This is not my usual terrain of commentary but I must concur with the ultimate baddassery of that device.

BuckTurgidson: Can I get one in the 40-watt range?

Hey, just what you see, pal!

Gyrfalcon: nekulor: Super_pope: Meh, back when i was still in college I saw a box that had been built with an array of 50 stereo filtering capacitors like that. The rail gun they'd built would belch blue fire when you test fired the full bank, because it would flash-boil part of the aluminum slugs the thing shot.

Want. Personally, I'd like to take the fireworks exchange from last week's stupid fraternity fight article, scale it up to railguns, and commence shell exchange. For science, of course.

/Pike can't aim worth shiat.

If you had a real railgun, you wouldn't even need a shell. Any random trash would do, if the velocity was high enough.

Where I'm from, we have traditions and decorum. Those traditions dictate we have the decency to use shells in our railguns, thank you very much.

I got 250FPS out of a Mcdonalds straw, some spare wire and a camera flash. Granted, I was firing penny nails, instead of big ass slugs, but still.

Once again, the only reason that coil guns and rail guns aren't used in the military (much) is because to really get any output, it takes a LOT of power. It also takes a lot of specialized power gear to create the pulse form just the way it should be (I'm guessing this guy didn't bother with pulseforming) All that gear weighs a LOT, so man portable versions are either underpowered, or just too damn heavy.

Rail guns are different... all the same problems with the electronics, and in addition, the rails wear very very quickly due to plasmic electrolysis. Basically, they eat themselves. However, as a bonus, it's not hard to break the sound barrier with a big ass projectile. It's why the navy likes them. Over the horizon targeting, combined with supersonic projectiles combined with very very good ballistics... all together and you've got a really long range cannon with massive firepower.

Now, the military has come up with something even better. They used a linear accelerator (it's a ring) to bring .50cal ball bearings up to a very high velocity inside the ring. Then, when you hit the trigger, it releases 3-5 ball bearings down the barrel. The impact energy is 10x higher than a Barret 50 cal rifle at the same range. They are currently using these as Humvee mounted weapons in Iraq... or at least they were using a few as a test, I'm not certain how that testing went.

Anyone that wants to build a coil gun can. It's not even very hard. Can you solder? Can you handle Hicaps? You're good to go. Building a rail gun that actually works, that's a whole different ball game. The sensors this guy used wouldn't work, and generally speaking you have to use optical switching just to keep up with the projectile velocity. Also, your pulse has to be formed especially well, and in the correct phase variance. That is not easy or cheap, and especially it isn't light weight. Coil guns though, can be built with a disposable camera flash unit, a straw and some copper wire (15 gauge or bigger, you don't want liquid copper on you). That would give you a single stage unit. Mine got about 250fps shooting penny nails with the head ground off.

Fortunately, he has no plans on developing it commercially, or on telling other people how to make one of their own.

What? Why is that "fortunate?"

toraque: Cthulhu_is_my_homeboy: cretinbob: That's not a gauss gun, that's a rail gun.

TFA says it's a multi-stage coilgun.

Also, cool as it is, it's only about as powerful as a BB gun. Actually with the right pellets, my Crosman Phantom air rifle has about twice as much muzzle energy. Sadly it's not semi-auto, though.

From the video, it's actually pretty small, about pistol sized. I don't know the engineering enough to judge whether or not you could expand that design from four stages to N, but I'm thinking a rifle length set of coils with the batteries and capacitors in a backpack might put it past the air rifle stage.

Hence the problem with electromagnetic guns at the modern level of technology, the power required to make them viable is huge, and we dont have the ability to make it portable in any reasonable sense. The military has made a railgun already, and the power system for it takes up a small building. Powder propelled shells are still more practical. Currently the US Navy is set to be the first to deploy one in a combat capacity, as a main gun on a ship.

This is one of the many things, along with electric cars, that will benefit from a huge jump in battery technology. Make a battery with 100x the capacity at the same size as currently available, and you will see cool stuff happen.

sloppyjoes7: Fortunately, he has no plans on developing it commercially, or on telling other people how to make one of their own.

What? Why is that "fortunate?"

Fortunate for society at large not having to bear the cost of treating some basement dwelling cyberpunk fantasizing mouth breather without insurance at the emergency room on the taxpayers' dime.

Unfortunate for Fark, as there would have been a sweet headline for an article about such an event.

Not very impressive, but then "Gizmag" seems to be the kind of outfit that is impressed when someone bores out a hunk of aluminum, grafts some Picatinny rails to the side, and calls it a "battle mug." You know what impresses me? The guy who printed the lower receiver of an AR-15 (the only part that you can't buy as a spare part without needing to register it) on a 3-D printer.

Expolaris: Can we get this guy together with FPS Russia?

[www.shockmansion.com image 550x325]

Please? Even if the accent is fake, it's entertaining as hell and i think he would have a blast with the Flamethrower gloves.

I shoot a lot of guns up in North Georgia and am a little surprised i haven't run into that guy. He carcks me up and his fake accent is pretty damned good!

nekulor: Where I'm from, we have traditions and decorum. Those traditions dictate we have the decency to use shells in our railguns, thank you very much.

Why would you ever put a shell in your railgun? That shiat can explode. Just use slugs,man,slugs.

I wonder what the market is like for something like this, how much this guy could charge for that thing if he sold it. And what the laws say about selling these types of devices, which don't seem like they'd fall under "firearms" in any legal sense.

Oznog: Mugato: I bet Homeland Security has a file on this guy bigger than Liam Neeson's cock.

Strangely enough, I don't think this counts as a "firearm" under the law.


"any weapon which will, or which may be readily converted to, expel a projectile by
the action of an explosive or other propellant, and which has any barrel with a bore of
more than one-half inch in diameter"

I barely looked - does it have a barrel? it could be argued that the magnetic fields could be described as "other propellant."

Don't care much for the Gauss but his sawblade-crossbow, now that puts me in the mindset of spinfusors.

Mugato: I bet Homeland Security has a file on this guy bigger than Liam Neeson's cock.

Why? His home made weapons suck. They're about as dangerous as nerf guns

KidneyStone: and which has any barrel with a bore of
more than one-half inch in diameter

That bit there... with the "and". Ands are strong words, legally. I imagine virtually all homemade versions of such devices have a bore smaller than half an inch.

Cosmoboy: nekulor: Where I'm from, we have traditions and decorum. Those traditions dictate we have the decency to use shells in our railguns, thank you very much.

Why would you ever put a shell in your railgun? That shiat can explode. Just use slugs,man,slugs.


R.I.P. Slug

whosits_112: Cosmoboy: nekulor: Where I'm from, we have traditions and decorum. Those traditions dictate we have the decency to use shells in our railguns, thank you very much.

Why would you ever put a shell in your railgun? That shiat can explode. Just use slugs,man,slugs.

[www.lendio.com image 453x295]
R.I.P. Slug

not just any slug, but a high velocity slug

just be glad they're not using racing snails.

So why hasn't DARPA offered him a job? I know they got teams working on this stuff, but if he's making it in his home, with the right resources, he could definitely improve it a lot

I'd love to have one, just to see what years of navy nuke training can do with it...

Combine a electronics tech background with a bit of boredom and I'm sure I could get that firing closer to a .357's muzzle velocity in short order...

Mugato: I bet Homeland Security has a file on this guy bigger than Liam Neeson's cock.

why?

way south: At any rate, its just more proof that the days of gun control lunacy are slowly coming to an end.
3d printed weapons with parts salvaged from common electronics will see to that.

You can make a modern gun in a CAVE, you farking moron.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khyber_Pass_Copy

toraque: Cthulhu_is_my_homeboy: cretinbob: That's not a gauss gun, that's a rail gun.

TFA says it's a multi-stage coilgun.

Also, cool as it is, it's only about as powerful as a BB gun. Actually with the right pellets, my Crosman Phantom air rifle has about twice as much muzzle energy. Sadly it's not semi-auto, though.

From the video, it's actually pretty small, about pistol sized. I don't know the engineering enough to judge whether or not you could expand that design from four stages to N, but I'm thinking a rifle length set of coils with the batteries and capacitors in a backpack might put it past the air rifle stage.

And then it would still be inferior, in every possible way, to this: 

My Tesla cannon is 10,000 times better.

Very good, but he's only leveraged half the advantage of the Gauss rifle, which is obscene muzzle velocity. The other is obscene rate of fire, and his 8-shot semi-auto doesn't even pretend to, er, shoot for that. Possibly due to legalities, which wouldn't surprise me at all.

Unlike conventional chambering firearms, a full-featured Gauss rifle doesn't have any moving parts that are critical to the action, doesn't need to eject a sabot, and doesn't need to go through a reload cycle. It can instead operate continuously, firing literally as fast as you can get rounds into the 'chamber' (start of the raceway). A gravity-fed hopper magazine might achieve extremely scary rates of fire.

You are a guy under a pseudonym right?

Sylvia_Bandersnatch: Unlike conventional chambering firearms, a full-featured Gauss rifle doesn't have any moving parts that are critical to the action, doesn't need to eject a sabot, and doesn't need to go through a reload cycle. It can instead operate continuously, firing literally as fast as you can get rounds into the 'chamber' (start of the raceway). A gravity-fed hopper magazine might achieve extremely scary rates of fire.

You may want some control over the rate of fire though, lest you send your hail of bearings out in one continous stream, and run out before you need to

Cthulhu_is_my_homeboy: Also, cool as it is, it's only about as powerful as a BB gun. Actually with the right pellets, my Crosman Phantom air rifle has about twice as much muzzle energy. Sadly it's not semi-auto, though.

Umm... No.

Your Crosman Phantom is a "1000 fps" .177 cal springer. Even a heavy 10 grain pellet at 1000 fps is only 22 fpe (30 joules) at the muzzle.

This thing claims 500 joules (370 fpe). That's getting into .357 magnum territory.

If you run the numbers, 4 18650 batteries (3.7V x 3000mAh) have enough energy to produce more than fifty 500 joule shots.

This thing is great! I would like to buy one. It's not a firearm so BATF (or whatever they call it) would not get involved. Or they might change their name to BABFM (Bureau of Booze, Firearms and Magnets).

Cosmoboy: nekulor: Where I'm from, we have traditions and decorum. Those traditions dictate we have the decency to use shells in our railguns, thank you very much.

Why would you ever put a shell in your railgun? That shiat can explode. Just use slugs,man,slugs.

Depleted Uranium slugs with white phosphorus tips.

That's how I roll with my railgun

elkraf: This thing is great! I would like to buy one. It's not a firearm so BATF (or whatever they call it) would not get involved. Or they might change their name to BABFM (Bureau of Booze, Firearms and Magnets).

Don't give them any ideas.
Those jackwagons have turned mission-creep into a god damned art form.

Biv: Cosmoboy: nekulor: Where I'm from, we have traditions and decorum. Those traditions dictate we have the decency to use shells in our railguns, thank you very much.

Why would you ever put a shell in your railgun? That shiat can explode. Just use slugs,man,slugs.

Depleted Uranium slugs with white phosphorus tips.

That's how I roll with my railgun

Newsletter, subscription, etc.

loonatic112358: whosits_112: Cosmoboy: nekulor: Where I'm from, we have traditions and decorum. Those traditions dictate we have the decency to use shells in our railguns, thank you very much.

Why would you ever put a shell in your railgun? That shiat can explode. Just use slugs,man,slugs.

[www.lendio.com image 453x295]
R.I.P. Slug

not just any slug, but a high velocity slug

just be glad they're not using racing snails.


Thank God, too...

Mugato: I bet Homeland Security has a file on this guy bigger than Liam Neeson's cock.

I highly doubt that...nothing's bigger than Liam Neeson's cock.

KrispyKritter: farking lot of work just to show off stupid tattoo

That's a Cowboys From Hell tattoo. You watch your goddamn mouth.

Heinrich von Eckardt: Cthulhu_is_my_homeboy: Also, cool as it is, it's only about as powerful as a BB gun. Actually with the right pellets, my Crosman Phantom air rifle has about twice as much muzzle energy. Sadly it's not semi-auto, though.

Umm... No.

Your Crosman Phantom is a "1000 fps" .177 cal springer. Even a heavy 10 grain pellet at 1000 fps is only 22 fpe (30 joules) at the muzzle.

This thing claims 500 joules (370 fpe). That's getting into .357 magnum territory.

If you run the numbers, 4 18650 batteries (3.7V x 3000mAh) have enough energy to produce more than fifty 500 joule shots.

He's claiming 500 joules into the capacitor. That's not the same thing as 500 joules at the muzzle. The article says he's getting 100 m/s out of it. A little back-of-the-envelope math puts his 5.7x16mm slugs at about 49 grains, or 3.1 grams.

3.1 grams at 100 m/s is 15.87 joules. Roughly half what the Phantom produces at the muzzle ;)

That's an energy efficiency of just about 3%.