Lab@Home Update: Pneumatic Airgun Goes Deadly

Posted by HELiX

I wandered around Lot 1 for quite sometime today, searching for materials to build an effective projectile. I didn’t know where to start with, but I realised that the only place you can possibly find materials is the HOMEFIX DIY store at the basement. There, I bought a new pump. It was exactly what I was looking for — operated by foot and has an air pressure guage.

Seems like each and every manually operated pump is rated at a max of 100 PSI. This is understandable, because bicycles require only 30-40 PSI and 100 PSI is waaaaay too high. Thus, although the airgun’s PVC material can withstand nearly 300 PSI, 100 PSI is the highest I can pump in. Besides, once above 40 PSI, it gets increasingly difficult to pump. I can’t imagine pumping above 100 PSI. No worries though, if one day I get silly enough to pump in above 100 PSI, there’s always my Dad’s car tire electric pump rated at 250 PSI. However, it’s extremely, extremely noisy.

I decided to try a metal rod projectile which makes it extremely, extremely deadly at high velocities. I found a rod lying around my house, and but the surface area obviously wouldn’t enable the compressed air to push it out of the airgun. So, I randomly found some rubber stoppers things for doors. My idea was to have the metal rod in a centre of some object that has a large surface area. The rubber stoppers came in different sizes, so it was ideal as I could get one that fit my airgun.

Sadly, despite being able to choose the size, I chose the wrong one =(

It. Just. Wouldn’t. Fit.

So I spent an hour or so sawing, cutting and filing the rubber things until they were are to fit the pipe.

Then I drilled a hole in the middle of each to fit the metal rod through.

And like a satay, it went straight through and was quite secured!

Yeah, it looked horrible, so I taped it up.

Then test fire!

I load the new projectile into my airgun. Pumped it up with my new air pump, and started off with 50 PSI first.

It was already well into the evening, but I went into my backyard anyway and stood about 3m away from the cardboard target.

The airgun shot the projectile very nicely, hitting the cardboard almost immediately at an extremely high velocity, caused quite a bit of damage before ricocheting off.

The projectile managed to pierce through two layers of cardboard, which I find, rather incredible already. Chances are, it is able to penetrate through human flesh as well. Of course, I can’t confirm that, sorry.

This is the front view of the entry point.

And the backview of two cardboards.

This is the thickness of the two cardboards.

Before I concluded for the day, I decided to film another shot.

Here’s it:

Of course, YouTube gets screwy and all, so I’ve uploaded a copy in my server.

Right click here and Save Target As. View on your computer for best quality.

There’s a slight recoil, very loud sound, and a hell lot of kinetic energy.

The loud was so loud that my neighbours came out and see. And they were like, “Oh, experiment ar? Hmm okaaay… Just don’t do anything explosive…” Meh. And I was thinking of doing the flame cannon over the next few days. Now, I gotta find a day when both my family and neighbours are out.

Anyways, at the end of it all, I tried to raise the PSI even higher, to about 70. However, as soon as I hit 60, evidently there was a hissing sound. I put my ear to the End Cap (quite stupid thing to do, if it blows up) and realised that the source is from there. With the valve cap on, the hissing sound is still there, so I concluded that it doesn’t have anything to do with the valve, but the sealing between the End Cap and the 2″ PVC pipe. Although I can’t feel any air leakage, the hissing sound is loud enough to prove so.

I spammed the whole area with glue, hoping that it might seep into the small gap and seal it up. Not too sure whether it works, but I’ll wait till tomorrow for the glue to settle in and test again. If there’s still air leakage…. I have a big problem then.

…

In another happy news, I went bowling today with XJ, Jim, KH, and Shaun at West Bowl. Suppose to allow me to pick up my bowling skills again, and it really did. However, the lane condition was really horrible so I couldn’t curl the ball. I was convinced to use straight ball, and so I did.

…Incredibly, I broke my personal record twice.

I got 155 at first, thought that was really good, and in the next game, I managed to pull off a 166. =D

Wheee.

Comments(0) 12:33 AM 1 January 2007

Lab@Home Update: Pneumatic Airgun Test Fire

Posted by HELiX

The full report’s up! Check it out here…

…

Extracted from the report…

I decided that, for aesthetic purposes, I gotta make the pipes parallel. I found a spare PVC pipe and sawed off a short length to make a bridge between the two pipes.

Then I taped them up…

And done! The airgun is completed!

I found two air pumps lying around the house. One’s a cheap bicycle pump with no meter, and the other, a car tire pump with the meter. The car tire pump, however, requires the power drawn from the car itself to do electronic pumping, so I decided to pump using the bicycle and check the pressure using the meter from the car tire pump.

Testings

For the 1st test, I used the most readily available projectile — wet tissue. Although I intend to reach 100 PSI, I started off at 45 PSI.

Some parallax reading there because of the position of the camera, but it reads about 45~50 PSI.

I set up a cardboard just outside my house as the target. The distance between the airgun and the cardboard is about 3m.

Because my accuracy is terrible, the wet tissue hit the corner and half of it ended up in my neighbour’s side.

As far as I have tested, the airgun works flawlessly so far. I’m right now in the process of making more projectiles, such as metal and wood ones that can afflict much more damage. Also, I gotta buy a new pump. The current hand-operated one is extremely, extremely tiring and difficult to pump beyond 40 PSI. I’m looking for a foot-pump with a pressure guage, so I’ll be sourcing around for that.

Comments(0) 7:12 PM 1 January 2007

Pirate Bay to Buy Sealand

Posted by HELiX

This is among the funniest news I’ve read in a long time…

…

A few days ago,

For sale - world’s smallest country

A FORMER World War II fort in the North Sea, which was settled 40 years ago and declared a state with its own self-proclaimed royal family, is up for sale.

The tiny Principality of Sealand, which began life as Roughs Tower in 1941, is a 550 sq m steel platform perched on two concrete towers 11km off the coast of Harwich, eastern England.

It is accessible only by helicopter and boat but according to its owners, who want offers of eight digits or over, boasts uninterrupted sea views, guarantees complete privacy and is a tax haven.

“We have owned the island for 40 years now and my father is 85,” Prince Michael of Sealand was quoted as saying by The Times today.

“Perhaps it is time for some rejuvenation. Astronomical figures have been mentioned but we will just see what comes forward.”

Although its nation status is disputed, Sealand boasts a military past like any other country, defending its sovereignty from outside threats.

Former British army major Paddy Roy Bates began occupying the island with his family in 1967, declared it a state in international waters and gave himself the title “prince”.

Britain’s navy attempted to evict him the following year but were unsuccessful. As they entered territorial waters, Roy of Sealand fired warning shots from the former fort.

A judge then ruled in his favour that Sealand was outside British government control as it was beyond the three-mile limit of the country’s waters.

In 1974, Roy of Sealand introduced a constitution. A flag, national anthem, currency - the gold and silver Sealand dollar which is the equivalent to the US dollar - and passports have followed suit.

Four years later, Dutch and German businessmen on Sealand to discuss a business deal kidnapped Roy’s son but were overpowered and held as prisoners of war before eventually being released.

…

And today, I came upon this:

[Just some additional info for those of you who don't know: Pirate Bay is a website hosting torrents of many illegal softwares, games, music, etc. www.thepiratebay.com]

Always one to stir up a bit of controversy, it looks like the Pirate Bay is making a move to buy its very own micro country, in an attempt to avoid the problems surrounding copyright law.

Its proposal is to raise funds through donations to come up with enough money to buy Sealand. Haven’t heard of Sealand? What rock have you been living under? The Principality of Sealand was founded in 1967 by a former Army Major. He took the title His Royal Highnesses Prince Roy and his wife became Princess Joan of Sealand. Sounds unbelievable but this is completely genuine.

The funniest thing about Sealand is that it’s only 500 metres long and is quite literally, a fort used by the Royal Navy during World War 2. The Pirate Bay, in a recent blog has claimed it would like to take control of the principality. The post says:

“ACFI is a group of people working for the peoples right to it’s Internets. We have made progress in Ladonia and are now working on the Micronation of Sealand.

Recently it was made clear that this country is for sale. To make sure the owners will be kopimistic and that the country won’t be governed by people that do not care about its future, we have come up with a plan.
With the help of all the kopimists on Internets, we want to buy Sealand. Donate money and you will become a citizien.

We’ve set up a forum to discuss how the country is supposed to function. It should be a great place for everybody, with high-speed Internets access, no copyright laws and vip accounts to The Pirate Bay.”

The idea has sparked debate over on the Buy Sealand forums, with many pirates’ imaginations going crazy. One enterprising young fellow pondered whether it would be possible to make every user a diplomat and thus make them immune to the laws of their residing country.

Others have, however, been sceptical about the whole situation. In this forum post a forumite called bigdog claims that Sealand wouldn’t work because it actually comes under the jurisdiction of Britain and that internet access would be a problem. The biggest problem we can see though is invasion, piss off the US and UK too much and you’ll have an army knocking on your door quicker than you can say: “Iraq”.

Comments(0) 1:53 PM 1 January 2007

IZECUBEZ.

Posted by HELiX

It’s not very often that you get to play with a top professional gamer in Singapore.

What’s better, you’re on the same team.

…And I have higher points-per-hour (PPH) throughout the game =X

Click to enlarge.

Ah, ok, fine. Explanation?

See that guy… FsK3.IZECUBEZ? He’s a top UT and Need for Speed player. He won 1st for NFS in WCG2006. ‘Nuff said.

Comments(0) 11:37 PM 1 January 2007

Major Update

Posted by HELiX

Yeeessss. Kok Hong, upon request, I did it.

The entire website just went through a rather significant update to version 1.2. I spent the entire afternoon finishing the About page, Photography page and added the tagboard to the Lab@Home page. Also, the Home page has been redesigned.

PEOPLE OF TEH UNIVERSE. SEE THAT AD BELOW? YES, THE FIREFOX ONE. WE ALL LOVE FIREFOX, DON’T WE? BUT BY CLICKING THAT AD, AND DOWNLOADING FIREFOX, I EARN A FEW CENTS. SO PLS. ONE CLICK PER PERSON. I’LL TREAT Y’ALL ONCE IT ACCUMULATES TO A FEW DOLLARS.

lol. =3

Comments(0) 9:58 PM 1 January 2007

Lab@Home: Pneumatic Airgun Completion

Posted by HELiX

With one component left, I decided to finish up the project today.

A big thank you to my Dad for buying the tire valve from the hardware shops behind my house. There wasn’t any car tire valves, so he settled for a motorcycle one. But I guess, there isn’t any difference.

I drilled a hole through the 2″ PVC End Cap…

Then fitted the tire valve through…

And finally, I glued everything together.

As you might have noticed, the pipes are bent inwards… I guess, such imperfections do occur. Maybe I’ll have a bridge somewhere towards the front to hold the pipes in place, parallel to each other.

Gotta wait 24 hours for the glue to settle in and dry. Test shot tomorrow!

Comments(0) 7:29 PM 1 January 2007

Lab@Home Update: Pneumatic Airgun

Posted by HELiX

Almost there…!

Yup, the Pneumatic Airgun is near completion.

I’m just left with the car tire valve…

Ya so anyways, today I worked on the projectile stopper. The purpose of the projectile stopper is to prevent the projectile from dropping too deep into the airgun.

I drilled a (roughly) 5mm hole straight through the 1″ PVC pipe, somewhere close to the end. The projectile will be inserted until it reaches this end, whereby it would not be able to move any further as the projectile stopper is there.

That job was quite fast, as PVC is rather easy to drill.

Then came the difficult part… the projectile stopper itself. My Dad found a twisted piece of rod lying around, so he asked me to use it. It sometimes really helps to have junk all over your house. The rod is internally made of copper I think, and has a approx. diameter of 3~4mm. This sounds deceivingly small, but trust me, that 3~4mm is a pain in the ass to saw.

Once I sawed the small bit of rod off, I managed to get it to fit perfectly into the hole without being too loose or tight.

There wasn’t a need to secure the rod to the pipe because when the pipe is inserted into the joinings, the larger male adaptors at the end of the pipe would cover the hole and prevent the rod from dropping out.

There you have it! Almost there… and if all goes well, I might be able to test it on Sunday.

Comments(0) 2:05 AM 1 January 2007