Home Sign Up!

Browse Community Submit

All Art Craft Food Games Green Home Kids Life Music Offbeat Outdoors Pets Photo Ride Science Tech

How to make a RAILGUN!

by AlexTheGreat on September 11, 2006 Table of Contents How to make a RAILGUN! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: How to make a RAILGUN! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: Prepare the cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 3: The circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 4: The rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 5: Set it up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 6: Fire! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-RAILGUN!/

Intro: How to make a RAILGUN!

Warning: if you screw up with this you could electricute yourself.

Step 1: Materials
For this you will need; 4 or 5 Disposable flash cameras (I went to a camera store and asked them for some and they took a big box with about a hundred in it, they sold them to me at ten cents a camera, I only got ten) aluminum foil plexiglass wire small switch big switch aluminum or steel rails 6 nuts and bolts wire hanger tools; screwdriver soldering iron duct tape wire strippers wire cutters

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-RAILGUN!/

Step 2: Prepare the cameras

break open the casing on 4 or 5 cameras take out the circuit board take out the capacitors from all but one of them (you might want to take out the flashbulbs too they look cool when you put several thousand volts through them) remove the swich thing and solder two wires in its place

Image Notes 1. switch thing

Image Notes 1. switch thing with wires soldered in its place

Step 3: The circuit

solder the small switch to the two wires you made in the last step solder the extra capacitors onto the current on (remember to keep the positive and negative sides together) solder two long wires to the capacitors solder the big switch onto the positive wire

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-RAILGUN!/

Step 4: The rails

make two aluminum or steel rails about 1/2in by 5in (make sure one long side of each rail is perfectly straight) cut two pices of plexiglass about 1.5in by 4.5in make a small gap between the rails that is perfectly straight (I used a wire hanger as a divider) sandwitch it beween the two pieces of plexiglass and clamp it drill six holes for the bolts put the bolts in and screw the nuts on tight

Image Notes 1. grind the rails straight

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-RAILGUN!/

Step 5: Set it up
clip the positive wire on to the right rail and the negative wire on to the left rail with alligator clips ball up a small piece of aluminum foil and jam it into the middle of the rails put a battery into the battery thing

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-RAILGUN!/

Step 6: Fire!
press the small button to charge up the capacitor bank when the led blinks you can press the big button and fire it after you're done use a srewdriver to trigger the capacitors a few times before touching it

Related Instructables

Make a poweful (green) railgun! by rp181

Knex FirehawkBanshee transformable fighter-jet! by TigerNod

Rail Gun (video) by visstok

Knex Two Stage Railgun (Photos) by jollex

400 volt RAIL GUN by minisojo How To Build A Simple But Powerful Flyback Driver by Plasmana

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-RAILGUN!/

Comments
50 comments Add Comment view all 337 comments

ltnemo2000 says:

Mar 14, 2011. 12:59 PM REPLY don't worry about electrocution. 330V at 150uF/capacitor hurts like a mother but won't really do too much to you. unless you wear a pacemaker. then it's a bad thing. Mar 10, 2011. 12:52 PM REPLY I apologize in advance for the long thread. But, i stumbled across this project and by the looks of it there needs to be further explanation to those who want to build there own Rail gun. First off this is not a rail gun. A true rail gun uses 4 sided rails for its propulsion. This gun only uses two. Second the problem with using iron or aluminum for the rails poses many problems. One of which is the field strength of an electromagnet is determined by one of two things. The type of ferromagnetic conductor and the voltage applied upon that conductor. So, when you build a capacitor bank you are in essence delivering a charge so high that the iron or aluminum rods cannot effectively deliver propulsion but, instead they use the same Lorentz force for projection to vaporize the ferromagnetic material between the two rails. The charge delivered from the capacitors is simply to high for a common piece of iron or copper or aluminum to handle. Instead of firing it the intense magnetic field powered by the immense current running through the rods will become a fantastic welding kit. If you want to build a rail gun you must either double the rails by adding two more which should sufficiently decrease the charge enough to fire an object or you must lower the voltage output delivered onto the conducting rods. this means using 1 fewer capacitor. Or you can keep everything the same and buy a can of polyethylene urtex coating. Which when sprayed on to the iron or aluminum rails should prevent most of the heat transfer that bonds your projectile to begin with. But increasing the number of rods, lengthen the rods or even lowering the voltage output is the only way to successfully fix this quote on quote "welding to the rails dilemma". Mar 8, 2011. 8:37 PM REPLY So you don't need anything to jump start you projectile, I know larger ones use compressed air or springs to avoid welding the projectile to the rails. Also does yours throw cool sparks and stuff, maybe even plasma?

jacobwallace says:

jj.inc says:

II AlphanovA II says:
should they be in parallel or series?? or in some sort of matrix??

Jun 10, 2010. 2:25 PM REPLY

techno_pig says:

Feb 18, 2011. 5:13 AM REPLY parallel. The capacitors add capacitance in parallel - that means higher current on the discharge which means more force on the projectile. in series the capacitance halves. that is no good. the voltage TOLERANCE increases, but that doesn't mean they will charge up to thousands of volts. capacitors only charge to the voltage you put in.

DingleNutZ says:

Jul 1, 2010. 10:17 PM REPLY i have tried making a railgun, but it isnt working to well, i have two 1 foot long peices of steel, 2cm wide by 0.6 cm high and a cap bank roughly 2uF big charged at ~300 V. it will not work, what is wrong?. i use the armature to trigger the circuit btw.

lasermaster3531 says:

Jul 6, 2010. 2:27 PM REPLY if your cap bank is really 2uF, then lol! you need more like 1 farad not 2 microfarads. also try shorter, thinner bars, maybe 6 inches long by 2-4mm high. you may also want to look into solid-state triggering devices like SCRs(sillicon controlled relays)

techno_pig says:
longer rails are better. F=ILB force is multiplied by length = it gives the projectile longer to accelerate i know, really small capacitance, short rails...

Feb 18, 2011. 5:11 AM REPLY

Plus, ONE FARAD? are you kidding? that is insane! I wish i had a 1 farad cap. bank! at 330V that would be 54,450 JOULES! No way.

DingleNutZ says:
sorry, 2mF big, which is 2000uF.

Jul 6, 2010. 5:53 PM REPLY

lasermaster3531 says:
that good.

Sep 23, 2010. 5:19 PM REPLY

Synn says:

Aug 8, 2009. 3:36 PM REPLY I'll appologise in advance about the length of this :P i'm new to the site and i've made this my first(ish) project. (i made a camera taser with a few mods to it). I've followed your plans exactly and anything i try firing out of my gun just sparks and weld's to the steel rails, have i missed something out or done something wrong? I have a lot of copper i can use for rails, would this help any, because i know copper conducts better than steel. Allso, my capacitor bank (made from a few camera's, TV, Satellite Box and an Amp) charges well as it is from the camera circuitry, if i add a second circuit to this, will it charge at a quicker rate, or damage the capacitor's? Last question, i allso heard someone mention an "armiture"? i think it was called, so i can fire non conductive materials, how does this work? Sorry for the long comment, i wanted to get everything in this one :P I look forward to any help you guys could give me

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-RAILGUN!/

techno_pig says:

Feb 18, 2011. 5:07 AM REPLY You don't need anything magnetic. Any material with a current passing through it has a magnetic field that is perpendicular to the current. I think your problem maybe can be solved by using slightly smaller projectiles, made from something a little tougher than you've been using. Even if your projectile welds a little bit, the Lorentz forces should overcome the stick from the weld. You either need smaller projectiles or more current.

matthewtyler1 says:
increasing the length of your rails may help.F=LxIxB F=force L= length of the rails I=current B= magnetic field

Jan 23, 2011. 7:32 PM REPLY

lasermaster3531 says:

Sep 23, 2010. 5:18 PM REPLY this railgun is not designed to fire anything bigger than a grain of sand. it uses the arcing to vaporize the aluminum bit and push the superheated plasma out of the barrel, but it just isn't big enough for anything solid.

nadams-2 says:

Mar 9, 2011. 5:44 PM REPLY well crap i went to build one of these rail guns and i was trying to figure out why it wont make my object go which is very small. do u have any suggestions one what i would need to make an object actually go off the rails

Marshal Banana says:

Aug 8, 2010. 8:04 AM REPLY I don't know about an armature, but you could try to make a sabot. It is what tanks use to fire their depleted Uranium rounds. Here is a link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabot Jan 24, 2010. 8:31 PM REPLY 1. no prob about the length. 2.Ok so what I'm guessing the welding is because of how much power you are shooting through the projectile at once. My recommendation, use an armature. 3. Ok so what an armature is, is basically a holder for anything that isn't magnetic. It holds whatever you want to fire. The armature itself is magnetic so when the armature flies down the rails it takes the new projectile with it. Don't ask how to make one i have no idea. Aug 12, 2009. 9:10 PM REPLY this is my first project too its not my vid but i think i can help you a bit For a projectile try using something mainly composed of iron, cobalt, or nickel I dont know what you exactly what you used for your capacitor bank, but i would stick to just adding camera capacitors to one more camera capacitor(btw try making a big bunch of capacitors in parallel instead of stacking them like he did) don't know about the "second circuit" question never heard of an armiture hope i helped

Gixtox says:

thestyrofoampeanut says:

lord of war2000 says:

the pictures are a bit fuse

Dec 6, 2010. 7:16 AM REPLY

friggs26 says:
would it be ok to use copper pipes?

May 12, 2010. 1:02 PM REPLY

mtnbikeret says:
That should work

Nov 10, 2010. 5:46 PM REPLY

jecmage says:

Jun 25, 2010. 2:35 PM REPLY i found these aluminum rails at farm and fleet that are about 1 meter long, and are shaped like a square with 1 side removed. i want to put a .45 caliber copper slug in between them to use as an armature and projectile. if that's too heavy, i can always make an armature with a projectile nestled in it. they will be mounted on, and bolted to a thin wooden frame. ill have all my electronics in a hollowed out section of wood that will probably be about 1"x6"x12". how many capacitors should i use, what should i use to charge it, and most importantly, is this even possible? note:end product (i hope) will be a rifle like rail-gun. i don't care if it fires at 10 mph or 1000. also i have no idea what I'm doing.

lasermaster3531 says:
wayyyyy too heavy.

Jul 6, 2010. 2:27 PM REPLY

lasermaster3531 says:

Sep 23, 2010. 5:15 PM REPLY that is unless you have a MASSIVE cap bank and i'm talking like 1 farad at 1,000+ volts, capable of supplying over 1,000,000 amps to the armature, and then you would need tungsten rails to keep them from vaporizing. Aug 15, 2010. 2:49 PM REPLY and if its an issue with the air system, i could use iron rails instead to aid against spot welding, but they were much heavier. also they had similar rods but in a "V" shape, also about a 1x1 cm

jecmage says:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-RAILGUN!/

jecmage says:

Aug 1, 2010. 6:05 PM REPLY my question is which part? the capacitors? the air system (to prevent spot welding)? the slug? the charge system? what!?! be more specific! remember, i only understand the concept and basic desigh.

lasermaster3531 says:

Sep 23, 2010. 5:16 PM REPLY the slug is too heaqvy unless you have the aforementioned HUGE cap bang and supporting hardware, and the rails are too long.

jecmage says:

Oct 1, 2010. 7:00 AM REPLY well what would you recommend for the materials I've listed? i could try an armature of aluminum foil with a pellet in it or something, but i doubt that that 1"x6"x12" box filled with camera capacitors is enough to temporize the aluminum, much less create a plasma armature. also it aint overly hard to just cut the rails.

sausabe says:

May 1, 2007. 10:39 PM REPLY How exactly did you get this johnny to fire. I'm having severe problems there (and your instructions are a bit vague.) I did deviate from your instructions a bit, but if you (or anyone) could give me any insight, that'd be just spiffy. I've got a current, and a complete circuit, but whatever I try to shoot just ends up twitching or welding itself to my rails.

lasermaster3531 says:
try an extremely small sliver of foil (pinhead size) and a very large cap bank.

Sep 23, 2010. 5:12 PM REPLY

nickbowlingdude says:

May 13, 2008. 6:06 PM REPLY To have an effective railgun, you need some means of starting the projectile in motion before the lorentz forces can take over. Compressed air works nicely, or maybe gunpowder if you want to take the risk.

general-Insano says:
compressed gas would probably be the safest and easiest i would suggest using either oxygen or co2.

Jan 30, 2009. 9:27 PM REPLY

munitionsgeek says:

Jan 17, 2011. 8:02 PM REPLY safest would probly be to run another set of wires to a separate magnetic rail placed behind the projectile to give it the initial "push"

manoaguy says:
O2 would be bad because with the sparks produced it could potentially ignite

Sep 3, 2010. 10:59 PM REPLY

Speedmite says:

Aug 16, 2010. 7:47 PM REPLY I was thinking, use steel ball bearings that are 6mm and use an airsoft gun, but my problem is i dont know where to get the cameras. They ship them off at walmart, whitch leads me to belive other chain stores like walgreens are doing it too. So where did you get yours, and do I have to go to some odd camera store? Jun 28, 2010. 7:19 AM REPLY I had a question. What would happen if we extended the rails to a foot? Could someone please let me know if they have extended the length as I am currently in the process of making the project and it seems logical for the rails to be extended further than originally specified. Thank you for your responses.

Hunter4000695 says:

zxzero01 says:
Where do I solder the rest of the capacitators to the wires where the bulb for the flash was?

Jun 5, 2010. 8:52 PM REPLY

electronic boy says:

place them where the cap is PS:make sure that the polarity is right

Jun 11, 2010. 7:34 AM REPLY

jjanes says:

Mar 15, 2010. 8:24 AM REPLY Hi everyone, I got a simple question. Is there a timing issue at all I built a test setup with an old camera zapper I built a iwhile ago so ineffect I just built the rail and plugged my SINGLE CAP zapper into the leads on the rails. The question is this if I charge this up the way it is now it simply charges the rails and the I slide the projectile into the firing tube so it is moving I channel it so that it is moving and straight when it enters the rail assembly. My projectile is a section of the same wire I used to space the rail so it is tight but it does still slide in the rail assembly. If I had more capacitors hooked up would it work. In the current configuration the rails are charged and the as the projectile slides into the rail assembly I get one spark kind a big and the projectile stops. Is it the fact I don't have the full complement of caps in place? or does the projectile need to be tighter? or does the projectile need to be moving AND inside the chamber when the charge is dropped onto the rails? Or does the projectile just need to be jammed into the rail assembly (not in motion) and then the charge dropped onto the rails. As I said my assembly is using a charge that is on the rails when the projectile first enters it so this may be the reason it stops or it could be my lack of

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-RAILGUN!/

enough charge(only have one cap in place in the form of my zapper. I built this as a test. Just need to know the finer points of what I need to build this correctly.

zomgcannons says:

May 22, 2010. 11:14 AM REPLY yeah more capacitors would allow for a greater charge to enter the rails meaning a more powerful magnetic field yielding greater power (in theory), so you probably dont have enough power going to send your projectile flying May 22, 2010. 11:11 AM REPLY

zomgcannons says:
so dont use aluminum rods? or will the heat and electricity not have the same effect on them as with the foil?

anyone have thoughts on what would happen if u added coils? if u attached those to a secondary capacitor bank, and linked the switch, i think the ensuing magnetic field would add a lot of power to your gun (or cause a blow out and kill you instantly) anyone know how to build an armature? im thinking of launching golf balls. (sorry about all the questions, these things just so many possibilities)

Mecharius says:
You just use aluminum sheet for the rails? Local metal shop only sells full sheets, no cuts, thats more then i can spend on this. If your rails were as something or as a part of something, what was it? Whats the thickness of your rails? what ga?

Jan 28, 2010. 12:16 PM REPLY

Armchair Pyro says:

You can use thick tin foil on cardboard using glue

Apr 12, 2010. 4:17 PM REPLY

ItsTheFark says:

May 30, 2009. 3:30 PM REPLY OK so i just finished making my Rail Gun, almost the exact same specs as the one AlexTheGreat demonstrates, except my rails are larger. The space between the rails is 1.6mm and im using that sized aluminum wads. When i fire it it just sparks and the aluminum wad stays stationary. I read the posts below this and it is all based on the aluminum welding itself to the rail, but that is not happening... the aluminum is just not moving. Help!

xarlock667 says:

Mar 11, 2010. 8:16 PM REPLY Your aluminum is probably "Bouncing" and the electricity is arcing under it. Have you tried placing an inert rail over it, and injecting the projectile from the rear?

Synn says:

Aug 16, 2009. 1:14 PM REPLY Thanks for the help thestyrofoampeanut , I've done a lot more research into railgun's and other electro-magnetic stuff, I.e. coilguns/gauss guns, so I've fixed the problem, it was that my rails were made of steel, and shouldn't be a magnetic material. I replaced them with copper which works great, especially after being coated in some sort of electro-paint stuff my dad gave me. And additional circuits for charging work fine, I just split my new cap bank up and have 4 1.5v circuits charging them (6x 400v,200uf parallel caps in 4 banks). I haven't got a SCR so I just use a wall switch, which works fine, although I'm sure I'll be losing out some energy because it keeps sparking when I use it (It's insulated to hell too, I don't want to lose a finger :P). And as for the armature, the foil IS the armature, its a plasma armature, when the circuit is closed the foil is changed into plasma gas, and propels the slug out of the rails, my rails are air tight so I get as much thrust as possible. Sabot armatures are in some high scale railguns I've read about, usually a U-tailed aluminium sabot which carry's the projectile and split's when it leaves the rails to allow the projectile to travel. I really should of read up more about all this from the start but I was really eager to make my own :P. I hope any of this info helps out others. Btw, i reduced my cap bank after the first shot, my brother and I couldn't see for a few seconds after we fired it due to an almighty white/purple flash, also made our ears ring :P. we had 6x circuits. I'll try post a video of it working after we finish housing it, there's a really cool purple smoke trail (which tastes awful) left behind the projectile :D

xarlock667 says:

Mar 11, 2010. 8:05 PM REPLY If your projectile is aluminum, you are likely eating aluminum smoke. Aluminum is a poisonous metal when burned, and you should not intentionally ingest it. Use adequate ventilation.

JKai says:
Will the ferromagnetic projectile accelerate uniformly along the two rails?

May 27, 2008. 4:07 AM REPLY

thestyrofoampeanut says:
if it works its supposed to

Aug 13, 2009. 8:29 PM REPLY

Arduino Guy says:

Dec 6, 2009. 4:38 AM REPLY Actually Railguns do not propel ferromagnetic projectiles the projectile has to be Diamagnetic such as materials like Aluminum, Copper and Carbon.(Carbon is not Graphite.)

view all 337 comments

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-RAILGUN!/