debaser

A coil gun uses electromagnets to accelerate a projectile.

We used large capacitors and the drive ring of various motors for the "coil".

A track was placed through the coils and a Large ball-bearing was rolled along the track through them. Timing was acomplished (a very long process) using optical sensors which would fire each coil in sequence when the projectile was in the right place.

Each coil (we had five) was about half the diameter of the previous one, and used about twice as much power.

The whole thing was placed in the bed of a pick-up truck, charged using the 240v current at our theater, and then driven to a nearby field to test fire.

I'll give you some more details if you want them.

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