Snowball Shotgun

Want to win your next Snowball fight? Try building this Snow Shotgun for some winter fun. This design can launch up to 7 snowballs a distance of 10-20 feet and is sure to give you the competitve edge in any snowball fight. The Snowball Shotgun was designed as part of a Dynamics class project through the University of Prince Edward Islands School of Sustainable Design Engineering and was used in competition against many other groups designs, many of which you can find here as well, from a Snowball Slingshot, to a Snowball bow. Our team, decided to build a snow shotgun because we knew none of us could aim well at all, so we would have been at a competitive disadvantage if we had to use a device that required any amount of accuracy. Therefore, we built a snowball launcher that does not require the user to be very accurate, but will still crush the competition. For more information about the UPEI SSDE program feel free to check out our website at http://www.upei.ca/engineering/welcome

For this build you need....

• (Optional) 15 inches of the coiled, porous sheet metal

• 122 Inches of Bungee cord

• A 66 inch long cardboard / PVC Tube with a diameter of 4 inches

• A cap for the tube

• A serrated knife

• A metal or plastic cup 3.5 inches in diameter

• An 8 inch long metal bolt

• 4 nuts sized for the bolt

• A small bungee cord or length of rope approximately 6 inches long

• 2 approximately 3 inch long bolts

•4 nuts sized for the 3 inch long bolts

•A 5 inch long sheet metal slit wide enough to be bolted

•A metal clamp

• A large hammer

•A power drill

To begin, cut a slit roughly an inch wide symmetrically through both sides of the tube that starts at one end and goes halfway up the tube. A serrated knife will cut the slit no problem, however a small electric knife or saw does expedite the process.

Using the electric drill, drill symmetrical holes through both sides of the cup large enough for the size of the bolt you are using.

Using the four nuts and 8 inch long bolt, firmly bolt the the cup with roughly equal amounts of the bolt protruding on both sides. To do this slide the bolt partway through the cup and add on two of the nuts before sliding it the rest of the way through while twisting the nuts on the inside of the cup down the length of the bolt. Then, add a nut to both of the outer ends of the bolt before tightening the cup to the bolt using the inside and the outside nut.

Using the large clamp, and the larger hammer, bent both of the shorter bolts into L-shapes.

(With Coiled, porous, sheet metal) As symmetrically as possible, attach the L-Shaped bolts as securely as possible to both sides of the end of the tube without the slit using the coiled, porous sheet metal.

(Without Coiled, porous, sheet metal) Using the electric drill, drill two holes symmetrically on both sides of the end of the tube without the slit large enough for the bolts to fit snugly.

The preferred method is to use the coiled, porous sheet metal, because when the end of the bolt is on the inside of tube it sometimes blocks the shot, however both methods do work.

Begin by drilling two holes into the sheet metal slit slightly larger than the diameter of the L-shaped bolts at the exact distance apart that the points of the bolts are while attached to the tube. Then, bolt the sheet metal slit to the tube using the 4 nuts sized for the L-shaped bolts.

If you do not have access to a 122 inch long bungee cord, you can attach multiple smaller bungee cords using the square knot. We suggest using this knot because the harder you pull the tighter the knot gets, which is good when you consider how it will be used.

First insert the cup into the slit of the tube, then cover the slit end of the tube with the tubes cap. Next,