Photo Page

	That's my son holding one of my 1st SpudZooka 234 cannons! (Many Years Ago.) Just look at the smile on his face. He enjoys watching it blow holes through plywood and sending small rockets into the sky.
Here are some pretty cool Pumpkin Chuckin' Cannons. I have no idea what they are using to trigger these monsters. These articles were pulled out of the Lancaster, PA news paper. They are thumb prints, so click on them to see them full size.
Space Available! Send me your photos. Be famous, and let the rest of the world see your creations!
	10-9-2007 Thanks for your detailed free plans and web site. I recently bought a different set of plans online but decided to build yours instead. I'm glad I did. The cannon works great. My son and I made a few modifications so we can launch whole potatoes and apples but the basic design is unchanged. We are using a couple of 3" diameter foam disks (rigid blue building foam) behind each potato or apple to get the best seal in the barrel. I've attached a couple of pictures and a video clip. We are getting about 900 to 1000 feet shooting at a 45 degree angle depending on the potato size and shape at 90 psi. Best Regards, -Tim
	2-24-2007 I’ve been futzing with my SpudZooka, and I think I’ve made an incremental improvement to your original diaphragm design. Lacking facilities to accurately cut the gasket and willing only to go to the hardware store in town, this is what I’ve come up with. The improvement is bolting a ½” PVC pipe cap on the back of the disc. I ground the length so it doesn’t impact the square part of the plug, and I ground it approximately square so it is a relatively tight fit in the square part of the plug. The quick-release valve connection is centered on the plug, so it is missed by the hollow portion of the pipe cap as it comes back. The effect of the pipe cap is to stabilize the diaphragm through its travel buy limiting the angle that it can rotate. The rubber is 1/16” gasket material found in the plumbing section of the hardware store. I used a plastic lid from a large Rubbermaid tub to make both the washer and the diaphragm disk itself. The benefit is a lighter assembly and the ability to chuck it into my drill and round it off on a file. Much less putsy than messing with metal (for me anyway). We ran a 50-lb bag of potatoes through the cannon last Saturday with nary a misfire. The power seems a good as anything I’ve achieved yet. Thought you might appreciate some feedback; we had a blast shooting away! Thanks for the design, -Peter S.
10-1-2006 I have built three spudguns. Two micro and a combustion. My combustion has a 3" chamber and a 2" barrel. Micros use a pen tube barrel and a barrel from a broken Airsoft gun. Both are powered by Green Apple Lysol. That stuff rox!
	9-16-2005 Here is Rev #3 of my cannon. It has a new frame and built in compressor. It is posted on your site already in Rev.#2 form w/out compressor and remote launching pendant. It is the one with the video of the watermelon getting blasted. (See the photo dated 11-11-2004) Thanks.... Happy Spudding -Gary
7-26-2005 Many pictures from fellow Spudder Aaron. Some construction pictures of his combustion cannon are included. He is using CO2 as his air source.
	5-27-2005 I wanted to send this photo into your site for others to check out. I created this mobile quick exhaust for portability and distance. I used all 1/2" fittings instead of the 1/4" and it costs about half of the quick exhaust valve. I and my father in-law were out back shooting today and he plays a lot of golf. He said the potatoes were going at least 300 - 350 yards (at 90 - 100PSI). So I feel this mobile quick valve was a success. Take care, -Mike
	5-9-2005 Here is the picture of my standard combustion type 'SpudZooka'. I made a detachable tripod for the cannon from scratch, the red thing on top is the bottom of a toolbox and the legs are made from just spare wood. It fires 40m + (300 feet +). Although this is not far it is still great fun. Lovin' your site. -Declan
	1-10-2005 My breech loading spud cannon. It is a 'quick exhaust' type.
	1-10-2005 Hi, your site is mad! I have sent a photo of my combustion powered spud gun. Instead of using a sparker I used a refillable trigger lighter because they are cheaper and I could get my hands on it easier. The first spud gun I made I designed myself it is simple as, its just a bottle (an empty squirty soap bottle works the best) with a barrel that fits tightly into the bottle and is fixed on well. The bottle has a small hole in the side for the match, put some metho in, load it, stick a match in and whoooomf . -Matt
See a Video of this cannon firing.	11-11-2004 I have been looking at your website and others I had no Idea that so many people were into these things. I built my cannon a couple of years ago and have been making improvements along the way. I started with a surge tank from an automotive assembly plant. 31" long and 12.5 inches in diameter. I build a piston type valve 6" diameter. So I have lots of air and because it's steel the pressure can be a lot greater. I have hydrostatically pressure checked it to 250 psi. I have had a lot of fun shooting it. 20 oz plastic bottles full of water fit in the 3" barrel perfectly. I can break 4"X6" boards in half with them. Oranges at watermelons are very impressive. Avocados fly very nice also over a half of a mile. Included are a short mpeg of an orange at a watermelon, and a .jpg of my cannon. Currently I am working on several projects for it. A laser sight bracket to mount to 3"pvc. A muzzle velocity readout in the form of a muzzle flash suppressor. I am in need of a lot of air to play with this thing so I am incorporating a gas powered air compressor into the frame. Here are some specs . . . Cylinder volume 3000 cu in. Barrel length used 10 ft , optimum 25-30 ft. hard ball calculated speed 740 mph this is with a 10 ft barrel. If I use a 25-30 ft barrel that speed should reach about 1100 mph. I've shot all kinds of stuff like tennis balls dry and full of water. Calculated muzzle velocity for a tennis ball is 1300 mph with a 10 ft barrel . I can shoot a tennis ball about 450 ft with just 10 psi. I normally shoot around 100psi. I have not yet tried to shoot any frozen projectiles. 20 Oz. Plastic pop bottles without cap have an incredible hang time because they loose mass as they leave and come back. With cap they are vicious going through two pieces of 3/4 plywood and an oak shipping pallet simultaneously. My plans in the future including adding a laser sight for easier targeting of watermelon :). Also I plan on getting the built-in gas powered compressor installed and working. Its going to have a diagnostics screen with controller for the engine control/launching. -Gary
	11-2-2004 Sprinkler firing mechanism, though will not switch as fast as a quick exhaust, this does allow remote firing.
9-8-2003 Here are 2 of my spud guns I've built. The black and orange one is a small one which looks like a sledgehammer, basically what I used is a 1 inch barrel, and a 2 inch chamber with 2 caps on each end. Its not very powerful, but it will launch a spud about 25 yards. The other one is one I recently built, it has a 3inch by 15 inch chamber and the barrel is about 3 feet long and it is 1 1/2 inches. This one has launched a spud about 200 - 220 yards. Both have bob igniters for the ignition and both use right guard. Eric D.
	6-20-2003 After having success with a standard SpudZooka, I set about about building a gun based on the SpudZooka, but with a 2" barrel and 4" chamber. Since bigger is better, I went with a ten foot barrel (rifled), and a 73" chamber. The volume is about 500 cu. in. I used a 3/8" quick exhaust instead of a 1/4". The diaphragm is just like the one in a standard SpudZooka, except that the disk is 1/16" sheet metal. I tried it with 1/32" metal, but it would bend at higher pressures. 1/8" neoprene on top, and 1/32" neoprene glued to the bottom of the 4" Charlotte cleanout plug. I was getting over 500 foot pounds out of the standard SpudZooka.. ~400 fps with a 100 gram projectile at 100 psi. With a 50 gram projectile at 110 psi I measured 571 fps. The new gun is much more powerful. I had trouble chronying it because the potatoes I used were nothing but mush when they exited the ten foot rifled barrel. I came up with some sturdy projectiles.. wood inside of 1.5" PVC wrapped in duct tape. Each of these weighs around 170 grams. I measured 449 fps (1175 fpe) at 80 psi, and 503 fps (1471 fpe) at 100 psi. For comparison, a .223 rifle such as the M-16 produces about 1200 fpe. An 83 gram projectile went 644 fps at 110 psi. Heavier projectiles are slower, but have more energy than lighter ones. I power the thing with a CO2 setup. A few construction notes... I used sch80 PVC for the 4" chamber. It's thicker and has a higher pressure rating than sch40. Due to its gray color, though, it gets hot in the sun. I'll probably slap on a coat of white paint to help it stay cool. At the breech end of the 2" barrel, instead of having the diaphragm seal directly against the end of the 2" pipe, I cemented a coupler to act as a sort of valve seat. The coupler extends maybe a quarter inch past the end of the 2" pipe. The 2" pipe is then chamfered for a half inch or so to make a smooth transition for better air flow. The diaphragm seals against the coupler, not the 2" pipe. It seems to work. It provides a good flat smooth surface for the diaphragm to seal against and theoretically should improve airflow. The other edge of the breech coupler is sanded smooth to make for better air flow. Don't know if that helped things much, but it couldn't hurt. The set screws are 1" instead of 3/4" and had to be filed down a few threads. I additionally secured them against outside of the barrel with nuts and some Loctite. -Mark A.
6-20-2003 This is an animated gif of a modified diaphragm. This gives you a good idea how the SpudZooka fires. This was donated by fellow Spudder Israel.
5-8-2003 Here is a picture of an untested piston diaphragm that can give you ideas for building your own.
	12-7-2002 Here are pictures of a New Zealand fellow building his cannon out of Hydraulic Cylinders since PVC is not readily available. (See how well you have it living in the States?) The board in the picture is 2" thick! All you do is: 1. Seal the six bolts that are in the screw on end cap making sure that when they are screwed in they don't protrude through to the other side and upset diaphragm sealing. This end cap already has a large O'ring which seals when it is screwed on. 2. Tap the larger hole that is already in the cap to take the quick exhaust valve, the standard hole is the perfect size to take 1/4 bsp tap! 3. Drill and tap 6 holes (1/4 unc) in the other bronze screw in end, then machine O'ring groove just inside the six holes. Make 1/4 inch thick round plate with the same holes unthreaded plus large center hole for barrel. 4.Weld this plate to the barrel while plate is bolted to the screw in end which is in the cylinder, while welding, the barrel must be centered in the cylinder at the diaphragm end by using another disc which fits over the barrel and into the cylinder perfectly, (I used a disc made of nylon the same as what I used for the diaphragm) after welding this disc is discarded. Obviously before welding you also have to work out how much gap there is to be between the screw on end cap and the diaphragm end of the barrel in order to get proper diaphragm action (for my 32mm barrel I allowed 14mm plus the thickness of the diaphragm. e.g., my diaphragm moves 14mm) Take care not to burn thru barrel. 5. Make diaphragm/piston out of a disc of approx 12mm thick nylon and 1/4 inch thick rubber on each side. Nylon disc can be turned to size in either a wood or metal lathe and then the rubber glued to it and then trimmed with snap off blade hobby knife. 6. Apply sealing compound to the bronze screw in end and screw in tightly to cylinder, this now never needs to be removed. 7. Fit O'ring to groove in screw in end, bolt on barrel assembly. 8. Fit diaphragm, fit quick exhaust valve to screw on end cap, screw on end cap making sure large O'ring is in place. 9. Fit hoses or whatever. 10. Fire!
	6-9-2002 This is my current combustion cannon. It's the basic one you have plans for on this site. I built a wooden encasement for it and mounted the cannon on the inside of it using pipe clamps. I have lawn mower wheels on the bottom and a pull rope on the front which is tied to a screw-eye so I can transport this around easier. This looks amazing when firing since the whole thing rolls back a few inches from the recoil.
6-7-2002 Here are the parts to a non-PVC cannon submitted by Chris. He has descriptions of some of the parts on his web site at www.chr1s.b0x.com/Minicannon/Minicannon.htm.
5-17-2002 The Hockey Puck Launcher. I'd hate to be this goalie! Author letter can be found on the Feedback page.
	Here is a fellow Spudder (Mike Stallings) who put together his own combustion cannon, and gave it a nice paint job.
See what you can do to improve upon your pneumatic cannon. These pictures are sent to us complements of RAZBINN@aol.com
More modifications and upgrades brought to you by "Salad Shooter"
Here are some ideas one fellow had to redesign the floating diaphragm assembly. Also here is a good idea for a centering ring for the barrel.
	PiMpStA549@aol.com is a proud owner of a combustion cannon. Notice the igniter is located on the rear handle.
	My friend and I built an amazing but simple potato launcher. The fuel we used was dr. Scholl's foot powder spray.. It worked wonders. I attached a diagram of our launcher to the email. It cost about $30 to buy all the parts. -Dan F.
	Here is a photo of a way too heavy spudgun. It sports a 6 inch air chamber with a 2-1/2 inch barrel. It is of the floating piston quick exhaust design. The valve was turned on a lathe so the valve seat is about 4/5th the outside diameter of the piston. If you do the math on what makes the valve move, you will discover the valve will remain solidly closed until almost all the pressure is removed from behind it. When it starts to open, the air will slam it open hard. This gives the valve the fast snap action needed to get the full power on the spud. It splits 2X6 boards with no problems. - Randy
These are some diaphragm modifications plans sent to us by Grant Dover.
	I wanted to let you in on a way of getting around using the quick exhaust. I couldn't find one around where I live so I made something that works well for me. I'm not good with technical terms so I will explain as best I can and include a drawing. I got a 1 inch piece of threaded pipe to connect the chamber to a T connector. At one end of the T I have a connector for a compressor hose (which is connected to the compressor) and the other end of the T I have a release valve for a compressor that I bought at the hardware store. they normally are on most compressors and are used to empty the tank (or as a safety relieve valve so the tank doesn't explode) they come in different sizes and psi rankings. 125 psi rated one works good. than I connected a piece of rope to the valve so I have something to pull on to fire. To work it all you do is hook up the compressor, fill the chamber but don't disconnect the compressor. When you want to fire all you do is pull the rope. To me it sounds better than having to disconnect the hose to fire. Attached is the drawing I made. - Brian.
The Spud Cannon has a 2in x 4ft barrel and a 4in x 16in blast chamber. The blast chamber can take up to 20 seconds of Right Guard spray and fires the spuds 600-650 yards away on a none windy day. Here are three pictures of the spud cannon. - Brad Humphrey
	I basically use butane for my fuel and a long nose lighter. I've had spuds go down the street, 500+ meters. The "Spud-zooka" is 4 piece construction. 1 barrel, one reducer, one chamber and 1 chamber end cap. Made from pvc and glued with pvc cement. The chamber is strengthened with 4 screws into the reducer. This thing packs a huge punch!