Potato Cannon

Have you ever seen a Potato Cannon? Unbelievable!
This is the kind of thing guys just can't resist. It's home made. Fairly cheep to construct, and you can shoot stuff with them! Like the Out House door when someone's in there. Or Lyn's truck when you aim almost straight up. Where do you think it's going to come down? (Duh)
It's explosive, which can be dangerous, but adds another layer of 'guy enthusiasm'. Sorry ladies, it's in the DNA somewhere. We love to blow stuff up..!

There are basically four pieces. A two inch PVC pipe,
three feet long for the barrel. A four inch by two foot combustion chamber with a screw cap for the bottom and an ignitor. Gas grill parts. Put a potato in the end of the barrel and push / squash it in. Remove the bottom cap and spray 'hair spray' up into the open chamber for a five second count. Put the cap back on and then use a 'ram rod' to push the potato down into the barrel. This builds up the pressure. Pete uses an old hockey stick, cut to the right depth of the barrel.


So Joe is telling Peter a story as to what to shoot. I think he's actually tellin' him it would be great to pop Chris with the Potato Cannon as one way to shut him up. Chris never stops talkin'... ever.
Then the boys go check out what Peter hit. Sure did kill that windshield wiper. Nice shot. Please sir, may I have another?!




Clicking the ignitor, sparks the hair spray, causing the explosion. The path of least resistance is to push the potato up and out the barrel and hopefully, at what ever you're aiming to hit. You'll get a real nice, "WHOOMP" sound and the potato is 'launched'. It'll be gone up over the trees really fast but the cheering is sure to last a couple of minutes!





Now you always want to pick a good potato. Share with your friends, it's OK.
Getting the spud into a good seating in the barrel is crucial to a long trajectory.





Really though, you don't necessarily need such a close up inspection like this. In fact we don't recommend viewing the business end of any barrel this close. It could take your head clean off. But considering that this man on the right, is the Potato Cannon,
Master Instructor...



You see what I mean, I'm sure.
When you run out of hair spray, and you will, in a 'pinch' you can use WD-40, or chain lube, or Raid, or just about anything you can vaporize that will ignite. You won't see much of the potato at night, but the way the PVC lights up with a little flame blowin' out the end is pretty awesome. Please, do be careful and hide the Cannon before the Beer Muscle's take control of the brain. We've been down that 'stupid' road before. This of course, is 'how' you learn about Raid, and chain lube and WD-40...