idears

[weasel]

Hey everybody once a year we have a fun day at work we all bring whutever guns we want and shoot each others guns. this year we added a contest most creative most accurate and longest distance tater gun the onliest restriction is ya have to use ether as propellant well i happen to have a spare lock, flint o course. I know somebody out there will know ifn it will ignite ether and if ya have any recomendations i'm going for accuracy more than anythin I suspect Zonie and Musketman will hop rite on this'n
weasel /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

 

[Zonie]

Wal............ETHER it Will or it Wont. BooooHar har har har...

I couldn't let ole Mooskeetman beat me to that one!!!

I know ether is very combustible but I'm not sure how you could get enough of it to stay in the pan to light it off with a few sparks.
Ether is heaver than air so if the "pan" didn't have any major leaks around the bottom and where it comes up aginst the barrel, and if there wasn't any breeze to blow the ether out of the "pan" before the sparks got there, it might work.
If using a real prime in the pan isn't cheating and the touch hole was kinda large (like a 1/4 dia???) I'm sure it would fire.

 

Weasel, walk over to the camping section in Cabelas and buy a Coleman lantern igniter (you get a discount, don't you?).

You can tight-fit one of those through the PVC tubing for a tater cannon and still have a close enough seal to contain the ether.

Resist the temptation to toss a handful of FFg in there to help things along. If the smell doesn't give you away, the slivers of PVC definitely will. ::

 

[musketman]

I couldn't let ole Mooskeetman beat me to that one!!!

I got to sleep sometime... ::

Ether should work, after all, the spark plugs for the car's engine is like a flint hitting a frizzen, so to speak...

Take the lock and spray the pan with a mist of ether (don't soak it), close the frizzen, cock and fire the lock...

Did the lock ignite the ether? (if you burnt your fingers, you used too much ether)

Once the patched spud is in the tube, spray the ether through the touch hole. I suspect that the ether will leech back out through the touch hole because of the compression and volume of the gassious charge...

This leeching will fill the priming pan with ether vapors and the "WEAPON" should fire...

If not, add some FFFFg to the pan ot a tuff of 0000 steel wool, to aid the spark.

"Wait a second, shouldn't you guys be working?"

You can use raisins as grape-shot... ::
If you used this to hunt wrabbits, would it be the ETHER BUNNY gun? ::

 

[Bent Twig]

Weasel, I've used the Coleman lantern striker with ether and hair spray as the propellant. Accuracy suffers in that you have to twist the striker to get it to spark and it will get gummy from 'tater juice. Your flint and lock should work but you may get some unwanted gas vent from the touch hole. Guess it depends on how ya set it up.I used a grill ignitor in a separate 3/4 inch tube mounted parallel to the rear chamber. Close as I could get to a trigger. Accuracy is w/i 1 foot at 20 yds. with 1 1/2" bore. Range is about 100 yds. I use schedule 40 ABS pipe instead of PVC. Its much tougher, costs just a little more and dosen't weaken from sun exposure as does PVC. Some of the Spud cannon web sites discuss rifling the barrel which may be an option if you're looking for accuracy. At 10 yds. a tin foil wad and a handful of pinto beans or 'tater cubes will splat anything you point it at.