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Registered Member #3637
Joined: Fri Jan 21 2011, 11:07PM
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 1068
Sure! It'll be a relatively small coilgun, and if it's your first, then that would probably be a good thing.
to wind a coil, you'll need relatively thick wire. I used 14 gauge, 12 gauge, 16 gauge wire would also work. Enameled wire is the best to use as the insulation adds unnecessary air gap between the coil and the projectile.
Find some smallish PVC pipe, around the size you want your projectile to be. Then just wind away!
Registered Member #1451
Joined: Wed Apr 23 2008, 03:48AM
Location: Boulder, Co
Posts: 661
At around 50J, I'd use whatever wire you have on hand. It doesn't need to handle thousands of amps so anything larger than say 22AWG should be fine. Also, pen tube things (the main body of ball point pens) work great for the barrel of a first coilgun. Thin walled and cheap (usually free!).
Registered Member #3926
Joined: Fri Jun 03 2011, 08:32PM
Location: UK.
Posts: 525
I'm using some wire I got from a large fan, I've used all of it, there's alot of turns, but I didn't keep count.
And it I found a copper pipe to use as a barrel, it's 0.45" inside diameter. I'm using a needle bearing I got form the fan, it's about grammes at 0.40" I used a small 160v 330uF cap to test, and when I fire it, using to bare wires touching them together it's not very good, but when I quickly tap them the projectile shots out, what can I use to stop it from not firing properly? a large switch?
Damn the copper has melted the wire, so I'm going to use plastic.
Registered Member #3888
Joined: Sun May 15 2011, 09:50PM
Location: Erie, PA
Posts: 649
a relay will work for a while to switch it. a copper barrel will rob a lot of the energy from the projectile because of the eddy currents induced in it. and if you have too many turns then your inductance may be too high resulting in a longer pulse length, which may be the reason why tapping the wires works better than prolonged contact. youll also want your barrel to have an inner diameter as close to the diameter of your projectile as possible (slightly larger to allow sliding of course) and have be thin walled so that the coils are as close to the projectile as possible.
Registered Member #4034
Joined: Thu Jul 28 2011, 10:41PM
Location: somewhere in the Southern hemisphere
Posts: 138
from my experiences with my first 60J coilgun, it'll go through a can but id say not cause anyone significant harm. still i'd be careful with the thing
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