Ducati Monster Forum

http://www.rodenator.com/ (http://www.rodenator.com/)

 ;D

That's cool and all, but $2000?

Wouldn't be that hard to make one yourself.

Cool and kind of pricey..but who needs that when I have my mom's 15lb Pug.  They trained her to dig like a Dacshund going after a badger when she hears the word "fresh".  She's actually gotten several rodents!  If they say "old", she bypasses the hole.  I wouldn't have believed it until I saw her do it last week.   [laugh]    

i'm fairly certain i could make that for much less than $2000.


in fact...hehehehehehe

for 2000 you could get an expert

Caddyshack Compilation-Bill Murray (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-qGVCdVPY#normal)

A Ruger 10/22 is a lot cheaper

but that explosion and kill shot requires much more patience and skill.

Sitting out back sucking on some beers waiting for the gopher to pop up is an enjoyable afternoon in my book

it's a potato cannon.

the advantage of using this over traps or a gun is that it collapses the tunnels.  that's totally worth it.  but again, 

it's a potato cannon.

I made one several years ago. I think my Mom threw it away  >:(

Not sure I can afford the 12$ to build a new one...............

What happens if the burrow runs right around an underground gas line?

Cool idea though.


mitt

i don't think gas lines would be under fields.

however...no varmints for a LONG time is a distinct possibility  [laugh]

Humanator

(http://www.corribsos.com/uploads/Appomattox_USA_Explosion1_Sep2008.jpg)   [evil] [evil] [evil]

I doubt that mild explosion could rupture a buried gas line...

I agree, unless it was already leaking.

Anyhow, I love this thing

;D

Which isn't that uncommon

mitt

It shows it being used in small gardens too, not just open areas.

mitt

did i mention it is a potato cannon.

it uses a very small amount of gas.  the action is concussive, not flame. 

the gas is probably a low concentration and it might even not leave the device.  just create the explosion in the device (like a gun) and the gases create the concussion which vibrates the gopher hole like crazy.

thats one of the better B.L.E.V.E. pictures i have seen

I was surprised by this with my potato gun.......

I always used aquanet as my accelerant.

Then I thought WD-40 would be better.

WRONG.

pretty interesting

I've done quite a bit of experimentation with potato guns (I am from Nevada after all  [cheeky]). The best accelerant is ether (I think that's what it is anyway)...carburetor spray you get at auto parts stores. Aquanet is effective, but coats everything in nastiness over time.

yup and you get a nice buzz if you sniff it

ether is great for flushing out a squirrel nest.. flood it with ether and they pass out, then just light it and boom go the squirrel guts.

its all about the flash point

i have always wanted to build an air powered one that was portable.

the problem is pvc isn't rated for pressures that high.

I had some friends in high school that had a pneumatic one from PVC.

Needless to say, I never saw it being used as I knew PVC isn't rate for that.


These guys also used propane as an accelerant as well. No thanks, too unpredictiable.



To solve issues with aquanet........just keep a spray bottle of water to spray off the screw cap so it won't stick. Problem solved.

you can get pressure rated PVC pipe, schedule 80 i think..

about 1000 psi at 3" up to about 3000 psi at half inch.

this was on a college budget.

we also started figuring out how to shape the potato for the best aerodynamics.
we could put holes in plastic windows from 50 yds with the standard gun.

i blame all of this on the attempt at a supersonic potato by orange smoothie productions. (i still have their original mathcad files)  [laugh]

we also had a professor convinced to let us do it for one of our engineering classes. it never came about because we couldn't get a safe enough area with the barrel length we needed.  :(

The best was to put a potato in sideways, verse vertical.

You get a much better fit yielding better trajectory and distance.



god I loved that toy

we used potatoes that were slightly too large so they got sheared off on the sides resulting in a perfect fit in the barrel.

that is the way.  you can make a tamp with a mallet or small bat, just cut off the end.

good times, good times...

I used an old broom handle as my ram rod.

I had a piece of tape that marked exactly how far to push in the potato, so it was right above chamber


I also experimented with wadding. Used newspaper. It actually worked pretty well.

+1 to all of the above.

I built a few back in the day, and I always chamfered the ID of the barrel

Like .25 x 30* or 45* and that *forced* the potato to make a good seal.

The best gun I ever built had an adapter on the cleanout that would allow me to unscrew the barrel, and swap on a barrel of a different size or length.

The police own that one now  :'(

Half a frozen corn cob, thawed just enough so that the core was still frozen. . .

best ammo ever.

[evil]

Also, I have 1/2 pvc water line in my garage in place for my air compressor.  Everyone told me it would burst and I would die with pvc chunks sticking out of my neck.  The pipe says 600psi on the side.

I don't think the joints will hold that, but it's been in service for 4 years at 110 psi

;D

Nahh..

the best accelerant is about a prescription bottle of black powder. as you can see in this pic we tried carb cleaner.

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r141/acalles1/spudgun.jpg)
 [evil] [evil] [evil] [evil] [evil]

I never found the potatoes after a black powder shot.. but the cops would circle right after firing.  we'd get 300 yards easy with carb cleaner though.

besides. for rodents the (http://www.varmintal.com/17hmr.jpg) works best.  ;D

you make the beast with two backsers made a potato howitzer???

that's GREAT...!!!!!   [bow_down] [bow_down] [bow_down]

We rapped a D battery in paper towels then duct tape, which would knock roof shingles off no problem.

I wonder if you could make a smaller one, trench coat sized. Most of ours had 5ft+ barrels.

Do you mean wrapped? ???

 [evil]

1/4" think fence pipe, rabbit rear axle. end is capped off with a rear wheel hub (abut 3/8" thick) rabbit spare tire jack to adjust elevation, front rests on a empty mini keg (which was full when we started the project) then we ran a old hone down the pipe to smooth it out.

thats actually a older pic. its got a old cast iron fire extinguisher welded to the end now. we found the more chamber volume with less volitile fuel (like aqua net) we got way better results. using the black powder was kinda scary (it would roll back about 8" when fired)

Yeah, that and you used an old fence post as the barrel. :P

It's thick enough, and way safer then the PVC potato guns.

the potato came out so easy I doubt it built up too much pressure and most of it was a boom and puff of smoke. It would get some serious distance though..

we briefly considered gun cotton or oxyacetylene, but decided either would be a really bad idea  [laugh]

we really wanted a sonic crack from a potato but never got one..

maybe some day I'll go back over it and try a different system to fire it with, and a longer barrel that'll probably help get some more velocity.

One of my instructors for Porsche builds cannons as a hobby.  He is currently building one using one of the barrels out of an A-10.   [evil]

hehehehehehehehehehe  [evil]

awesome.

and a bit more exotic then anything I had laying behind the shop. [laugh]

yes, we wrapped the battery, but we were rapping in the process of it. ???

This is key.  ;)