Coil gun

Link Floyd

I'm making a coil gun for a project, and ran into a few problems. I used a circuit from a disposable camera, which had a capacitor and charging circuit. I used two wires attached to the capacitor to connect the circuit to my solenoid.
However, after charging the capacitor, nothing seems to work. When I connect the wire from the solenoid to the one coming out of the circuit, I either get a spark, or nothing happens. I don't get any magnetic field, and my projectile doesn't launch. What could I have done wrong?

ideasrule

Have you calculated how much momentum you expect the coil gun to deliver? You need extremely high-capacity capacitors charged to extremely high voltages to get any results, since most of the capacitor's energy is wasted in heating the wires rather than delivering kinetic energy to the projectile.

Link Floyd

Thanks for the reply. My calculations are giving me enough momentum to shoot the projectile, but I must have either made an error there or on the circuit. I'll redo those. Thanks.