T-Shirt Cannon

VEX V5 General Discussion
1

Can we get help to build a canon for our school on this forum?
I want to know what parts will be needed and if there is any website or video help available.
Thank you so much!

2

This is a forum for Vex robotics, I am not sure how much the community will be able to help with the t-shirt cannon, because this forum is mainly dedicated to Vex. Unless you plan to build it using vex parts :grinning:. On a serious note though, maybe someone on this forum might be able to PM you if they have any knowledge on how to build this.

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3

Yes, I am planning to use VEX parts if possible.

4

Idk if this is helpful or not, but heres a video of a VEX T-Shirt cannon from 10 years ago:

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5

now are you wanting to make like a hand held cannon or a full blown remote controlled robot? the second option is actually easier

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6

also note that vex’s pneumatic systems are just small cylinders, they don’t put out near enough power to shoot a T-shirt. easiest thing to do in my opinion would build a fully VEX made base, and make a completely separate system for the cannon.

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7

full blown remote controlled robot

8

Will do. Thanks.
But my intention is build a low power first, and try separate system later

9

well for the vex systems, I’m not sure if they will even have the power to push a shirt out more than a few inches. (I haven’t used the pneumatics much at all so I could be completely wrong)

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10

Thank you so much! I will start working on it after Thanksgiving and purchase the parts

11

You might consider using a “slapper” as seen here:

You’d replace the yellow balls with t-shirts and shoot them. (I don’t know how well this would work.)

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12

A really high strength puncher would work.

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13

shirts really aren’t ideal projectiles. they’re soft, so they won’t launch too far if you just hit them, they’re light, which means their inertia is pretty low. if you really want to launch t shirts with vex parts, I think some launcher that throws rather than punches would be more effective. I’d recommend either a catapult or a flywheel, probably a flywheel will launch the shirt farthest. if you bunch up the t shirt into a ball first, it will be easier to launch as well.

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14

I’ve always wanted to make a catapult that spun around like a flywheel and then stop. The centrifugal force would (hopefully) send the tshirt flying. Be fun to code at least.

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15

Will research on it. I am thinking about soft balls made out of foam carrying candies in it for the kids to start the game with it.

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16

Wrap up the shirt really tight and feed it into a double flywheel. If it works to shoot candy, it should work to shoot shirts. Plus unlimited motors to speed up with means infinite power.

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