[nzanesmith]

Would there be interest in me offering various air/water/fire cannons, distribution manifolds, reservoir tanks, or "haunted arcade games" (an arcade cabinet with a monitor and a button to trigger an air cannon or similar prop either in the haunt or que line) these can be either coin operated or free. Basically I have been building a few different things for our haunt and would love to offer them to the public. I can build an air cannon as cheap as $100 which is very simple and suitable for the home haunter or can go all out and have a proper air cannon with a proper pneumatic valve that shoots a mist of water that is triggered by a triggering pad in the floor. Or I can set you up with a whole pneumatic system from compressor to tanks to manifolds to cannons. This is something that I do in my free time not as my primary income so my prices would be much lower then actual merchants. If i manage to get enough interest between these forums and haunted house forums I would go to TW with these products but would need interest/orders before i committed to the conference. As everything is built to order you get exactly what you want and we can work within any budget to get there. If you want something simple and economical we can do that, if you need something to stand up to commercial use then we can do that to and anywhere in between.


I recently had some interest in the "haunted arcade game" and roughly estimated a cost of around $200 for just the cabinet itself with monitor, power and trigger.. Add roughly $50ish for the camera and as low as $100ish for a simple air cannon and you have a basic "haunted arcade game" for AROUND $350. Now that price is just a estimate but should be fairly close. If you want artwork on the cabinet thats an option as well as many other bells and whistles. I can go as simple as you can afford or as crazy as you can imagine with this and any of the products I offer and all products will be thoroughly tested to my high standards of quality and reliability, I will not ship a substandard product.

Thanks
Nick

here is an example of my personal concussion cannon which is triggered by a remote with a master switch and a triggering button. This would sell for $100 by itself or $150 with the remote.

 

[Growler]

I really like the idea of the air or fire canon. I would be interested in one of these with a remote. I'm also glad to see that you aren't making it out of pvc. I use an air compressor and with all the props I use, I think I would blow the hell out of pvc. Let me know if you get enough interest in the canons.

 

[UnOrthodOx]

FIRE cannon!?!

I'm interested, but gotta see it in action before I go putting money down on an order.

 

[Big Nick]

I know i would be down for fire cannons without a doubt. Only question on my mind is are the fire cannons legal? Last thing i want to do is get taken away ina police car on Halloween night.

 

[nzanesmith]

FIRE cannon!?!

I'm interested, but gotta see it in action before I go putting money down on an order.

we;re working on a better "all-n-one" design right now but the first prototype shot a cloud of fire about 15-20 feet away and about 6-8 feet tall. i'm working on a self delivery system with explosion proof valves and self ignition system so all you do is hit the button.

 

[nzanesmith]

I know i would be down for fire cannons without a doubt. Only question on my mind is are the fire cannons legal? Last thing i want to do is get taken away ina police car on Halloween night.

I am by no means qualified to say one way or the other but depending on weather your a pro haunt or a home haunt I'm sure would make a difference. As a pro haunt I know insurance would have their questions. I would assume a pyrotechnics permit was needed from the city/county proper fire precautions and maybe even a licensed pyrotechnics operator be either on staff or operating the cannon. I would also assume that since the cannon itself is not explosive when purchased it is perfectly legal to buy and own. The second you introduce a combustible is when legal issues would need to be addressed. The simple way around all this is to go with a water cannon and be done with it all.

Nick

 

[UnOrthodOx]

we;re working on a better "all-n-one" design right now but the first prototype shot a cloud of fire about 15-20 feet away and about 6-8 feet tall. i'm working on a self delivery system with explosion proof valves and self ignition system so all you do is hit the button.

Heh.

I think that's a bit of overkill for anything other than a stage performance. Typically haunts have people much closer...any chance of it getting scaled down, considerably? Or a scaled version?

And frankly, I wouldn't need the self ignition or the self delivery. Maybe some kit forms? (explosion proof valves are a must, though ) What fuel did you use?

IDEALLY, we would have adjustable fuel as well to create colored fire...

 

[nzanesmith]

Heh.

I think that's a bit of overkill for anything other than a stage performance. Typically haunts have people much closer...any chance of it getting scaled down, considerably? Or a scaled version?

And frankly, I wouldn't need the self ignition or the self delivery. Maybe some kit forms? (explosion proof valves are a must, though ) What fuel did you use?

IDEALLY, we would have adjustable fuel as well to create colored fire...

I think a scaled version is well within reason and is just a matter of me getting the time to tinker with it. The original version was designed for more of an effect outside for the que line or something like that. Never had intentions of having it fire near or at people. But yes all I need to do is scale everything down and restrict fuel flow to get a much more reasonable display.

The self ignition and fuel delivery was designed so all you have to do is hit a button and the fireball fires and then shuts off the fuel valve and turns off/on the ignition system only when the cannon is fired. Please PM me if you have something in mind that you'd like to try. I would assume your simply asking for a cannon that has the previsions for adding fuel and an ignition source but please message me so we can discus this.

The fuel we used was a bit of whatever we had laying around the shop. A few of the tests were gas, others were lighter fluid and we are planning on testing propane soon.

I like your idea of adjustable fuel, are you meaning in terms of different fuels or simply fuel flow? Either wouldn't be an issue with either a pressure regulator or a mixing chamber.

Your fuel choices are basically endless, anything that flows and burns will work. I assume ideally that a propane fuel would be ideal since it is inexpensive and easily found. Please all feel free to chime in with the fuel type you would prefer.

Great questions, thanks
Nick

 

[halloween house]

I would also be interested in a air cannon with remote. Would like to see a video.

 

[nzanesmith]

Ok just had an order so i had to finalize on price. for the low profile version in the pic with the good pneumatic valve your looking at 175 with a remote. For a tank style with a 5 gallon tank your looking at 200 with a remote. With an 11 g tank your looking at 220 with a remote. I am planning on actually building a prototype of the haunted arcade game sometime this month so i can get a price set for that too. As I said there are different options we can do with all of these cannons and arcade games so if you have something in mind send me a message. I will get some pics and vids up tonight of the cannon i have on hand and once i build the game it will have its own.

Nick

 

[UnOrthodOx]

I like your idea of adjustable fuel, are you meaning in terms of different fuels or simply fuel flow? Either wouldn't be an issue with either a pressure regulator or a mixing chamber.

Your fuel choices are basically endless, anything that flows and burns will work. I assume ideally that a propane fuel would be ideal since it is inexpensive and easily found. Please all feel free to chime in with the fuel type you would prefer.

Great questions, thanks
Nick

Yes, I can see a large fireball like that at an entrance to a professional haunt or something. I'm personally thinking (and I think the majority of the forum is as well) of a home-use situation. I could NOT get away with a 6 ft tall flame anywhere in my yard and feel safe that patrons are far enough away and/or somethings not going to catch fire. (not enough space in the front, too many trees in the back)

Well, and adjuster for fuel FLOW SHOULD allow the user to scale the size of the fireball to their liking. That should solve THAT 'problem' right there, and allow you to keep just the one size fits all design.

But, I was thinking in terms of the fuels that create green or red flames. I'm not all up to snuff on the stuff, myself, so am not sure how it comes (liquid v gas), or what kind of pressurization they use. I'm just am aware of it being out there. (Concerts/stage shows often have colored flame systems)

I have made liquid fuel for various colors before, and had been tinkering the idea of a system to spray that concoction up out of a firepit to make it temporarily produce green flames instead of orange on demand. But, it's currently one of those "meybe next year" things.

 

[nzanesmith]

Yes, I can see a large fireball like that at an entrance to a professional haunt or something. I'm personally thinking (and I think the majority of the forum is as well) of a home-use situation. I could NOT get away with a 6 ft tall flame anywhere in my yard and feel safe that patrons are far enough away and/or somethings not going to catch fire. (not enough space in the front, too many trees in the back)

Well, and adjuster for fuel FLOW SHOULD allow the user to scale the size of the fireball to their liking. That should solve THAT 'problem' right there, and allow you to keep just the one size fits all design.

But, I was thinking in terms of the fuels that create green or red flames. I'm not all up to snuff on the stuff, myself, so am not sure how it comes (liquid v gas), or what kind of pressurization they use. I'm just am aware of it being out there. (Concerts/stage shows often have colored flame systems)

I have made liquid fuel for various colors before, and had been tinkering the idea of a system to spray that concoction up out of a firepit to make it temporarily produce green flames instead of orange on demand. But, it's currently one of those "meybe next year" things.

Thanks for that info. I think we have decided on a path for the home haunters that want a smaller effect. We are going to scale the whole thing down and have a flow regulator for the fuel. So it will be cheaper, smaller and adjustable. For the larger haunts we can still go big if thats what there looking for. I will work on a scaled down version this month and we'll go from there.

Nick.

PS I will look into that colored flames, the valves are rated for both liquid and gas so that isn't an issue so as long as they are withing the operating pressures and temps it really wouldn't matter.

 

[nzanesmith]

Youtube vids

YouTube - c cannon test

This is the concussion cannon. The sounds isn't as loud but there is much more force behind it. If you look the cannon moves when im not holding it with this effect.

YouTube - air cannon test

This is the regular air cannon. The sound is much louder. The honk at the end is a result of the style of valve that is on this one and will not appear in the production models. It honks due to the valve closing slowly where as the pneumatic valves close about 5 times faster eliminating the honk sound. I was also holding the trigger down longer then i needed to keeping it open longer.

You can also see in the videos that when the kill switch is off the trigger button doesn't work. This is to keep unwanted people from triggering the cannon.

In this pic you see the whole cannon and remote at the top. The production version will have a different valve on top but will look nearly identical, unless you order the tank version in that case everything will be built off of a small air tank.

In this pic you can see the kill switch on the right of the remote and the trigger button on the left.