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[elementfrvr]

I'm looking at building a fairly small scale coilgun in my spare time and was wondering if anyone has any experience with them or anything similar (gaussian, railgun, etc.) I understand the concept of them and have a rough idea in my head for the design but I figured there are probably forum members that are more knowledgeable in this area and might be willing to give me some advice 
Thanks,
Dakota

[MetallicaFatCat]

If you really have to ask...

[bludragon071889]

Probably not the best place to ask such a question since it is very much not airsoft related but what do you need to know? I would rather you had some background info rather than go into it blindly, but MFC is right, if you really have to ask, then you probably are not ready to try.

[elementfrvr]

I'm not charging into it blindly, I've done my research and have built a few electromagnets before. I just thought that since there are a large amount of members with engineering and electrical knowledge, maybe someone had built one before and would share anything that they learned that isn't nessecarily common knowledge. Sorry if I came off sounding like some little kid expecting you guys to explain everything, that wasn't my intention.

[bludragon071889]

Well, it is simple enough: get a circuit to charge a ton of capacitors and make a coil. Send the charge from the caps to the coil and watch as it sucks pieces of metal through it. The key is to time it or else you will get a pretty crappy result.

[TheGreyMan]

I'm not charging into it blindly, I've done my research and have built a few electromagnets before. I just thought that since there are a large amount of members with engineering and electrical knowledge, maybe someone had built one before and would share anything that they learned that isn't nessecarily common knowledge. Sorry if I came off sounding like some little kid expecting you guys to explain everything, that wasn't my intention.

I don't think you should be sorry. I think it's kind of a touchy matter for an airsoft forum website, since something potentially lethal is being discussed here.

There are many guides on google on how to build one, along with youtube.

[MG42Madness]

something potentially lethal

My Jeep is just as lethal if I smack in to you going eighty miles an hour.

[TheGreyMan]

My Jeep is just as lethal if I smack in to you going eighty miles an hour.

Good point.

[Jäger]

I built a small gauss weapon for a physics project in high school.

I'll post a picture if I can find some.

I had eight rare earth magnet bars encircling a little barrel, which were all housed in pretty substantial plastic pipe. I had two of those 12.8 volt batteries hooked up to it but found I only needed one. It shot ball bearings.

The weapon kind of destroyed itself after a few days. The plastic pipe became very distorted form the magnets pushing against each other, and the whole thing was being held together by zip ties.

It worked pretty well, and got me an A, so I was happy with it.

Like I said, I'll post pictures if I still have them.

[elementfrvr]

I built a small gauss weapon for a physics project in high school.

I'll post a picture if I can find some.

I had eight rare earth magnet bars encircling a little barrel, which were all housed in pretty substantial plastic pipe. I had two of those 12.8 volt batteries hooked up to it but found I only needed one. It shot ball bearings.

The weapon kind of destroyed itself after a few days. The plastic pipe became very distorted form the magnets pushing against each other, and the whole thing was being held together by zip ties.

It worked pretty well, and got me an A, so I was happy with it.

Like I said, I'll post pictures if I still have them.

Sounds pretty sweet. I'm planning on using ball bearings too, most likely the bearings used for slingshots. The plan is for it to be mag fed with a simple bolt mechanism to facilitate loading and a permanent magnet incorporated into the chamber area to prevent the bearings from rolling out of the barrel. I haven't decided on a power source yet but I know that it will be capacitor driven rather than direct from the battery. I definitely want to eventually make it a self contained portable unit once the mechanism is reliable and proven.

[Jäger]

Bolt action? Very cool.

I really want to see how this project turns out. I didnt have any pictures on my computer, but I emailed my teacher in the hopes that he still has a picture of it.

EDIT-

I cant believe I still have this thing! It was hidden away in my garage.....to save the world from its evil. But here it is:

[elementfrvr]

Bolt action? Very cool.

I really want to see how this project turns out. I didnt have any pictures on my computer, but I emailed my teacher in the hopes that he still has a picture of it.

EDIT-

I cant believe I still have this thing! It was hidden away in my garage.....to save the world from its evil. But here it is:

That thing looks pretty evil, like some kinda improvised guerilla weapon  And yea I've decided to go with bolt action because muzzle loading isn't very impressive, and decided against breech loading after I realized how close the design was to a bolt action. It's probably gonna be a straight pull AK style bolt in the first few iterations and eventually get reworked into a traditional bolt action. Mags will probably have pull pins on them that must be removed to start feeding, both as a safety feature and to simplify the design.

[Jäger]

hahaha thanks!

Your ideas sound very cool, I hope it works out. And keep us updated with pictures! I feel inspired to make another one now. 

[elementfrvr]

Thanks man, I'll definitely update it once I get some work done on it. It's most likely gonna be an ongoing project though. I'll probably get the bearings and some capacitors in a few days so I can size up power requirements and barrel size. If all goes well I'll have a functional prototype by new years and a finished body for it by spring.