Draw a perfect circle line around your piston, piss easy....
Stick it in your vice, grab a file and file down the line to make a groove. Open vice, roll the piston over to see more line, close vice and continue.
USE YOUR HEAD.
serviceable piston
If only I had a vice, think i'll go buy a lathe instead. I don't like half-assed.
I wouldn't say that using a vice is half assed, as a lot of the members on here do not have access to a lathe, and have made perfectly respectable cannons.
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Rob Thornton
- Private
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Tue May 27, 2008 1:17 am
- Location: Cape Town - South Africa
Regarding not having a lathe, I have had huge success by hooking the piston up to a drill/drill press. It's much more ghetto, and probably not as safe as possible, but it works a treat. But even if you do have cash for a lathe - what else are you going to use it for? My guess would be not much... seems a waste of resources.
I'm a huge fan of QEV's:
They're about the same price as a sprinkler valve.
They look much neater.
They require no modding whatsoever.
You can fill your chamber through the QEV - so you drill less holes (less chance of leaks)
Oh, and did i mention they're very efficient. That QEV will dump the pilot chamber air faster than you can say 'cat in a hat'.
Good Times
Rob
As you can see in the pictures of biged's tennis ball cannon above, he's using a QEV (quick exhaust valve) as his pilot.no-limit wrote:Oh yeah, I want to use a 1" sprinkler valve to pilot it.
I'm a huge fan of QEV's:
They're about the same price as a sprinkler valve.
They look much neater.
They require no modding whatsoever.
You can fill your chamber through the QEV - so you drill less holes (less chance of leaks)
Oh, and did i mention they're very efficient. That QEV will dump the pilot chamber air faster than you can say 'cat in a hat'.
Good Times
Rob
No, you just have to do it by eye. put the piston on a flat surface and use a pencil or chalk at a set height, then turn the piston. This will give you an even line all the way.
An abra file is a notched wire which works as a file. They are very handy for all sorts of jobs. Abra file
Edit: I didn't see there was a second page, but yeah, a good lathe is a lot of money. Unless you plan to use it a lot, you're much better getting a vice. If you don't have one already then, well, you should!
An abra file is a notched wire which works as a file. They are very handy for all sorts of jobs. Abra file
Edit: I didn't see there was a second page, but yeah, a good lathe is a lot of money. Unless you plan to use it a lot, you're much better getting a vice. If you don't have one already then, well, you should!
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
Looks like I will be getting a vice. I have a drill press but it has to be perfectly centered or you will only hit one side of whatever you are trying to work on.