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LAN_403

earth3

Sun Feb 27 2011, 07:48AM

Registered Member #3721 Joined: Sun Feb 27 2011, 04:43AM
Location:
Posts: 40

Hi guys im making a coil gun. any advice is welcome. i really need some advice on salvaging parts like capacitors and SCRs. I will upload my progress if i make any :D. And if any one has any ideas on making a better capacitor charger pls post back.(it shouldn't be much expensive also i'm a poor guy:-D)

Sulaiman

Sun Feb 27 2011, 09:28AM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140

Using the words 'Lethal' and 'Gun' together gives a bad impression !

Look around this forum for sources of materials; it's a well covered topic.

Barry

Sun Feb 27 2011, 03:09PM

Registered Member #90 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:44PM
Location: Seattle, Washington
Posts: 301

It's relatively easy to make a coilgun that works. It's rather difficult to build a coilgun that works really, really well.

Your first coilgun should be smaller to figure things out and get the hang of it. Don't invest much time in styling and compactness until you know that what you build will work.

Compare and buy capacitors by "price per joule." Get a calculator and compute this figure for any capacitor that you're considering to buy. Their energy storage depends on both voltage and capacitance: Energy (joules) = 1/2 C V^2

The capacitor voltage level isn't critical so look for capacitors with a voltage rating in the range of 100 to 500 volts. You can always connect them in various series or parallel arrangements to get whatever total voltage you want to use.

Check this for a few words about the energy budget.

The total stored energy (joules) must be at least 10j to get a small projectile to move at all. A nice total stored energy for your first coilgun should be about 100j to get some really fun results. A truly impressive coilgun with wildly dangerous behavior (in more ways than one!) will have 1,000j or more.

Does anyone know what's up with SCR prices on eBay lately? Five years ago I could get big stud SCRs for $5 each but now they're listed at $20 to $50 or more. Search eBay for "stud SCR" and you'll see what I mean. This is a disappointing turn of events.

Cheers, Barry
In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people rather angry and is generally considered to have been a bad move.

ZakWolf

Sun Feb 27 2011, 08:22PM

Registered Member #3114 Joined: Sat Aug 14 2010, 08:33AM
Location:
Posts: 608

How do you calculate what kind of SCR you need power wise, it's my understanding they can be well over there rated voltage/amps for a short burst.

aarpcard

Mon Feb 28 2011, 02:15AM

Registered Member #2848 Joined: Tue May 04 2010, 05:19AM
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Posts: 44

A gauss gun is not a coil gun. A gauss gun operates on a completely different principal and uses permanent magnets instead of a magnetic field produced by an electric field.

Look at these examples for a gauss gun.

guitarlord66

Mon Feb 28 2011, 02:45AM

Registered Member #1805 Joined: Sat Nov 08 2008, 06:29AM
Location:
Posts: 67

By stating you got the idea from Cysis, the gun in that game resembles a portable rail gun more than a coil gun.

Zero

Mon Feb 28 2011, 04:13PM

Registered Member #3588 Joined: Sat Jan 08 2011, 11:19AM
Location:
Posts: 36

Dude....please...dont say a Gauss Gun is made of magnets...youre making an ass of yourself.

I believe every Coil oder Railgun is a Gauss Weapon. Not sure why, because Gauss had nothing to do with weapons. Lorentz Gun would fit...

aarpcard

Tue Mar 01 2011, 01:21AM

Registered Member #2848 Joined: Tue May 04 2010, 05:19AM
Location:
Posts: 44

If I don't know what I'm talking about, then you definitely don't know what you're talking about. 'I believe every Coil oder Railgun is a Gauss Weapon.' And then you say you don't know why you think that.

Lunacy.

A Gauss gun/rifle does NOT operate on the same principles of a coil gun or a rail gun. Since you apparently know very little about how they DO work, take a look at the videos I posted to familiarize yourself with the concept.

A gauss gun uses a magnetic chain reaction to launch a ferromagnetic projectile at a high rate of speed. The most common ones use very powerful permanent neodymium magnets to produce the chain reaction. Look at the simple gauss gun made in the the following link.

Coil Guns and Rail Guns use like you obviously must know use huge electric currents which induce a magnetic field onto a projectile accelerating it. BIG difference.

The Gauss gun used in Crysis operates on the same principals used in the guns I linked to. Before you continue to embarrass yourself, you should do some proper research when commenting on things you obviously don't know much about.

StridAst

Tue Mar 01 2011, 05:03AM

Registered Member #3623 Joined: Sun Jan 16 2011, 10:13PM
Location: Utah, USA
Posts: 11

I am pretty certain ANY gun that operates using magnetic force to accelerate the projectile can be called a gauss gun. regardless of electromagnets or permanent magnets. If you google the term "gauss gun" you find plenty of coilguns and plenty of your permanent magnet style accelerators. (wikipedia redirects straight to coilgun") Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (whom the concept is named after) worked out the math for magnetic acceleration, however the mathematician hardly built magnetic weapons. People simply use his name to apply to a wide range of magnetic systems. This includes coilguns, and or magnetic chain reactions like you are showing. I am quite certain you could refer to any magnetic gun as a gauss gun with equal legitimacy. However, don't take my word for it, do your own research yourself.

klugesmith

Fri Mar 04 2011, 01:05AM

Registered Member #2099 Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1716

Yeah, what Strid said.
Reminds me of a recent article in newspaper Cars section, where the writer used "Hybrid" to refer to what we might call a crossover physical configuration, for example intermediate between a sedan and a SUV.
A narrow-minded person wrote in protest, saying the word "hybrid" meant a vehicle with a gasoline/electric propulsion system. Since when does an emerging popular interpretation invalidate the traditional and broad meaning of a word?

[edit] aarp's link

claims to show a Gauss Rifle, though it has no rifling.

[edit again] My Google search for Gauss Gun just returned, at the top of the list, a Wikipedia page about coilguns. Not that that implies validity of the link!

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