For the last project of summer, I made a cannon. Not just any cannon... a Wiffle Ball Cannon! I got the idea from an article in Popular Science magazine.
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| From Popular Science. |
For this project we used a 10 foot long PVC pipe for the barrel and an elbow to connect a leaf blower to pressurize the system. One thing I didn't like about the original design was the use of duct tape to seal the tubing, so my dad took some measurements and 3D printed a part as a connector.
We held the printed adapter in place with bungee cords.
With the leaf bower running, when we drop a ball down the loading tube (see diagram below), it will go flying out of the barrel!
Unfortunately, when we first tried it out, the 3D printed part broke in two since the whole assembly weighed a whopping 30 pounds! Using duct tape has the advantage of making the joint air tight and flexible. We mounted the cannon on sawhorses so that it was at waist level, allowing us to fire the ball at a batter's strike zone.
Here we test fired some wiffle balls and a plastic soda bottle:
Another mod we made was a retaining pin to hold projectiles in place while the pressure builds up in the barrel. Now we have a machine gun!
We showed it to our neighbors during our Labor Day Weekend block party and they all liked it!
I hope you do, too!
