piezo lighter not working for potato cannon

If you want to build a potato cannon, plans and kits are available all over the Internet. The potato cannon is also known as a spud launcher, spudzooka, and spudgun. Potato cannons have been known to blow holes through doors, and several effects can be produced by combining the potato with flammable materials. Needless to say, a small explosion ensues which fires the potato out of the barrel, usually about 200 ft. The end cap is the put back on, and the plunger of the piezoelectric igniter is pushed, producing sparks in the propellant filled chamber. The end cap is unthreaded and hairspray or WD-40 is sprayed inside the combustion chamber. In order to fire the potato cannon, a potato is first rammed (with the aid of a ramrod) down the barrel. The igniter is affixed to a paperclip in such a way that when it is pushed, sparks are produced. Poking inside of the combustion chamber is a gas grill lighter, a piezoelectric igniter. On the end of the combustion chamber is a threaded cap. The combustion chamber is short and fat, while the barrel is long and thin. There are many variations, but the basic launcher is composed like this:Ī combustion camber is attached with a bell condenser (type of pipe) to a barrel. It is a device constructed of PVC or sewer pipe which is capable of launching common potatoes at speeds of up to 200 mph. Great for ringing in the new year/millennium.Ī potato cannon is a very cool thing. You should feel a satisfying recoil, hear a resounding pop, and see a chunk of potato be propelled at about 120 MPH into low-earth orbit. To fire: aim, then with a flick of the wrist, spark the lantern lighter. Turn it over, open up the back, spray in cheap hairspray (I recommend Aquanet, as it's cheap and very high in propane) for a few seconds, immediately cap. Use a long stick (such as a broom handle) to gently push it down until it hits the nail.

To load: shove a potato onto the end of the muzzle, turn it to cut it, and push it downwards until it's a round chunk in the barrel. We also took an extra piece of 2' pipe, cut a square hole in it, and attached it to the wrench-hold on the cap so that we could put it on and take it off more easily. Everything gets sealed tight (except the end cap, which needs to come on and off). After that, we filed the tip of the pipe, making it sharp, so that it could cut a potato. Before attaching the pipe, we cut a pair of notches in the end and put a cut-off nail across it (this serves as a stop to keep the ammunition from falling into the mixing chamber). On the front, we put a 3'x2' flange bevel (allows you to put a 2' pipe into a 3' fixture), and about 2.5 feet of 2' pipe into the bevel. For the back of the 'why' (which is the mixing chamber), we attached a cleanout adaptor (used to attach a screw-on cap for the purpose of, well, cleaning out the pipeline), as well as a screw-on cap.

My brother and I made one by taking a 3'x2' 'why' PVC junction (used to attach a 2' PVC pipe to a 3' main), putting about 3' of 2' PVC in the branch, putting a cap on the end of that, and affixing a Coleman lantern flint into the length of pipe. It is to a blaster as a spud cannon is to a railgun.Īlso known as spud guns, these are frighteningly easy and cheap to make. Not nearly as satisfying, but it's great for doing live-action Quake, namely because it won't actually kill anyone. Although the behemoth known as a spud cannon is fun (see below), I also like the smaller, and safer, eponymous device which is basically a squirt gun except that you load it by shoving the tip into a potato, and you fire it by pulling a handle which compresses the air within the chamber enough to expel the little bit of edible starchy tuber.

Piezo lighter not working for potato cannon