Ok, i know this isn't about comps, but anyway... I'm interested in building a simple rail gun as a summer thing... i know its a complex thing, but i've heard its achievable... I don't have a lot of experience with this stuff, but i do have a friends cousin at UCSD in engineering that is crazy enough to help... can any of you that can help go over some pitfalls to avoid, and if you'd like to direct me to a good source of info it'd be appreciated... (btw, would a car batter or two be enough electricity?) thanks
Rail Gun?
- Thread starter Sachmho
- Start date
After you're done, we can play a real game of Quake, gauss vs. rail 
http://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/magnets/gauss.html
http://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/magnets/gauss.html
I saw a rail gun being tested at a US army facility on TLC once. That thing had capacitors that took up space the size of a bedroom. The cannon was about 20 feet long and it fired a metal projectile around a foot long at 1500 m/s (or was it 5000m/s, I don't quite remember). Nevertheless, it required 20KILOWATTS of energy everytime it fired.
Forget rail guns, go for the badboy and build an EMP generator
Forget rail guns, go for the badboy and build an EMP generator
<< I saw a rail gun being tested at a US army facility on TLC once. That thing had capacitors that took up space the size of a bedroom. The cannon was about 20 feet long and it fired a metal projectile around a foot long at 1500 m/s (or was it 5000m/s, I don't quite remember). Nevertheless, it required 20KILOWATTS of energy everytime it fired. >>
Nah thats just a little baby, I have worked on bigger, we were out powering nuclear powerstations fo a couple of seconds. A capacitor bank 10metres high by about 15metres wide / 30 long is a sight.
<< Forget rail guns, go for the badboy and build an EMP generator >>
Not much use to be honest, since the early eighties shielding is good enough to pretty much make this pointless. Its a bit of a movie weapon i.e not much practical use, now thermobarics their is a real baby
<< Nah thats just a little baby, I have worked on bigger, we were out powering nuclear powerstations fo a couple of seconds. A capacitor bank 10metres high by about 15metres wide / 30 long is a sight. >>
Are you sure that is really a capacitor or something else
I think that nuclear power station wasn't generating enough power
I take the optic gun in EVA, that uses the entire japan's electricity for a few hours to charge up
Now that would be a gun
Sorry I wasnt clear it was a capacitor bank i.e multiple capacitors. It was 80mm calibre and fired at around 2200 - 2500 m/s
Evadman
Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
- Feb 18, 2001
- 30,990
- 5
- 81
Alright, here. My long awaited reply
Anyway, there are 2 types of railguns. One is where you have 2 long bus bars that a conducting piece of metal "slides" down. The magnetic fields in the bus bars and the magnetic field of the projectile interact to force the projectile out the barrel of the gun. This is the type that most people refer to as it scales well ( read: megawatts ) It is possable to shoot a projectile though over 20 feet of reinforced concrete with such a device. What basicly happens in this type of gun, is power flows from one bus bar ( which could be many many feet long ) across the projectile ( projectile must conduct or it will not work ) and then into the second bus bar. as the projectile moves down the bus bars it gains speed, while keeping in contact with both bus bars. If too much power is applied, or in the wrong way, the projectile will weld itself to the bus bars.
The second is the type I helped build. We built it in college for physics. Yes we were crazy. Imagine a solonid. A piece of metal is surounded by a wire wrap. This is what pulls down the lock in your car. The one in your car produces up to about 50 lbs of force while only pulling 3-4a @ 12v while being a little over an inch long. Now imagine one that is 10 feet long, pilling 90a @ 240v. Basicly, it was a long reinforcedplastic tube 1/4" in diameter. That tube is wrapped with a version of magnet wire. ( thin wire of 18-22 gauge. we used 18 ) The Magnet wire is wrapped from one end to the other around the pipe. Multiple singles are wound so that you end up with a parallel system. We found that a single raises the resistance past what we wanted it. We had "a large number" of passes, and ended up using over 15k feet of magnet wire. ( That crap is expensive too ). As for the power source, it was just 240v wall current. Well, not wall, it was right from the science labs transformer where the 480 was stepped down to 240.
We used a solonid and a momentary push button switch to trigger the device. Someone smarter than me set it up so that the windings would recieve current just when the waveform of the 240v crossed into + voltage on the AC side, and would automaticly shut off when it hit - voltage. Basicly the power was flowing for 3 tenths of a second. If we kept it powered ( which we did on accident twice ) the projectile would richoet back and forth inside the tube. On good shots we could pierce a red clay brick ( the same type used on your house ) or shatter a cinderblock. The shots were VERY repeatable, but we had to let the device cool or risk melting the tube the wire was wrapped around.
The projectile was a simple 16 penny casing nail. ( 3 1/2 " long )
Anyway, there are 2 types of railguns. One is where you have 2 long bus bars that a conducting piece of metal "slides" down. The magnetic fields in the bus bars and the magnetic field of the projectile interact to force the projectile out the barrel of the gun. This is the type that most people refer to as it scales well ( read: megawatts ) It is possable to shoot a projectile though over 20 feet of reinforced concrete with such a device. What basicly happens in this type of gun, is power flows from one bus bar ( which could be many many feet long ) across the projectile ( projectile must conduct or it will not work ) and then into the second bus bar. as the projectile moves down the bus bars it gains speed, while keeping in contact with both bus bars. If too much power is applied, or in the wrong way, the projectile will weld itself to the bus bars.
The second is the type I helped build. We built it in college for physics. Yes we were crazy. Imagine a solonid. A piece of metal is surounded by a wire wrap. This is what pulls down the lock in your car. The one in your car produces up to about 50 lbs of force while only pulling 3-4a @ 12v while being a little over an inch long. Now imagine one that is 10 feet long, pilling 90a @ 240v. Basicly, it was a long reinforcedplastic tube 1/4" in diameter. That tube is wrapped with a version of magnet wire. ( thin wire of 18-22 gauge. we used 18 ) The Magnet wire is wrapped from one end to the other around the pipe. Multiple singles are wound so that you end up with a parallel system. We found that a single raises the resistance past what we wanted it. We had "a large number" of passes, and ended up using over 15k feet of magnet wire. ( That crap is expensive too ). As for the power source, it was just 240v wall current. Well, not wall, it was right from the science labs transformer where the 480 was stepped down to 240.
We used a solonid and a momentary push button switch to trigger the device. Someone smarter than me set it up so that the windings would recieve current just when the waveform of the 240v crossed into + voltage on the AC side, and would automaticly shut off when it hit - voltage. Basicly the power was flowing for 3 tenths of a second. If we kept it powered ( which we did on accident twice ) the projectile would richoet back and forth inside the tube. On good shots we could pierce a red clay brick ( the same type used on your house ) or shatter a cinderblock. The shots were VERY repeatable, but we had to let the device cool or risk melting the tube the wire was wrapped around.
The projectile was a simple 16 penny casing nail. ( 3 1/2 " long )
Belegost
Golden Member
- Feb 20, 2001
- 1,807
- 19
- 81
I've seen it done on a small scale:
It was a small tube about a foot long, there were 4 small coils of enamelized wire wrapped around it seperated by a few inches, spread a bit further as you got to the ends of the barrel. In between was a each coil was a photo detector gate.
Each coil was connected to one large capacitor (I think they were the type used for photography flashes, about 330V at 1000uF) with a solid state relay and a diode in parallel to contain any back current. The capacitors were charged from a high voltage DC psu.
There was a switch that would connect the first coil. Then as the projectile continued down the tube it would trip the photo gates, each photo gate was connected to the relay for the next coil on the tube.
It used small nails placed in the vinyl drywall anchors (to keep the nail from wobbling in the tube) It could put holes through sheets of plywood.
I was thinking of doing it a bit larger, but replacing the photo gates with a timing circuit that would pulse the coils.
It was a small tube about a foot long, there were 4 small coils of enamelized wire wrapped around it seperated by a few inches, spread a bit further as you got to the ends of the barrel. In between was a each coil was a photo detector gate.
Each coil was connected to one large capacitor (I think they were the type used for photography flashes, about 330V at 1000uF) with a solid state relay and a diode in parallel to contain any back current. The capacitors were charged from a high voltage DC psu.
There was a switch that would connect the first coil. Then as the projectile continued down the tube it would trip the photo gates, each photo gate was connected to the relay for the next coil on the tube.
It used small nails placed in the vinyl drywall anchors (to keep the nail from wobbling in the tube) It could put holes through sheets of plywood.
I was thinking of doing it a bit larger, but replacing the photo gates with a timing circuit that would pulse the coils.
Lithium381
Lifer
- May 12, 2001
- 12,452
- 2
- 0
got any designs? sounds sweet, the first one, the two rail one is the one i'm refering too, or rather the one i'm familiar with......i just want to be able to have it fire a penny or a small case screw....nothing big.....just how much power would i need? Capacitors aren't that hard to come by, but i'm gussing i'd need a pretty high quality....how many and of what ratings would i need for this type of thing?
Lithium381
Lifer
- May 12, 2001
- 12,452
- 2
- 0
<< A penny would be possable, because of its shape, a case screw would not work. You need a wide flat object. >>
what about if i created a harness somehow, so i could launch a lot of different small objects....how much power do i need here guys? for that type of object..
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