pic: T-Shirt Cannon at Purdue's Homecoming

[jtdowney]

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[Nica F.]

Very awesome you guys! I really envy the Purdue FIRST Program because they are able to keep the same FIRST family-esque feel that you get when you first really get into the program.

It's also one of the reasons I applied to the school for this coming fall!
Hopefully I'll be able to be a part of it next year! *crosses fingers*

Great job, and keep up all the FIRST/Purdue spirit

[Taylor]

Boiler Up!
I wonder what Neil Armstrong thought about that.

[robostangs548]

Now, this just makes me want to make one even more!

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by boiler

Boiler Up!
I wonder what Neil Armstrong thought about that.

Hmm I'm not sure, but he did start the Shout song before the 4th quarter of the ensuing football game. Very awesome.

Just a little information on the T-shirt shooter - Has a 6 wheel drive base with some very hard plastic wheels so we can take it onto pretty much any terrain. We have a fairly large tank filled with CO2 which was connected to a 60 psi regulator. We're looking to upgrade to a regulator so we can up it to 120 psi. In the shot there, the tanks were filled to around 55 psi and we were still getting some decent distance, enough for a homecoming demonstration at least. Some future additions will be to make each shooter independent of one another, allowing each one to change angle individually.

Another great job done by some very dedicated Purdue FIRST members!

[Michael223]

Our mentors did an amazing job getting this operational for Homecoming! The crowd response really brought a lot of attention to our program. It was really nice to see the number of alumni involved with FIRST all around the country. We met one FLL mentor from Hunstville, Alabama.

Once both cannons are operational we will be able to give a Boiler Up!

[billbo911]

One thing we found to be quite helpful in getting the pressure tanks recharged quickly on our T-Shirt shooter was to only leave the firing valve open for only approx. .25 sec. This would only drain our tank by about 50%. Considering we used the KOP compressor to charge them, it made recharging WAY faster!
Now, if you have plenty of CO2, then it really doesn't matter how long you leave the valve open. We found that when we left the valve open for a full 1 sec, the sound our canon made was quite satisfyingly resonant. Almost like a big BUuUuURRRPP.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by billbo911

One thing we found to be quite helpful in getting the pressure tanks recharged quickly on our T-Shirt shooter was to only leave the firing valve open for only approx. .25 sec. This would only drain our tank by about 50%. Considering we used the KOP compressor to charge them, it made recharging WAY faster!
Now, if you have plenty of CO2, then it really doesn't matter how long you leave the valve open. We found that when we left the valve open for a full 1 sec, the sound our canon made was quite satisfyingly resonant. Almost like a big BUuUuURRRPP.

One thing we've noticed is that our regulator becomes 'frozen' from the CO2 after 4 or 5 t-shirts. Usually we just wait for it to thaw and then we're good to go again. The CO2 tank is massive, not sure how many shots we'll get but it will be quite a few.

[MrForbes]

looks good!

We discovered that it does not really take much air (or CO2) pressure to fire a T shirt. The trick seems to be having the right size of reservoir, and a very large valve to quickly dump it into the barrel. Also having the smallest size barrel possible helps.

30 psi in a 200 cubic inch (2 ft of 3" ABS) reservoir, going through a 1" gate valve into a 2-1/2" PVC barrel, seems to shoot a shirt as far as it needs to go.

[Jevin H]

Nice job

We are actually redoing our cannon right now

[alex1699]

are team is thinking of doing one of these is there any were good to go on the internet to find out how to make one.....and how much does it cost\