Hybrid Kicker

[thefro526]

We've been playing with a similar kicker but we can't seem to get our piston to fire as quickly as yours does.

If I'm understanding your mechanism correctly, the retracts the kicker to the locking mechanism and then to shoot the piston is "Fired" and then allowed to charge before the locking mechanism is released? I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but it's something we've been struggling with...

[Matt H.]

Originally Posted by thefro526

We've been playing with a similar kicker but we can't seem to get our piston to fire as quickly as yours does.

If I'm understanding your mechanism correctly, the retracts the kicker to the locking mechanism and then to shoot the piston is "Fired" and then allowed to charge before the locking mechanism is released? I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but it's something we've been struggling with...

If you look at the design it's pretty clear that they are latching the kicker in a position where the cylinder is extended 3in. They charge the cylinder in this position making the energy stored in the compressed air immediately available (i.e. it doesn't need to pass through restrictive fittings etc.)

The latch is then released.

However I believe there are some very serious saftey issues coming into play here. Precharging a cylinder and using elastic bands to increase the kicker velocity puts the cylinder well outside its normal operating velocity. From other posts it appears that the cylinders will degrade and become dangers if piston is moving at speeds around 20 in/sec.

From the video I can't determine the velocity of the piston, but it appears to be moving extremely fast. Because a damaged cylinder could kill someone I highly recommend that you determine the piston velocity and if it is even 15in/sec reevaluate your kicker.

[MrForbes]

The safety precautions Matt suggests are very important, not only for this type of kicker, but any kicker that has a lot of final velocity (basically any kicker than can get the ball to fly downfield).

The part that contacts the ball will be moving very fast, it needs to be very solidly attached.

[Matt H.]

Also I believe this is the type of quick release which was discussed earlier.
http://www.defender.com/product2.jsp?path=-1|619045|619408|966099&id=195419

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Matt H.

If you look at the design it's pretty clear that they are latching the kicker in a position where the cylinder is extended 3in. They charge the cylinder in this position making the energy stored in the compressed air immediately available (i.e. it doesn't need to pass through restrictive fittings etc.)

The latch is then released.

However I believe there are some very serious saftey issues coming into play here. Precharging a cylinder and using elastic bands to increase the kicker velocity puts the cylinder well outside its normal operating velocity. From other posts it appears that the cylinders will degrade and become dangers if piston is moving at speeds around 20 in/sec.

From the video I can't determine the velocity of the piston, but it appears to be moving extremely fast. Because a damaged cylinder could kill someone I highly recommend that you determine the piston velocity and if it is even 15in/sec reevaluate your kicker.

Thanks for the explanation.

I'll have to look into the final velocity that our piston will travel at. I also saw some of the posts speaking of the dangers of having pistons move around 20in/sec...