Spudguns
Before I continue, I must warn readers that these devices are not toys, but are guns -- deadly weapons. Be sure to take safety precautions, aim away from people, buildings, or objects of value. While in most places these are legal, the law will consider them to be weapons if used as weapons.

Every man needs a project to devote his skills to. For some this involves working on cars, some indulge largely in the world of computers, some collect guns, and some make guns.

I have found that I enjoy spending hours crafting a precision spud launching device, which at the spin of a knob sparks a chemical reaction resulting in the acceleration of a small projectile to a mortal speed, which can exceed 550 feet/second. (Or so I've heard.)

I have built three different spudguns, and have done a fair bit of research about them.

The first spudgun I built was a 7 foot long Pneumatic Potato Canon. This puppy uses 100lbs of compressed air to launch any payload unfortunate enough to fit into its 1.5inch diameter barell. I don't have a good measure of its shotting distance, but I will say that it is far.

The second spudgun was a very small gun made from a large medicine bottle and large straw. Powered by hairspray. This gun however, was a failure, since a blast easily shot the cap off, right in to the users chest. (Along with a nice fireball!) This flaw is due to the fact that medicine bottles have few threads to hold the cap on.

The third spudgun is my favorite due to it's portability and price. This gun is a bit more than a foot, and cost less than $15 to build. It is made from PVC, ABS and uses hairspray as a propellant. For ignition, I used a Coleman lantern sparker, which works far better than an igniter of any other type. The sparker is also much cheaper at about $3.00.

Some of the ammunition I have tested (With the Pneumatic canon):

-Potatoes: Cut with a short, sharpened length of pipe, these make a cheap and reasonable bullet.

-Water: Try filling the barell with water and shooting, but make sure the seal at the diaphragm is good! This will make a cloud of spray.

-Dirt and Grass: Cheap and interesting. Doesn't fly too far, however this can be a great pusher for small objects in front of it. Just pack it in behind.

-Laurel leaves: They are useless on their own, but try wrapping them around a rock for max effect! -Snow: Never tried this due to climate restrictions, but it should be really cool.

-Ice: This stuff is awesome! It flies like a bullet, and shatters hard when it hits anything. However, it takes a lot of time and work to produce ice bullets. My method was to cut the bottom off of a 0.5 liter bottle of drinking water, line it with clay to the right thickness, coat the clay with vaseline, and freeze upside down. Then push it out from the top of the bottle. However, doing this a few times will stretch the clay out of form.

-Railroad spikes: I know, I am crazy. I shot these at our broken dishwasher. That was fun. Anyway, with these, you might have to grind the head down a bit to get them to fit.

-Apples: The small unripe green apples that litter our yard are great ammo. I prefer them over anything, and they fly very nicely. The harder they are, they better they fly.

-Apples with streamers: Try attaching a Teflon steamer to an apple, and shooting strait up. Just don't do this near an airport!

-Apples with parachutes: Army apples! make a chute out of some cotton, and attach it with fishing line. Aim strait up! Although, this might bother your neighbors when the go to mow the lawn.

-Paintballs: These fit almost perfectly into my mini-gun. Make a pusher out of wadded up paper, then put in a paintball or two.

I plan on getting some pictures this summer, and upload them on this page.