How to Make a Homemade Potato Gun

A potato gun can provide hours upon hours of endless potato-launching fun. Making a potato gun, however, can provide hours upon hours of frustration and anxiety, unless you know how to do it.

To build a potato gun, you are going to need to first understand first how a potato gun works. A potato gun uses propane-based aerosol sprayed into a tube. This aerosol is then lit. The gas in the tube expands, which forces the potato to travel up the barrel of the potato gun and out, sometimes traveling as far as 200 feet. There are three primary parts to any potato gun. You have a barrel, a combustion chamber, and an igniter. The barrel, as well as the combustion chamber, are typically made from PVC pipe. The igniter is typically a lighter such as a barbecue lighter.

Things You'll Need

• PVC piping, 2 feet long and 2 inches in diameter
• PVC piping, 1 foot long and 3 inches in diameter
• A screwable end cap for the PVC 3-inch pipe
• A connector to connect the 2-inch and 3-inch PVC pipe
• PVC cement
• Barbecue lighter
• 1 can of hair spray or other propane-based aerosol spray
• 2 drywall screws
• Lots and lots of potatoes.

Instructions

1. Connect the 2-inch and 3-inch diameter PVC pipes using the connector and PVC cement. Screw the end cap onto the 3-inch pipe.

2. Attach the drywall screws to the combustion chamber by screwing them in, leaving about a half inch gap between them.

3. Attach the sparker portion of the barbecue lighter to the drywall screws. Make certain that it is producing a spark. If not, move the screws in tighter together.

4. Use a Dremel tool to bevel the end of the barrel so that the potato will be cut to size as it exits the barrel. Wait for the PVC cement to dry before firing your potato gun.

Tips & Warnings

• As with any homemade device that is designed to shoot a potato half a football field, use the potato gun at your own risk.

• Make sure that they potato gun is never fired toward a human being or other living creature.