Gauss Pistol

coil gun

Nuts to the Midigun, we’re talking gauss pistols today. The gun works by accelerating a projectile through a pair of coils. Is it dangerous? Only indirectly: There is 440V across the capacitor terminals. It is kinda heavy, so you could throw it at someone. The laser sight could cause eye damage. The small parts are a choking hazard. Finally, it has about the same power as a pellet gun, but the projectile is much heavier so it moves a lot slower. All the info you need can be found in the FAQ.

[thanks Jason]

13 thoughts on “Gauss Pistol

  1. Seems like you could make a gauss long gun. Make the barrel about as long as a healthy long rifle, on the order of 1 meter. Carry the batteries and most of the capacitors in a backpack. Run heavy wire to the gun. Instead of having 2 coils, have 20-50, each accelerating the projectile. Sure, it’d be a wee bit hefty, but I bet you can get it to put out a lot more than 3.8j.

  2. a long coil wouldn’t work; in fact, it would cause a loss in efficiency because of eddy currents. as soon as the projectile gets half-way through the coil, if there is still current flowing through, which it’s likely there will be because a coil is an inductor, and in this case, a 1m long coil would have a lot of inductance, the coil will actually pull the projectile backward and slow it because the inductance keeps the current flowing through the coil for a short time after it is on longer being powered.

    also, having simply more capacitors or larger ones may have a similar effect on the projectile because they may not discharge quick enough, thus causing prolonged current through the coil which will hold the projectile back if it’s on for too long.

    another good idea is to use a solid state switch like an SCR so that there is not spark. the reason you dont want a spark in there is because it essentially wastes energy by bridging the gap between the two electrodes in a regular switch. when looking for a solid state switch like an scr or transistor, be sure to check ratings on it for the application; too low of a rating, in an scr, can allow the current to leak through if the voltage is over the scr’s breakdown voltage, and for a transistor, with too much current, it’ll fry easily.

    The Pskov 1100 is a really good design, so if you’re going to make one, i’d suggest looking at that (the guy before me posted the link).

    good luck, have fun, dont hurt yourself or anyone else

  3. m,
    I think billytheimpaler was talking about using several coils along one meter (he said 20) instead of 1 really long one. Unless i misunderstood what you are saying, i was under the impression that if you had some sort of sensor (like an optical beam) between the coils you can shut off the coils as the projectile travels through the barrel. Or would inductance still be a problem? Couldnt you just time it so that it would shut off the coils early?

  4. It sounds somewhat unlikely, but I suppose this could be used to knock somebody out with a shot to the right place (and the right kind of projectile). But that might just be my brain being corrupted by games like Splinter Cell (and my lack of knowledge of what projectile is actually being fired by this thing).

  5. The site now says… and I quote…

    “Site Temporarily Disabled
    This site has been temporarily disabled. If you are the owner of the site, please contact customer care.”

    seems we killed it with too much traffic

  6. Another bit to consider is that as you add coils you get less bang for your buck. The faster the projectile moves, the less time the coil has to act upon it. And as others have stated, this can slow the projectile down.

    Remember, a coil can only provide magnetic suction. That is, elec current in a coil will draw the projectile toward the center of the coil. If current is flowing after the projectile passes the center point in the coil, the remaining energy will slow dowh the projectile.

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