I shoot with only air in s. california

This forum is for new members to introduce themselves and tell us how they got started in water rocketry.
User avatar
dudevato
New Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 10:55 am

I shoot with only air in s. california

Post by dudevato »

I did have the water/air rockets as a kid. They were great fun! After seeing U Tube videos of Potatoe and pool ball bazookas, using hair spray to fire them with, I put together a PVC (plastic pipe) golfball bazooka using compressed air.

Originally the barrel was 4 feet with like 6 feet of 2" PVC used as the air chamber. I use 80 psi and a 1/4 turn ball valve. The golf ball shoots up untill you begin to loose site of it.

I then made up some pvc rockets, some 12" long that were capped, front and rear. At the center of the 'rear cap' I drilled a hole and inserted a 1/2" wood dowle, some 12" long. At the end if it I glued on 4 popsiscle stick 'fins'

It fit just a bit loose inside the barrel, so I wrapped the 'front cap' like 2 or 3 times with electrical tape to seal in the presure,

I've increased the length of the barrel a few times and the air charge capacity kept getting larger and larger.

At some point I shot a measured distance of 1,220 feet, using a 45* launch angle.

I then modified the gun again to its present form. It now has a 20 foot barrel fed from an air chamber of 50 feet of 2" PVC pipe/T's & elbows.

At this point I'm going to see how far it goes 'downrange' I'm sure thinking 'an easy 1/4 mile.

Soon I'll be checking out 'straight up shots'

This is where I'll be asking and learning from you members about parachute fabrication and deployment.

This is going to be a pretty cool hobby to learn from.
'in the desert, 70 miles north of Los Angeles
User avatar
U.S. Water Rockets1
WRA2 Member
WRA2 Member
Posts: 1778
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:24 pm

Re: I shoot with only air in s. california

Post by U.S. Water Rockets1 »

dudevato wrote:I did have the water/air rockets as a kid. They were great fun! After seeing U Tube videos of Potatoe and pool ball bazookas, using hair spray to fire them with, I put together a PVC (plastic pipe) golfball bazooka using compressed air.

Originally the barrel was 4 feet with like 6 feet of 2" PVC used as the air chamber. I use 80 psi and a 1/4 turn ball valve. The golf ball shoots up untill you begin to loose site of it.

I then made up some pvc rockets, some 12" long that were capped, front and rear. At the center of the 'rear cap' I drilled a hole and inserted a 1/2" wood dowle, some 12" long. At the end if it I glued on 4 popsiscle stick 'fins'

It fit just a bit loose inside the barrel, so I wrapped the 'front cap' like 2 or 3 times with electrical tape to seal in the presure,

I've increased the length of the barrel a few times and the air charge capacity kept getting larger and larger.

At some point I shot a measured distance of 1,220 feet, using a 45* launch angle.

I then modified the gun again to its present form. It now has a 20 foot barrel fed from an air chamber of 50 feet of 2" PVC pipe/T's & elbows.

At this point I'm going to see how far it goes 'downrange' I'm sure thinking 'an easy 1/4 mile.

Soon I'll be checking out 'straight up shots'

This is where I'll be asking and learning from you members about parachute fabrication and deployment.

This is going to be a pretty cool hobby to learn from.
'in the desert, 70 miles north of Los Angeles

That's amazing! That long barrel should be awesome to build the velocity. Have you ever thought of building a "Pumpkin Chunkin'" launcher? That contest looks really interesting!
Team U.S. Water Rockets
Visit USWaterRockets.com
Visit our Blog
Tune in to our YouTube Channel
Visit our Facebook page
Visit our Twitter Page
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. --Thomas Edison