Spud gun plans

These are my plans for building a combustion chamber potato gun.  Potato guns can be dangerous but follow the plans and your potato gun should work as good as mine.  Remember you read about, build and shoot spud guns at your own risk!!!

Picture of spudgun!

Materials

For a successful potato gun you will need SCH 40 ABS or SCH 40 PVC:

• 18in. of 4in

• 36in of 2in SCH 40

• 1-4in to 2in reducer

• 1-4in cleanout with the cap

• 1-grill sparker for gas grills (can find in the grill section)

• 2-2ft. long 16gauge or smaller stranded wire (don’t need to get if the BBQ igniter came with it)

• 2-2in all thread machine screws

• ABS or PVC glue and primer (with color)

• Potatoes

• Hairspray (very flammable type)

• Duct tape

How to assemble

The Igniter

1.    Take your grill igniter and take the wire along the side of the going to the red button of the igniter and peal it back from the top to about halfway down on the wire.  Then tape around the wire closest to the igniter itself.  Then take the wire from the igniter and solder it to the foot long piece of wire.  And then tape around the solder so you don’t shock yourself.

2.    Take the grill igniter and at the bottom there should be a wire coming from the bottom.  Tape around the exposed metal and wire.

3.    Then tape all the way around the igniter so it looks like so

4.    Strip of the insulation about 3/4in back and solder those ends.

5.    Screw in the 2 screws about 2 inches apart going in at an angle so they make a ¼ inch gap.  Don’t screw the screws all the way in because you will attach the wires and don’t worry if they aren’t perfect because you can adjust them later with pliers to get the spark to happen every time.

6.    Take the wires and wrap the bare end around the screws so they go at least ¾ of the way around the screw.  Then screw the screws the rest of the way in.

7.    Do not spark the lighter until the glue has dried a full 24 hours and aired out.  Now you can spark the lighter and adjust the spark gap so it goes every time or 9 out of 10 times.

The launcher

1.    Make sure all fittings have no bad weld lines or possible large dislocations that may result in early failure. Remove all paper tags or labels by peeling, scraping with a pocket knife, to clean off the last adhesive. File off any sharp burrs that may hamper your ability to grip the fittings firmly when assembling.

2.    Dry fit all the fittings so you know they fit good.  If the pieces of pipe get stuck together just take a hammer knock around the fitting till it falls off.

3.    Take the primer and go on the outside of the pipe and on the inside of the fittings.  Then take the glue and put it on both the pipe and fittings and put the two pieces together.  It is okay if you don’t turn the pipe but try to turn the pipe a quarter turn.  Don’t glue the cleanout cap to the cleanout.

4.    Glue all the fittings together and then let it dry standing up on the cleanout.  Let the glue dry for a full 24 hours to let the glue fully harden.  Most accidents occur from early firing.

How to launch your spud gun