How to build a basic potato gun

The simple instructions

Not exactly to scale

Like so many other potato gun sites have, I'm not going to tell you EXACTLY what kind of materials to get to make a potato gun.  I will tell you though, what I have used, that will work for sure but really, just find the right sizes you want at your local hardware store.  If you know what needs to fit into what, then put the stupid thing together at the store!  I did.

All you need to do is:
1) Find the size end cap you want.
2) Find the same size adapter that fits into that end cap. (Both threaded of course.)
3) Find a short piece of PVC that fits into the adapter you found.  Or you can just take a big piece home and cut it down to the right size you want.  Then you can use the rest to make another one!
4) Find a reducer that fits into that PVC pipe and at the other end of the reducer, the size barrel you want to use fits into it. 
5) Make sure the barrel fits into the reducer!  Get it?  Good!

Other materials and tools you need:
1) A saw for cutting the pieces of PVC.
2) PVC glue.  Use the right stuff!  Very important! And remember to sand wherever you use this glue!
3) Electric drill.
4) Electrical tape
5) Epoxy or hot glue.
6) Solder and iron, if you solder the wires to the screws.
7) Wires, speaker or phone wire works fine.  Thinner the better, I think.

Instructions:
Now just take a look at the pictures I drew up at the top of the page and glue it together. Make sure you sand all the surfaces you glue together! If you don't this might happen to YOU!

What do I do with the BBQ ignitor??
This is what you need to do: Take the ignitor, do you see the metal tip on the very end of it? If you bought it new, you should have a little wire that came with it. It fits right onto that little metal tip on the end of the sparker. Now take some thin wire like speaker wire or maybe even tellephone wire (two single strands) and tape or solder one piece of that wire to the end of the other wire that is stuck onto the metal tip thing on the ignitor, to make the whole thing as long as you need it. If you look at the side of the ignitor you will see a small hole with a copper piece of metal flush with the side running up to the top where the red push-botton is. Now take the other piece of wire and tape and solder (make sure to use LOTS of tape because you can get shocked by it and then it will not fire) and stick it into the little hole so that it is touching that little copper strand inside it (just stick it in there and tape it down real good). So now you have two long pieces of wire hanging off this ignitor thing. If you put the two wires close to eachother and click the red button on top, it should give you a nice big spark. If for some reason you don't get a spark and the wire ends are very very close to eachother, you must have a bad connection somewhere or maybe the sparker is bad if you think you did everything right.
When you see that it works, this is what you need to do now. Screw two large screws (or if you only have nails, that's ok too) through the middle part of your chamber so that the screw ends are very close to eachother. Make sure you drill a small hole so that the screws fit snuggly and stay strong. Now tape, solder, glue, whatever, the two wires from the ignitor to the end of those screws on the outside of the chamber. Now you will see that when you click the sparker, a blue spark will jump between the two screws. You may have to tinker with how far apart the screws are from eachother to get the best possible spark. Once this is all done, you are ready to go! Just cram a potato down the barrel, spray about a second or two of hairspray into the chamber, screw the endcap on and click the button! Pow! You may have to experiment with how much hair spray you need to use because of the size of the gun. That should be about it!
Now how you make the trigger is simple.  Since you connected the BBQ ignitor with wires going to the nails, you can put it just about anywhere.  You could even do it from a distance!  I tried for myself (I didn't shoot anything, I just put the BBQ ignitor to a long piece of wire), but you could use about 5-6 feet of wire and still get a spark.  Probably not as strong as if it was shorter but it would still work probably.  Or you could make a handle with a hole in it like I did for the 01 and taF models.  And the easiest way yet is to do what we did with the 00 model and tatter tosser.  Just take some electrical or duck tape and tape the ignitor to the barrel wherever it feels right.  This gives you a real 'gun like' feeling and so that you don't rip the wires off by accident. That works great. 
If you still need help with the directions, e-mail me!

Click here for instructions on building a handle for your spud gun!

Click here for plans and measurements of a high powered combustion cannon.  WARNING!  Remember, The author accepts NO resposibility for the actions or results of the person or persons that read or choose to employ this information!!!.  Potato guns CAN be dangerous!  Please be carful!