Saveitforparts

I just bought this little 1950s house in St. Paul. It’s on a huge triple lot and was apparently built of cement all the way up. The original builders started with the basement only, and lived there until the city made them put a ground floor on it. Supposedly this type of house is known for being fairly bomb-proof: “1950’s – a solid concrete “Atom bomb proof” flat roof Hialeah home”

Here’s a quick shot of the kitchen:

The garage is huge, about as big as the ground floor of the house. Depending on how you park, it’s about a 4+ car with an extra storage room and lots of workbenches. It used to be insulated and heated, but the stove is gone and the roof is rotten, so that will be the first project:

Eventually the garage will probably look something like this:

The neighborhood seems pretty quiet:

My first foray into the world of pneumatic potato cannons. I’ve got lots of experience with combustion cannons, and in fact I think the best combustion design is a propane-fueled, spark-plug ignited beast, but I have almost no experience with compressed air designs. My only prior design was a weak, sickly thing built in 11th grade physics class for launching whiteboard markers across the room.

Features: Interchangeable barrels, safety/arming switch, Weather-resistant battery compartment, pressure gauge, safety screws to prevent blowouts. Most non-PVC parts came from Ax-Man, the best store ever! http://www.ax-man.com/

Close-up of the controls and fill valve.

A half-arsed electrical diagram I drew to help remember what went where in the battery tube.

Development has not been completely bug free. So far I have installed the solenoid backwards once, overpressured the chamber and destroyed a PVC weld once, and screwed up the wiring several times. However, everything seems to be working now! Next up, some distance tests vs the latest combustion cannon.