

I caught up with [Larry] from pauldotcom.com and got a quick walk-through of his Shmooball gun. After several less successful attempts, this one worked pretty damn well and featured a distinctive sound that caused a notable glimmer of fear in the eyes of the speakers. *cough*[renderman]*cough*. Read on for the secrets of the Shmooball gun.



The gun is pneumatic, so pressure was supplied from a 7-800psi CO2 paintball gun through this quick disconnect. [Larry] needed an adapter to connect to the 1/4″ regulator input. He made the small chamber, with each connection, and found that it acted as a helpful expansion chamber for the gas supply.



The lower pressure storage chamber is fed about 100psi from the regulator. To release the pressure to the firing chamber, he used this electric water sprinkler solenoid. These take around 12VDC and slightly slow the pressure expansion into the firing chamber



The trigger was built using a simple safety mechanism – two momentary push buttons have to be depressed to fire the sprinkler solenoid.



The get a good seal on the Shmooball, he cut down a beer cozy to act as reusable wadding.



The wadding fits quite well around the 2.75″ Shmooball. The twine keeps the wadding from going the way of the Shmooball.



A velcro mounted laser pointer provides quick aim for chasing tricky speakers.

Thanks to [Larry] for giving us the tour!