All about the wonderful world of spudding.
What is a spud?
What is a spud gun?
Spud (spud), n., informal. a potato.
Gun (gun), n., any device for shooting or ejecting something
under pressure.
Spud Gun (spud gun) n., any device for shooting or ejecting
a potato under pressure.
How do you fire a potato from a bunch of PVC?
- Unscrew the cap to the combustion chamber.
- Ram the potato down to the base of the barrel.
- Spray about 2 to 3 seconds of hair spray in the chamber.
- Quickly cap the chamber.
- Find your target and aim.
- FIRE!
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How do these crazy things work?
The fuel in the combustion chamber ignites and the gasses expand
very rapidly. These gasses push in all directions within the chamber.
The potato sitting in the barrel give the least amount of resistance, as
compared to the wall of the chamber. Since the atmospheric pressure
pushing the potato into the gun is far less than the pressure pushing it
out of the gun the potato travels down the barrel to its flight path.
What the fastest way to load and fire a potato?
Wouldn't it be nice if reloading and firing took any five seconds? Well if you've got some cash and want to knock you friends out look at Ed Goldmann's Potato 'Launching' Home page found on our links page. The SP9000 series are astounding!
Your questions:
Josh asks :
I didn't clean out my spud gun and left the end cap on. Now the cap's stuck on there. How do I get it off?
Stuck cap, eh? We had the same problem. The thing is any thing you put on there that
would dissolve the new glue you've created would also damage the PVC the gun is made out of. Here are our suggestions on how to get that stubborn cap off. First try to heat it up to make the glue gooey. If that doesn't work try cooling and heating. Or as a last resort you can do what we did: take a screw driver and a hammer and break the cap out of there (you may want to cool the cap to make it more brittle). Once it's removed, thoroughly inspect the female threads on the gun, if that's cracked just make a new gun. If it's not, buy a new cap and it'll probably fit.
REMEMBER, TAKE YOU CAP OFF WHEN YOU NOT USING IT TO AVOID THIS!
The Chief asks :
What is the mysterious misfire problem?
You've made us think here... The misfire problem can be caused by one or more of the following reasons:
- Too much fuel.
The fuel has no oxygen to combust with.
Solution: Air out the combustion chamber and add less fuel.
- Too little fuel.
The spark jumps across mostly air and does nothing.
Solution: Add more fuel.
- Right amount of fuel, no air.
If you fail to air out the combustion chamber before firing again the exhaust fumes are still present and again, the fuel has no oxygen to combust with.
Solution: Air out the combustion chamber and re-fuel.
- No spark.
You click your ignition device and there is no spark between the electrodes.
Solution: Move the electrodes closer together, check wiring, or get a new ignition device.
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Jason Corneveaux of Carefree, AZ asks:
"Do you know how to make a silencer? I want to be stealthy!"
Well Jason, we asked the same question (so did a lot of screaming neighbors!) We combed the net looking for an answer and found it in "The Potato Gun Encyclopedia" found on our links page. also the plans to build one are on our plans page.
What could I fire out of my Spud Gun?
- A potato
- An orange
- A frozen orange
- Persimmon fruit
- Dog food in resealable bags
- Gas soaked TP
- Hamsters (NOT recommended, unless they agree to it)
- Little film canisters filled with hot glue or other stuff
- Golf balls
- Tennis balls (2.5" or larger gun with wading)
- Corn cobs
- Anything that fits into the barrel
- Cheese
- A spud with steel wool fastened on back (makes a firey trail)
- Buck shot!
- Jelly beans
- Marbles
- Tiny nuts & bolts
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Any other questions?