[SkulLCyaNiDE]

i am planning on building a coil gun, and i am wondering if i could use a car ignition coil instead of capacitors, because they can generate large amounts of voltage in a short amount of time. i know i would need to arrange the circuits differently from a normal coilgun, but is it possible?

[Addicted2ColdTurkey]

As fantastic as that would be it would probably result in much more work than just using capictors. Because as you probably already know in a coil gun the voltage creates a magnteic field at certain points within the coil pulling the projectile forward. The problem i see with using a car ignition is you would need to create a circuit to divert energy into other parts of the coil and then time it to pull the projectile forward. Also i dunno about you but for me they are harder to come by.

[rigney]

Addicted2ColdTurkey, on 28 December 2010 - 05:08 AM, said:

As fantastic as that would be it would probably result in much more work than just using capictors. Because as you probably already know in a coil gun the voltage creates a magnteic field at certain points within the coil pulling the projectile forward. The problem i see with using a car ignition is you would need to create a circuit to divert energy into other parts of the coil and then time it to pull the projectile forward. Also i dunno about you but for me they are harder to come by.

If you are into electronics or simply want to tear something up at close range, a coil gun is a cool project. For practicality, get yourself a .222 or .223 Remington. With a descent scope and at 300 yds. you can do some serious plinking. Anyway, building a CG can be pretty expensive. Automobile ignition coils are not cheap unless you get them from a junk yard. Time you get around to buying all of the necessaties to make it complete, you may consider constructing a smaller hadron collider?

This post has been edited by rigney: 28 December 2010 - 11:03 PM

[Valdyr]

I have my own question about making a coilgun, but didn't want to make a new thread needlessly. I am considering making a coilgun, and was wondering if it would be possible to use the inverter from the screen of an old laptop to convert the DC voltage from a bettery to AC so it can be stepped up using a transformer (The inverter already has one, so I might just use a transformer as a rectifier (Same number of coils on both sides) to change it back to DC for charging the capacitors), Also what sort of voltage am I likley to get from it?

[Si.]

There is a full Coilgun design, with step-by-step instructions here: http://www.dangerous.../sample-chapter

You will also find a video of it in action elsewhere on that site.