News: 13 I-do-mean Hellacious Potato Gun how-to Articles

Here are the13 best articles on How to Build a Potato Gun.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/15796837/To-Make-A-Spudgun-An-instructionally-informative-document-by-Enoctis

Here was my process: 

I chose among combustion based guns.  No pneumatics.  As a curator of the video site, Wonderhowto, I decided to studiously collect all the available written directions/plans/tutorials on the internet for potato guns and then to assign a grade to each of the qualifying plans.  If I could not understand how to replicate the basic plan, I junked it.  I did not grade based on optimum specifications.  I cared more about the intent to instruct.  I did not judge based on the chosen chamber-to-barrel ratio. I have seen anywhere from 2.2:1 all the way to .6:1.   I sorted through a variety of terms to be sure to be inclusive: spud gun, potato cannon, tater taser, potato gun.

Disclaimer:

This World admin has my bias.  I simply believe in the taser as the connoisseur's ignition.  I have never performed an A/B test, measuring the velocity of a barbeque switch potato gun as against the velocity of a taser potato gun, with matching specs.  I would invite someone to test this with a speed gun and give me the results.  But I have an empirical bias.  Tasers just work better and provide for a faster potato. And that click-buzz-zap sound is awesome too.

Conclusions:

It was interesting.  Objectively speaking, the best plans came from pure specialty enthusiasts.  And the bigger 'content' sites provided adequate diagrams and instructions, but they definitely lacked soul and lacked the reassuring level of detail that a first time potato gun maker needs.  All the following articles are considered good by me.  The ones at the top are simply much better.    Only one is designed for the taser ignition.  And not surprisingly, it is the most knowledgeable article by a country mile.

It was also clear to me that the best plans have yet to be written.  And so now I have a spring time plan for myself.  I plan to create a video how-to for Wonderhowto in the next couple weeks.  It will be the definitive Potato Gun tutorial and the text will be … potatowonderful.  I am aware that internet links break and more importantly, new and better links emerge.  So, I ask you to write to me and tell me when there is a hot potato tutorial, in vitro.

Grade A.

I mean…teaming Bill Gurstelle, and Make magazine, and a taser…..is a potato dream team.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20158908/How-to-make-The-Potato-Cannon-a-k-a-the-spud-gun

Grade A-

This next grouping happen all to be barbeque based plans.  Here are the best of breed:

http://tom.2ub.org/docs/potato_cannon.html 

http://www.spudtech.com/content.asp?id=5  

http://www.aaroncake.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8279 

http://www.jbprojects.net/projects/potato2/ 

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~fricke/spudgun/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/15796837/To-Make-A-Spudgun-An-instructionally-informative-document-by-Enoctis

http://www.capital.net/~anker/plans.htm

Grade B

When Armageddon comes, they will do.  But until then, go with ones above.

http://dangerouslyfun.com/spud-gun  

http://www.articlesbase.com/outdoor-sports-articles/how-to-build-a-spud-gun-with-sureshot-kit-sik20-1073232.html 

http://trevorshp.com/creations/cannon.htm  

http://www.burntlatke.com/safety.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_build_a_POTATO_LAUNCHER/ 

Grade C

The basics are here.  But why choose good when I have offered you great?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/adventures/3890557.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Spud-Gun

http://www.ehow.com/how_2042650_make-potato-gun.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/94193/how_to_make_a_potato_gun_its_cheap_pg2.html?cat=22

http://tipdeck.com/how-to-build-a-potato-gun

There are more.  But they were all Graded C or below by me and my friends.  So I did not bother to list them for you.  That is the thing about Google.  You can keep on going and going. But just because it is called a tutorial, does not mean it is a tutorial.  So consider this the definitive curated potato gun list.  In the words of that great curator, Ricky Bobby, "If you ain't first, you're last."