Me and a friend have a science project coming up about building steam powered machines and we had heard about steam guns so we were wondering if anyone knows hows to buld one or knows of any websites with instructions on building your own steam gun?
2007-10-12 09:45:04 · 2 answers · asked by mitchell c 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
Did you see "Mythbusters"? Those guys are really good at building stuff and they were sweating the steam cannon thing!
Unless you feel like applying for the Darwin Award like so many other people on this site seem to, I would suggest you keep looking for another and easier project.
Why don't you do something with solar?
Foil mirrors tensioned by a vacuum are cool (see stretched membrane concentrator). Really! They are cool because you can build a huge one relatively easily, cheaply and with a few scale-up steps you might be able to build one that has 1-2kW of power focused on a spot of maybe the size of can! If you can't imagine what that means in practice, think about magnifying glass times 300!
Why don't you start here!
http://sbp.de/de/html/projects/solar/stirling/pages_sti/fig44.htm
http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/10130410-xiVU1V/native/10130410.PDF
http://www.psa.es/webeng/instalaciones/discos.html
Also, there are endless ideas for other reflectors:
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Parabolic_reflectors
OK? There are many ways to get a good "burn" without a visit to the ER and skin grafts. Solar is probably the best because it will give you advanced warning before it really hurts you.
In addition, it is also green and as you have probably heard, Al Gore just won the Nobel Price. So green is hip. And on the total upside is that you will learn a lot about physics and engineering.
Good Luck!
2007-10-12 10:31:55 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Steam, at the energy required for such a device,
is NOT an amateur friendly project.
You'd either have to deliver enough energy to flash
water into super-heated steam very quickly, or
store and quickly release a very large amount of
energy as superheated steam.
Either way, the hardware required would be expensive,
and any small mistake could ruin your whole day.
Even damp steam presents scalding dangers.
Please have your instructor review anything you
build before heating it up.
2007-10-12 18:45:25 · answer #2 · answered by Irv S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋