PowerLabs Railgun 3: 100KJ + Railgun Shots with metal armatures.

[wolfy9005]

MOAR POWER!

Is this still using compressed air to give the projectile a push at the start?

[kgbean]

My inner geek is tingling. But it seems like a lot of trouble for the equivalent of a $.25 .22 caliber bullet.

[Nuclear124]

@kgbean .22 caliber hollow point pistol round: 1237 fps muzzle velocity;

a similar railgun of similar power: Unknown: "I've been running into this problem since I started the 'Railgun' project: you see, my chronograph is only rated to 5000 feet per second."

[Kizmox]

Railgun.. more like failgun. You made hole through rotten plywood with 100kJ?

Even my 16kJ electrolytic capacitor powered ETG put 8mm projectile through 4mm steel plate and it wasnt performing that well..

[Powerlabs]

@Kizmox Oh, failgun? How cute! Your mom must be really proud of your "16kJ electrolytic capacitor powered ETG" ;) Good job!

[AnselmoFanZero]

@Kizmox

People like you make youtube annoying.

[wolfy9005]

@Kizmox A .22LR will put a hole through 4mm of steel plate, what is your point?

[Kizmox]

@wolfy9005

.22lr is illegal to own without lisence and its not powered by electricity ;)

[wolfy9005]

@Kizmox Licence is cheap, gun is cheap, ammo is very cheap, Excellent out to 100m, gravity rapes it beyond that, etc.

[ervali9]

whats the song?

[scarabmasta]

What material did you make the outside of the railgun with?

[hydrogenman15]

I saw you on the science channel firing this a while back. How did the copper rails holding up? How is the project going?

[marmaladekamikaze]

Bring back the Microwave gun!

[Keys1988]

Nice job first of all. But I have a question about he oscciloscope part. I see channel A and B showing ~10 V and ~10kV. How does this correspond to the ~10^6 amps? I don't assume the resistance being so low, or am i wrong?

cheers

[Powerlabs]

@Keys1988 Good question! Channel B is reading a Fluke 80K-40 voltage divider and reads in kV. Channel B is reading the voltage across a massive current shunt from an electric train. That shunt is calibrated (by the manufacturer) to read 0.5 volts for every kiloamp, so 80V = 1.6MA (on the 80kJ shot). There is a picture of the shunt at 0.15 . It is labelled and looks like a busbar.

[FallingDownElevators]

imagine standing in front of that

[DjHacker93]

what's the name of the song??

[100redeye]

how long did it take to charge?

[Powerlabs]

@100redeye The charger is constant current and puts out 3000Watts, so a 100kJ charge would take 33 seconds approximately.

[mewrox99]

You do some cool stuff. Especially the chemlab

I donated $1 on your site

[Powerlabs]

@mewrox99 Thanks buddy!

[ConsiderItDone1993]

I am making a Rail Gun for science fairs and i want to experiment with different metals to see how the resistance of different metals affects the projectile speed. Is there any sources you would recommend for construction and the like for the rail gun? Any valid help would be appreciated.

[shocks007]

How accurate is this thing? And what is the projectile velocity and mass? Thanks.

[PhxSt0rmz]

Nice job. Maxwell caps make very nice discharge capacitors besides their weight. I'm sure that thing is very loud when you blast off 2 million amps. Any damage down to the inside of the barrel with that much current?

[coolliger]

Not being sarcastic, but what is this good for besides looking cool?

[Powerlabs]

If you have to ask, you probably wouldn't understand.

[AnselmoFanZero]

@coolliger

Dude...switch stupid for sarcastic.

Conventional guns have limits...EM guns almost none...

[coolliger]

@AnselmoFanZero

This is one of the dumbest comments I have ever read. Congratulations

[AnselmoFanZero]

@coolliger

Thats the best answer you found within the last day. Genius...

[Zappyguy111]

Two words pop into my head:

BOOM HEADSHOT

[coilgunman]

sorry but how many cost one cap of these

tanks

[Powerlabs]

@coilgunman A lot... I've never bought them new but last time I looked it was around $9000 each, plus the freight, which isn't cheap with a 350lbs capacitor... The best way to get them is on the surplus market.

[Dalus01]

Most powerful private Railgun in the World?? Strange without any chronograph readings I wouldn't dare making such a statement. Your maximal energy would shred the gun to pieces with this crude construction. Though if your able to rebuild it with proper busbar switching etc It would sure make a chance of being the most powerful so far.

[JaycubL]

It looks like you aere losing enough energy at the switch to power an electrothermal gun! Could that sparking be reduced by using an oil-filled switch?

[Powerlabs]

Oh yeah, I am sure switching losses are huge. Unfortunately the amount of energy being switched is so huge, that if we try to put the switch under oil it would be like a bomb going off under water; the pressure would blow the casing apart.. I think we'll just have to live with those losses for the time being. The performance is still pretty impressive despite them!

[panzuman]

so is it really the worlds best non gov funded rail gun? if so thats really sick after i finnish my current stuff im gonna rebuild my old one

[Powerlabs]

I didn't say "best"... I think that depends on what you like, personally I think this setup is quite crude at the time. I said this is the most powerful non government funded gun in the world. That cap bank stores up to 300KJ, so I'm quite certain that is a true statement by a good margin ;)

[panzuman]

well from the reasearch ive been doing its the best on you tube so id say its *safe to say that its the best and for the time being i will say it is the best as well

[Pawlik4U]

really brilliant project, really shitty "music"

[Powerlabs]

Thanks a lot. The music is just a filler; looking at photos in mute gets kinda boring after a while.

[Pyrotronsgirl]

Nice job guys!

[IncoherentRussian]

What velocity was the projectile accelerated to?

[Powerlabs]

No Chronograph for these tests. Estimated 1000 - 2000m/s.