So our team wants to make a tshirt launcher out of this years robot to promote robotics at our school. We are a rookie team so we are new to all of this. Any general information, ideas, supplies or steps to help us out in the process are very appreciated!
-6398
No PVC. Period.
What would you use instead?
Metal.
Oh gosh - now you’ve done it. Whatever you do, don’t mention the letters PVC
Prepare yourself to be educated on how air pressure behaves differently than water pressure. Momentum and mass, you know. How could you subject children to such danger, etc.
I too made this same mistake once.
Mind you, the critics will made valid points, and so I just gave up on the idea.
I still have a personal PVC potato shooter, but I’m careful to not use it in cold temps, when PVC can get brittle. Still, I might make a t-shirt cannon yet with PVC and sprinkler valves one day and enclose it in a blast-proof container.
Seriously, though, search and you will find many threads here.
My team wants to build one this summer.
I would rather see them build a wheel shooting tee shirt launcher.
Has anyone done this?
Dave
Team 254 built a t shirt cannon called shockwave, if any of their members want to enlighten me regarding it feel free.
https://www.team254.com/shockwave/
This has all the specs, and if you want a breakdown read the Build Blog. Truly interesting stuff. Really shows how smart everyone over on the Poofs are
So complicated rigs aside, what are some easier ideas and such that could be more practical for a team with much less experience with pneumatics?
Yes; 4451 made a wheeled shooter with a rotating barrel, then stuffed it all in a VW bus shell for show. The result was safe enough to operate at the 2016 Palmetto Regional; as you can imagine, anything T-shirt cannon that wants to operate at an official FIRST event has a relatively high bar to clear. Try reaching out to them and I’m sure they’ll be happy to share more details than I have off their Twitter.
Get yr self a scuba tank.
Slingshot?
A human arm can throw a shirt pretty far, so id assume a catapault might be a viable option. It would be a lot easier to do than shooting with air. I went through that whole ordeal and it was quite a pain, I would not reccomend that a rookie team attempt to control scuba tanks.
Try making a catapault, or a slingshot, or a wheeled shooter.
Thanks Billfred!
Dave