This ebay seller

[scorpion]

Has anyone bought from this guy and built any of his products.Ebay guy

[HBWW]

Geesh, I hope not... The designs here (general collection of water war websites and forums) are probably much better and no one's 'selling' them...

[Silence]

I actually don't care too much that somebody is selling a homemade. Super Soakers started out as homemade prototypes, and after all, one of the things we're looking for is power and innovation. And some people would just rather buy a homemade than buy a stock soaker or build a homemade.

What I don't like is the way he markets stuff. Selling the gun is one thing, but selling plans? I dunno...and let me quote:

Buy 3 sets of plans and get the fourth one free. Any combination!!

:laugh:

[Evangel]

I dunno... 500ft range is nothing to scoff at. >>;;

I've been looking for a grenade cannon with that kind of range. Maybe I should look into this.

[DX]

As stated before on SSC, 500ft is the average for a water balloon launcher. The greatest proven max is several hundred feet more, with an ordinary, inefficient ball valve as well. A modified solenoid with a good sabot = you get your 700, 800ft+ using significantly less pressure.

Also as I said at SSC, this Ebay seller doesn't include a disclaimer about overloading the barrel. You simply can't advocate the ability to shoot other objects without warning about what can happen when you attempt to shoot too much. Fill the barrel with water, pump it to 120 PSI, and watch either the barrel or pc [depending on your grip] rocket off. Launchers are generally quite safe to operate, but it is possible to do some very dumb things that wouldn't seem dumb if you don't know about the very dangerous effect.

I don't mind that he sells guns or even plans. He has very convincing auction text and can make a lot of money, which is good for him. All the prices are total rip-offs compared to actual building costs, however, and compared to the totally free advice and designs found in this community. Plus, our designs tend to have been proven in battle or inspired by battle experience. That's something good to have if you are "investing" in a pneumatic. I say "investing" because you don't need to spend $200+, you can match his ranges with a mere $20.

[Evangel]

I guess so. The major problem I see with store-bought "sling-shot" WBL's I've seen so far is that they need at least THREE people to operate: two to hold each end of the sling-shot (unless you find a brace of some kind which can be hard especially for me), and one more to load and fire. With these cannons, for those three people you can have three balloon cannons.

I guess I found the designs for that "douchenator" cannon. So I guess I won't need those plans anyway. Just one question: will grenades work with it? By grenades I mean those water balloons designed to look like grenades, with little square patterns etched into it. Since they have different texture, it could make a difference. Does it?



Edited By Evangel on 1178809425

[Silence]

Anything will work if you use an appropriate sabot, like a paper cup or a Pringles can.

[HBWW]

Well obviously he's not selling his guns at all (never said anything about that), but selling plans is just weird, especially when people can figure all that stuff out at the forums, through articles, etc.

[Evangel]

yeah, although when I think about it... I think grenade cannons might be a little dangerous against kids. It'd be cool as hell, but we plan on going up against a wide variety of age groups over the summer, and something like this can be too easily misused. I mean these actually fire anything, so what's to really stop someone for launching rocks or something out of them or just firing a round at someone's face at point-blank?

[forestfighter7]

Evangel Posted on: May 10 2007,17:09

The major problem I see with store-bought "sling-shot" WBL's I've seen so far is that they need at least THREE people to operate: two to hold each end of the sling-shot (unless you find a brace of some kind which can be hard especially for me), and one more to load and fire.

Well, not entirely. You get way more power doing it that way, but you can do it solo. You put the handels around your feet, lay down, put your feet in the air load and fire. It's not very practical seeing as you have to lay down, but the range is like 70 feet if you have long legs.

[Silence]

There are two real problems with the elastic water balloon launchers. First, their accuracy is terrible. Second, their range is terrible - you could throw a water balloon farther than 70 feet if you're good!

That said, the rate of fire, with three people, is better than it would be if you were to use a pneumatic launcher.

[DX]

70? You should be able to throw a water balloon over 120ft, and that's with just a decent arm.

Sling launchers can be more accurate than people give them credit for. A few summers ago, I had one with some friends. We wanted to hit this boat out in the harbor, probably a good 600ft out, and we did it in 3 tries [the failures landed pretty damn close too]. Compare that to when my friend volunteered to be a test subject for the Douchenator - we missed him 5 or 6 times from about 50ft. Accuracy depends on who's shooting.

[Leviathan]

Very well put DX.

Given: My WBL teams are trained and retrained, but my squads can launch a balloon well over 1000 feet with a reinforced launcher, and still hit the guy in the Methodist church parking lot wearing a red shirt carrying a XP 55. (No, that wasn't during a battle, Cory just happened to be getting on my nerves that day.)

The bottom line is that the perfect system of delivery for a wb depends on the person/people, the type of game being played, the terrain, and the distance to the target. Artillery commanders must be highly tactical.