Can you build a coilgun?

Coil guns may sound like futuristic weapons, but they’re actually something you can build at home. They use a current to charge copper wires and create an electromagnet to launch a projectile. To build a coil gun, all you need are a few tools, some wire, and a disposable camera.

How does a coilgun work?

Coilguns generally consist of one or more coils arranged along a barrel, so the path of the accelerating projectile lies along the central axis of the coils. The coils are switched on and off in a precisely timed sequence, causing the projectile to be accelerated quickly along the barrel via magnetic forces.

How efficient is a coilgun?

The coilgun is a device that launches a projectile through coils used as electromagnets. Although coilguns are quite durable, they typically only achieve efficiencies between 0.3% and 1%.

How much power does a coilgun use?

Each time you fire, you use 25Wsec. So the maximum number of launches possible from three 9v batteries is 54000/25 or about 2160 launches. You would do this, of course, by using the batteries to charge a capacitor bank through a voltage step-up circuit or through a current-limiting device.

Can you make a Gauss rifle?

A Gauss rifle is made up of at least one magnet stage, but it could have several successive magnet stages. A magnet stage is a magnet with several ball bearings touching it on one side. The first magnet stage in this project will have another ball bearing on its other side, which we will call the “starter” ball.

How fast can a coil gun shoot?

“Using a massive electrical pulse rather than a chemical propellant, the railgun can launch projectiles much farther than the 13-nautical-mile range of the US Navy’s standard 5-inch naval gun,” the US Office of Naval Research says. That speed makes it about 2,394 m/s. or 8,654 km/hr.

Are gauss guns legal?

For now, the gauss rifle is an intriguing concept weapon that is mostly legal to own in much of the United States. “For the most part it’s unregulated. There are some exceptions—New York City, Illinois, Hawaii,” Wirth said.

How fast can a coilgun shoot?

With a 10 meter barrel, we get about 2500 meters per second. But the muzzle velocity is sqrt(2 * barrelLength * acceleration). So a 100 meter barrel would have a speed of about 7900 meters per second. It is worth noting that at that speed the projectile exceeds orbital velocity at Low Earth Orbit.