Can I Build a Functional Railgun at Home?

[MotolovCocktail]

I've actually been wanting to build one of these. For those of you who don't know how they work, pretty much all it is is that you have a power source, two rails for current to go through (hence the name railgun), and then you have a projectile that is conductive. The current creates a magnetic field, and the force generated from the magnetic field shoots the projectile out.

Here is a basic layout of the railgun:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/Railgun-1.png

There are all sorts of theoretical applications for a railgun, such as shooting projectiles into space or even as weaponry. Of course, both of those require a huge amount of energy.

The one I'm designing cannot consume that much energy and its more of a homemade experiment. It's a pretty good size and it can at least shoot stuff at about 50 yds (Based on my calculations that is ).

 

[P.Ramesh]

what could be the applications of your model?

 

[MotolovCocktail]

For my particular model, I do not see any practical application for it. It is just something that I am planning to build. In fact, it's probably serve the same application that a trebuchet does nowadays, in that I can use it to chuck things very far away. Also, some of my friends are trying to see who can build the best one.

 

[P.Ramesh]

For my particular model, I do not see any practical application for it. It is just something that I am planning to build. In fact, it's probably serve the same application that a trebuchet does nowadays, in that I can use it to chuck things very far away. Also, some of my friends are trying to see who can build the best one.

Its really good. Have you made the model? Can you please tell me the result data and the power consumed (for your model- not the calculated one- really experimented value)? We can find lot of application once the model yield good results.

I like people inventing something new and my help is always there for you.

All the best!

 

[Stingray]

I don't know how much you've looked into this, but getting the projectile to move at all is actually pretty hard. In most cases, it will just fuse to the rails.

 

[MotolovCocktail]

As of right now, I need to find parts for it, such as adequate rails, before I can actually build one and launch stuff from it. I'll keep try to keep you guys up to date though.