Building my own

Guides and discussions about building water blasters and other water warfare devices such as water balloon launchers.
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RCAnderson
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Building my own

Post by RCAnderson » Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:00 pm

Well I'm wanting to have a go at building my own gun as the value on my XXp275 isn't working too well anymore, but i don't know where the best place if to buy the supplies. Does anyone know of a shop (online preferably) in the UK that sells the sort of things I would need? The plumbing parts (valves, pipes and similar) I can get easily enough, but things like the Latex rubber tubing that guides that i have read recommend using, I have no idea where to get them from, or are there better/easier to find replacements? Also any other recommendations or advice would be appreciated. I will probably be building it inside the case of a cheap water gun that i have lying around the house, it looks quite like the CPS 1500 (i'm pretty sure it is says CPSXXXX on the side, I'll check next time I can), but I think it's fake because it performs very poorly, and just uses a pressurised screw in reservoir, and also doesn't have the nozzle adjuster at the front.

I haven't really decided on how this is going to work, and it will mainly end up as a "make it up as you go along" build, but I will probably be using som old water bladders as the main reservoir as it can then hold more water.

Thanks for any help
Richard

Silence
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Re: Building my own

Post by Silence » Mon Apr 20, 2009 3:43 pm

This thread at Super Soaker Central might help. We've also pointed people to the the relevant forum at UKSGC, but that's mostly for general plumbing hardware, and not LRT in particular.

RCAnderson
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Re: Building my own

Post by RCAnderson » Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:17 pm

Thanks for the link, I'll take a look at that. Also, is a CPS system far superior to air pressure, or is there not a lot of difference?

Thanks

marauder
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Re: Building my own

Post by marauder » Wed Apr 22, 2009 7:21 pm

CPS System is far superior to a simple air pressure system. In all 12 major (10-40 people) water wars that I have fought in I have always used a CPS super soaker as my primary armament. CPS stands for constant pressure system meaning that the pressure exerted by the blaster on the water in the pressure chamber stays at maximum power a lot longer than a simple air pressure watergun would.
Aquanexus has a great explanation on this. Check out these two comparisons to see how they work:
http://ca.geocities.com/maddmaxstar/nex ... ps/cps.htm
http://ca.geocities.com/maddmaxstar/nex ... d/maxd.htm
CPS guns not only keep maximum power longer than air pressure waterguns but generally shoot further as well do to the amount of pressure being exerted on the water in the pressure chamber.

Good luck with your home made! I am going to build my second this summer.
https://hydrowar.wordpress.com/
SEAL wrote:If you ain't bloody and muddy by the end of the day, you went to a Nerf war.

SSCBen
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Re: Building my own

Post by SSCBen » Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:14 am

There are distinct differences between the different systems and air pressure can be perfectly acceptable. You can have "CPS air pressure" if you design the pressure chamber correctly. What you should choose depends primarily on what you want.

Rubber CPS made with latex tubing can be difficult to get good pressure; air pressure has no pressure limitations. Latex tubing typically has restrictive diameters that prevent very high water flow; air pressure has no such limitations. Latex tubing will wear out eventually if you don't restrict its expansion like manufactured water guns do; again, air pressure has no such restrictions.

The big disadvantage for air pressure is that the most common variety has a "drop off". The non-constant pressure means that your performance gets worse over the duration of the shot. Is this bad? Not necessarily. If you only take short bursts and then repump, this is perfectly acceptable.

In air pressure systems, if you use a piston to separate the air and water and then have a high air-water ratio, the pressure will drop less. Some quick experiments showed that rubber CPS has a drop-off of about 25% in pressure over the duration of the shot. An air pressure water gun with a 2.5:1 to 4:1 air-water ratio will have a similar drop-off rate. We call these systems limited pressure drop systems. Note that the math I did in that thread initially is incorrect.

What to use really depends on what you want. A page detailing the advantages and disadvantages of many systems would be a good idea.

RCAnderson
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Re: Building my own

Post by RCAnderson » Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:06 am

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I think I have decided that I'm just going to use air pressure mainly for the ease of getting the equipment needed. I have been thinking I could use the reservoir champers from other guns as pressure chambers, does anyone know if this would work? I have 2 of the same guns that use the reservoir for pressurising, I estimate they are approximately 1 1/2 - 2 litres in capacity each. However I am unsure on the pressure that these can withstand. Does anyone have any ideas to the usual pressure rating for gun reservoirs? Another option is to buy some sort of pressure chamber, but I'm unsure what would work well so i don't know where to start looking. Any ideas?

EDIT: Also, does anyone know of any pressure limitations in the law for the UK with water guns? e.g. will I have to add a pressure release valve to ensue it is within the limits?

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isoaker
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Re: Building my own

Post by isoaker » Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:55 pm

When it comes to building an air-pressure homemade, your best bet is to consult Super Soaker Central's Guide. As for using an old water blaster's PC for a homemade, in theory you can, but in practice, it's probably hard to be able to connect it securely to other tubing.

Of course, others are much more knowledgeable in this area than I. :goofy:

:cool:
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SSCBen
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Re: Building my own

Post by SSCBen » Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:21 am

The plastic pressure chambers from existing water guns are certainly not designed to hold more than 60 psi. I would not use them.

Soda bottles are a good start and are used on the page about building water guns in the UK in the guide iSoaker linked to. Use a bottle for carbonated beverages. Bottles for water and other non-pressurized drinks won't be made to hold pressure.

In the UK guns are limited to a certain amount of muzzle energy. I believe it's 1 foot-pound, but I'm not sure.

Muzzle energy is a nonsensical metric for water guns because it depends completely on the duration of the shot. So I'd consider water guns unregulated. I have never heard of any problems with homemade water guns in the UK.

If you want a more definitive answer, ask the people at the UKSGC (Silence posted a link in this thread).

RCAnderson
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Re: Building my own

Post by RCAnderson » Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:32 am

I saw the bit about soda bottles, however I'm not so keen on using them, as if the gun is dropped or knocked in transit, then the bottles could get bent and would then loose their strength. Also, they are so thin, I'm not sure how confident I would feel using them to hold 70+PSI upto 100PSI which I wouldn't be surprised if the gun gets that high.

And thanks about the pressure info, seems like it will be fine, but before I use it I'll squirt my hand with it or something, so I know how much it hurts :D

SSCBen
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Re: Building my own

Post by SSCBen » Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:41 pm

I don't really suggest soda bottles but they're better than nothing.

I've read of people using PVC pipe in the UK, so perhaps you should head over to the UKSGC and ask them about it. If I remember correctly, it is available online and hard to find in stores.

RCAnderson
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Re: Building my own

Post by RCAnderson » Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:08 pm

I have seen a few places online that sell pressure rated PVC pipes, but the 90-110mm pipe for the PC sell in 5m lengths minimum, and cost around £25-30 and each end cap, reducer etc cost about £10 again, so i'm looking at nearly £90 just for the pressure chambers.

I might have to get out the tyre pump and see what pressure several bottles will take so see if it is doable. Although I won't be able to do anything for another couple of months probably because I have exams which are unfortunately more important. I'm keeping a look around the internet and the house to see if I see anything else that might work as a PC, although I haven't had much luck with it yet.

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