shoots between 50 and 70m but it can go further with the right conditions.

Need more help? Take a look at this diagram.

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