Homemade Gauss Gun

This gauss gun is powered by a 660v, 670μf capacitor bank. The capacitor bank consists of 22 capacitors that came from disposable cameras. The coil was made from 14gage wire, 102 turns total, 6 layers, and 17 turns on each layer. I calculated the inductance of the coil to be about 196µH. I cut a piece of nail for the projectile and the barrel is a straw. The projectile weighs 4.18g and is 3cm long. There is 1mm between the inside of the coil and the outside of the projectile. I used 6 diodes (three parallel sets of two diodes in series, total surge rating of 1000v, 900amps) in anti-parallel with the capacitor bank, to protect the capacitors from reverse charging. During the firings, I killed four diodes and welded open two switches. The switch that I am using now welds shut every now and then, but because of the switch design, you can break the weld by forcing the switch into the off position.
I calculated the velocity of the projectile to be about 25m/sec. To do this, I shot the gauss gun at a piece of cardboard 5.5m away. Using the hole in the cardboard, I calculated the drop of the projectile, and then the velocity. The gun will make holes in soda cans. One of my friends wanted me to shoot the gauss gun at him to see what it would do. I decided it would be better to shoot it at a thawed chicken instead (:

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• gauss
• gun
• coil
• homemade
• diy
• powerful
• cool
• real
• electromagnetic
• launcher
• diodes
• wire
• high
• capacitors
• voltage
• current

[realyoyoweb]

And the charge circuit ? does it come from a disposable camera too ? or have you made it yourself with a voltage transformer who comes from pc power supply unit or something like that ?

[cMasterCreations]

The charging circuit comes from the disposable camera too. Which is nice becuase it charges the capacitors up and then indicates when they are fully charged with a light. Its the same process as when you charge the flash on a camera and the little light comes on when the flash is charged.

[realyoyoweb]

so, your charge circuit must charge the capacitor at 280 V, like mine

[realyoyoweb]

by putting capacitor in series you increase the limite voltage who they can accepte. but the voltage transformer is always the same, so in real your system is working with 280V. you should put all of them in parallel, in this way you could got 330v(max voltage) and 1340µF (twice more powerful)

[cMasterCreations]

I used two charging circuits. I charged 11 capacitors that were in parallel with one circuit and then other 11 with the other circuit. These two banks of 11 capacitors were then connected in series.

[cMasterCreations]

Yes, one of the circuits would charge the capacitors to somewhere around 280v. I usually was able to get a little higher voltage then that. Only once did they charge to 280v, most of the of the time they charged to over 285v for me. 300v wasn't uncommon. Once it charged up to 320v. I did this for a science fair project so I recorded the voltages on every firing and still have those numbers.

[Paganavatar]

poor frozen chicken......:D

[misterchief47]

break it down. What does anti mean and eat does parallel mean?

[Tequilla449]

How old was you when you built this?

[deathlyemo123]

Unfortunately, It's not like the halo gauss cannon, which is way more power (and visible).

[bazengao]

are the capacitor in line or parallel?

[1Immortalman]

how and how long does it charge&

[JohnMinigun]

Did you put it back to Fridge ? : )

[smokescreenninjato]

wtf is anti parallel

[RomanNumural9]

0:22 CocaCola Zero buy it now

[skeebert]

you should mount this to a real rifle stock, mod it to fit, and make a longer barrel out of steel brake lines or something. then make your own sharpened projectiles.

[jacker372]

i think thats actually a coilgun not a gauss gun