Quote:
Originally Posted by SSMike
I'm sorry that I don't have any suggestions for pneumatics so I thought that I'd provide an alternative.
Well, I personally never built a t-shirt cannon with pneumatics but for an engineering class, I built an air cannon that could launch a nerf football through a goalpost. I felt that it was rather easier than pneumatics
imo. All I used was PVC piping, and a control valve (also PVC). We ended up launching the ball about 40 feet when the pressure was up to 30 psi, so it worked pretty well, and I'm sure would make a fine t-shirt launcher. If you decide to do this MAKE SURE YOU USE PRESSURE RATED PVC! I can not stress this point enough. If you want pictures or more detailed instuctions, just let me know.
Hope this helps.
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How about not just PVC at all!!! It has been stressed many times on different threads; PVC is not meant to hold air at any pressure above the atmosphere pressure.
We used an empty freon tank for our air tank, put two compressors to charge it, and we can safely handle up to 120PSI. We are using a 24V sprinkler valve from Lowes. These will not switch with 12V, as you probably figured out already, but what we did is hooked up a relay to a spike that switches on 3 9V batteries (27V). The 3 extra volts does not hurt the valve, especially for the duration that we use it. We used flexible hose to transfer the air... it kind of looks like a sewage line for an RV, but we also bought it from Lowes.
As for a sensor, I believe they supplied one in the kit before my time (2004 maybe?) that was manufactured by Texas Instruments.
Also, like I said before, there are other threads, not just on the safety issue of using PVC, but there are many, many threads on T-Shirt shooters. Just use the search feature.
Here is a link to ours:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...-shirt+shooter
As you can see, the first version had a PVC tank, and after 2 years, we deemed it unsafe and I rebuilt it last summer in our 95 degree plus summer temperatures in our garage.
I also just noticed the pictures aren't working later on in the thread. I'm about to go look into it, so hopefully I can get it working.