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Water Guns

K4GPB writes: "Animated article shows inner workings of water pump guns capable of shooting 50 feet. In 1982, a nuclear scientist named Lonnie Johnson came up with an ingenious solution...In the late '90s, a new wave of Super Soaker guns came out that boasted higher pressure levels." Super soakers make great cat behavior-correction devices too.

47 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. The Urine effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    Yep. Pee in a supersoaker. Nothing makes people run quite so fast. Mind you, a little FOOD coloring in water IS the pee but no need to tell your friends that. Example: At party, PRELOAD supersoaker with FAKE pee water, hide in bathroom. Carry around second EMPTY soaker. Ask friend who is in on the gag to DARE you to fill it with your pee. Take the empty soaker to the bathroom, make the switch. Come out and spray someone. Aim for someone in white for the best effect. Adding SALT to the water will give it a funky smell. Sit back and laugh at how people will freak out at your poor taste and jugement. While you have the partys full attention, shoot it in your mouth, drink it and watch the reaction. Priceless. Note: Do not aim for people who are old or very young. Kids don't mind if you spray them with pee it seems and old people freak out too much. So aim for adults or pets. For more fun, spary the PEE into your buddys mouth.

  2. Re:behavior correction? by dattaway · · Score: 4

    Cats dislike water on their skin. From what I hear, their saliva contains an enzyme that keeps them from stinking, alerting their prey as cats are predators. Water washes away this enzyme.

  3. Cat behavior modification story by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 4

    Neighbor cat used to get on the fence and yowl at our cats something fierce. I kept a super soaker handy but he always ran away when he saw me coming. One day, his luck changed. He had made the mistake of getting too close to our cat on the fence, and when I came out, he didn't dare turn tail or he would have lost face with our cat, so he stood his ground while I got closer and closer. It was a very satisfying march to the fence once I realized this. His yowl got a bit higher in pitch as panic set in. I unloaded on him from about 5 feet away, a good hard super soaking. He never bothered our cats again. A truly satisfying day!

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  4. Re:Flammable Materials by Barbarian · · Score: 5

    When I was in junior high school, my friend tried this..they ended up with 2nd degree burns on one hand and 1st degree on the other hand and arm.

  5. Similar tech to water rocket launcher by ch-chuck · · Score: 2

    I think compressed air powered water was in used long before Lonnie Johnson "invented" it - just maybe not in water guns. I was a kid during the age of the pathetic pump squirt gun, but you could get water rocket launchers.

    There's also a nearby NASA base with a water powered sled used to test tires and stuff - a 2Mb movie of that in action is here.

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  6. Water Gun Ideas? by batobin · · Score: 2

    I'm an amateur prankster, and have always thought super-soakers to be an untapped source of laughs. Does anyone have any good suggestions on things to use in conjunction with super-soakers at the expense of someone else's dignity?

    Thanks in advance.

    1. Re:Water Gun Ideas? by jfunk · · Score: 3

      1) Newfoundland is not part of the Maritimes

      2) Neither Maritimers nor Newfoundlanders say 'eh'

      3) In joking about Jean, it's more humorous to suggest a water gun filled with pepper spray (or Inuit carvings...)

  7. Co2 powered? by Lumpy · · Score: 2

    Gawd, I'd love to make a CO2 powered one. (Fizz water anyone?) I'd bet that if you engineered it right you could get 100+ feet range although causing injuries at close range would probably be a bad thing....

    The ultimate water Shooter I have ever used is a 4inch dia firehose at the water filtration plant when they had the pressure cranked to 90psi The arc of the jet went over the 3 story building and hit the road on the other side. I'm betting I could knock people off of bicycles at 30 yards.

    BTW, that big of a hose at that pressure.. you need 2 people, and it still kick's your butt.

    --
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  8. Not true! by sharkey · · Score: 3

    From the 3-phase power page: Transformers must have alternating current to operate

    Transformers require Energon Cubes, not AC, to operate.

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  9. Flammable Materials by tbo · · Score: 3

    Does anybody know what happens if you fill a supersoaker with gas, and light the gas as it sprays out? Instant flamethrower? Or do you just blow yourself up? I've wanted to try this to get rid of wasp hives, but was a little scared about the possibility of horrible flaming death ("tastes like burning").

    Another cool variation would be a 50/50 mix of water and alcohol. Spray on something valuable, ignite, watch people scream before they realize it's not actually being hurt by the flames (because alcohol doesn't burn very hot and the water protects it from the heat).

    1. Re:Flammable Materials by Fesh · · Score: 3
      I've got the double-barreled model (forget what the number is offhand)... Was wondering if you could put a fuel in one tank and a strong oxidizer in the other, so they go off when they hit the target and mix. Come to think about it, methanol and decently concentrated Hydrogen Peroxide'd probably work... Or maybe RFNA and whatever you happen to have on hand?

      But then again, the oxidizer would probably burn the tank it was in, along with the plastic plumbing... I hear that bleach and brake fluid work though...


      --Fesh

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      --Fesh
      Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
    2. Re:Flammable Materials by Prof_Dagoski · · Score: 2

      At a sci-fi con, I also found a vendor who had reinforced a super soaker to shoot mayonaise. He called it the "ultimate spooge gun". People tended to steer clear of his table.

    3. Re:Flammable Materials by suss · · Score: 5

      Does anybody know what happens if you fill a supersoaker with gas, and light the gas as it sprays out? Instant flamethrower?

      2 words: Darwin Award.

    4. Re:Flammable Materials by vmxeo · · Score: 2

      Now you have me thinking...
      If you've got a double barreled water gun, why not attach a cattle prod to it? Fill the tank with an electrolytic solution, connect a lead to each barrel, and wire a switch to the trigger of the water gun, and watch the neighborhood kids run...

      ..ok, maybe not...

    5. Re:Flammable Materials by number+one+duck · · Score: 4

      Best thing I've ever seen shot out of a water gun was unset jello (which sets rather nicely in the cool spring air). If you want to be a cruel bastard, I've seen bleech done too.

      And yes, gasoline melts the plastic. This fact alone is probably all that has kept dumb hicks from making these flamethrowers for all this time.

  10. CBMT by AnalogBoy · · Score: 2

    Personally, i think it takes too much time to build up adequate pressure to modify the behavior of my cat. Then again, they dont make supersoakers with reinforced steel pressure chambers hooked up to air compressors.

    STOP CLIMBING ON THE DAMN CURTAINS !@!@()$*

    Deceptively cute. Holstien Cat.

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  11. herm... by mattACK · · Score: 2

    Must be a slow day.

    --


    "My God, this must be a truly remarkable corn chip, to be so widely and confidently touted."
  12. damn popup... by Arctic+Fox · · Score: 2

    Can that popup be any more worthless?
    You can't disable it! (no matter what the thing says)

  13. Re:I've always wanted to build this... by Arctic+Fox · · Score: 4
    We used to fill 2 Liter bottles with cold water and dry ice (don't use hot, as the bottle will expand, cold keeps the plastic from melting) and seal it up. After moments, the thing would blow.

    The good ones happened when it didn't blow, and some brave sould had to whack it with a shovel. Seeing a guy hit in the sac with a speeding bottle cap is funny.

    Certain bottles would fail differntly. The plastic juice bottles would blow the cap off. The top would just blow itself off the threaded part. It would still be screwed on, just "open" at the top....

    Soda bottles with burst from the side, I guess the tops were pretty solid.

    Aspirin bottles just became flying shrapnel. (Damn childproof top)

    Gulden's spicy mustard bottle made a friggin mess. The metal top would hold, but the sides wouldn't.

  14. Re:Tazer by Dr_Cheeks · · Score: 2

    14 Farads!?! What charging voltage did you use?

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  15. Re:How Stuff Works by Richy_T · · Score: 2
    I'm not so sure the article on power poles is completely correct or at least doesn't explain things all the way to the consumer.

    Having recently installed a power pole here, I can tell you that neutral is brought down from the main power line as the return path for the electricity. It could be that it is just fed directly to ground but I doubt it as it's well known that the voltage of ground between two different locations can vary quite significantly (That is why cat5 ethernet has no ground).

    Looking out my window, it is impossible to tell exactly how many wires come from the main power station as it looks like they are all bundled into one. There are four wires running between the main poles but one of them is cable, one phone co and one is probably a protective ground.

    Besides, I can tell you for a fact that when I lived in England, almost directly under some high tension power lines, the lines were bundled in groups of four with a small diamond shaped spacer at regular intervals. That's three phase and neutral.

    Besides, there's something I don't quite understand about US voltages. I have one neutral, two live ('hot') wires coming into the house. neutral to live is 110V fair enough. However, hot to hot is supposed to be 240V. Now, if you have three phases, each at 110V to neutral and 180 degrees out of phase to each other then one phase to the other would be 190V (in the UK, it's 240V and 415V). The only way you get anywhere near 240V is if you have a two phase supply where the phases are 180 out of phase and then you get 220V.

    So it appears that the electricity coming into the house is two phase. Not three as the article suggests.

    Of course, there is something I could be missing. Sitting up on the main power pole is a transformer. I guess that could be taking one of the phases (indeed, it may be that the locality here is only served by one phase) and converting it to two feeds, each 180 out from each other. That would also account for the single wire between the main poles and would make the article correct (for as far as the local substation anyway). Three phase would certainly be more logical anyway.

    Just for comparison, in the UK, most consumer power lines are laid underground and the homes are supplied with one neutral and only one live ('hot') wire so phases is not something we encounter often.

    Rich

  16. Re:Ah, nostalgia.... by Fesh · · Score: 2
    Now, after looking at that article, I really want the one with the bipod

    A bipod on a water gun has to be one of the most useless things I can think of... You get it set up and you're guaranteed to be standing still. Need I remind anyone how poor a tactic that is in a watergun fight? I think not...


    --Fesh

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    --Fesh
    Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
  17. Hose by MrGrendel · · Score: 2

    I used to cheat with a hose and a nozzle. Always against the rules, and the hose length could be limiting, but I had unlimited water and killer range. No one could argue with that (at least not without getting soaked).

  18. Super-soakers aren't the best by legLess · · Score: 3
    IMHO, nothing beats a Stream Machine (link to out-of-stock page, with photo, on Amazon). It's really simple - a long plastic tube with a nozzle at one end and a plunger with pistol grip handle at the other end. Stick in bucket, pull plunger, point at target, push plunger.

    Now, it might not sound that great, but it's really very nice. Your GMP (gallons-per-minute, like a shower head) is potentially much higher than a Super Soaker. The release rate is totally up to you - a little or a lot. I can shoot one about 30' straight up, and I'm not exactly muscle-bound.

    I once got in a water fight with one of these things; my buddy had a hose. Sure, I had to carry around a bucket, but he surrendered pretty fast after I shut his hose off ;)

    "We all say so, so it must be true!"

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  19. cruelty to animals by small_dick · · Score: 4

    I can't believe anyone thinks it's funny or appropriate to fire a high velocity water gun at a small animal.

    Maybe one of those 'Man-Kzin War' cats should cruise over to your house and drag you out to the fire hydrant and give you a good blasting.




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    1. Re:cruelty to animals by Fat+Casper · · Score: 2
      I used a squirt gun to teach my cats not to scratch the couch. Unfortunately, what I taught them was to not scratch it when I was around. The squirt gun was more effective than the thrown TV Guides, though. Those just taught them that I didn't like them. After I switched to water, they learned what they had to learn, unfortunately not quite what I was trying to teach them. Oh well, failure on my part.


      "You know, the golf course is the only place he isn't handicapped."

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  20. Re:behavior correction? by kfg · · Score: 2

    Well no, actually it's more like mussing their clothing. It does no harm and only annoys.

    KFG

  21. Tazer by Perdo · · Score: 2

    Take a pair of super soakers. Wire an electrode into each water tank, taking care to get a propper seal again. Fill them with vinigar. Wire 14 1 farad capacitors in parallel to the two electrodes. Charge the capacitors with a DC arc welder. fire.

    Effects:

    Both super soakers explode as the power vaporizes the vinigar but not until you have a complete circuit through your target which had better not be human, because the power discharge also vaporized a beautiful eliptical hole about 11 inches across in a 1971 GMC truck tailgate

    --

    If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.

  22. Ah, nostalgia.... by Morbid+Curiosity · · Score: 2

    I used to play with these things a lot back at university - a local club used to stalk around playing silly-buggers with them to relieve some of the monotony and stress of student life.

    The main problem I had with most waterpistols I could find was leakage - almost any pistol with any significant capacity had severe leaking problems. Then again, that could just be the quality of the stuff available locally, I suppose. Still, good to see some of the theory behind them, and why the bits that kept breaking did so (or at least how their breaking made stuff not work).

    Now, after looking at that article, I really want the one with the bipod :-)

  23. howstuffworks.com by Gnight · · Score: 2

    www.howstuffworks.com is an awesome site!

    Where else can you learn how to pick locks, see how speakers work, and learn how to program in c all at the same place?

    Hmm... I think I'm gunna check out how MP3 Compression works....

    -Gnight

  24. The Ultimate Water Gun by Alien54 · · Score: 4
    There is, of course, the Ultimate Water Gun page, featuring a portable unit that can reach 75 feet and more, with a helmut mounted nozzle, etc.

    It is built out of a converted fire extnguisher. You pressurize it to the spec of the canister, often in the range of 100 PSI.

    Do Not Over Pressurize!

    How to build instructions at the page.

    Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

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  25. Re:They skipped an entire generation. by CoreyG · · Score: 2

    The article went straight from squirt pistols to second generation Super Soakers, without ever mentioning the originals. The original Super Soakers weren't of the 2 reservior variety, but were a single reservior into which you pumped more and more air, not water, to build pressure. Doesn't say much for their research.

    If you had bothered to read page 3 you would have seen them mention the original Super Soakers.

    Doesn't say much for their research.

    I wonder what that says about your research.

    CoreyG

  26. Cat Behaviour modification device... by ackthpt · · Score: 2
    I doubt it's having the effect you assume. I tried this about 10 years ago on a couple young cats I had (Bill and Ted) and about the only behaviour modification I could observe was that they knew what the motorized water gun looked like and ran. Didn't do squat to make them keep off the mantle or stop gnawing on each other.

    Nice timely story though, as I expect Chinese workers have labored long and hard to keep these, and ripoffs like them, on the shelves of finer Walmarts everywhere.

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    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  27. Re:I've always wanted to build this... by Alioth · · Score: 2
    We used to fill 2 Liter bottles with cold water and dry ice (don't use hot, as the bottle will expand, cold keeps the plastic from melting) and seal it up. After moments, the thing would blow.

    Friend of mine did this, but for added effect, put an object over the bottle (like a colander or trashcan). Fortunately, he videoed it. The exploding bottle would fire the trashcan for some distance. On the video you heard >BOOM! They then had the idea of putting one of these bottles in the bathroom, on a stool, and videoing it at close range (running a video cable, so they could watch it from the safety of another room). The first one wasn't very good, so they wrapped the bottle in tape to make the pressure build up.

    The second one was rather too successful. It exploded, blowing the sink off the wall. The sink hit the toilet cistern, putting a hole in the cistern! Somehow, the videocamera remained standing during all of this. The first words on the tape when they re-enter the bathroom were "Holy Cow!" followed by "Oh don't worry, these aren't too expensive"...with the sound of running water in the background...

  28. It works! ... for about 30 sec by giznard · · Score: 2

    I wrecked my super soaker 50(or 75?, the model numbers were much smaller then) about 10 years ago doing that very thing. The cheap plastic hoses inside the unit were the first thing to disolve, limiting amount of damage I could cause to myself and surroundings.

    Maybe the engineers at Hasbro had thought ahead "What other liquids would a 14 year old boy put in this toy?", took the two most logical, being urine and gasoline, and attempted to work the implications of this substances into the design of the device.

    For the gasoline, disable the device ASAP by having the internal connections erode.
    As for the piss, well...

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  29. CO2 Powered Watergun by Afreet1 · · Score: 3

    This got me thinking, what if you took a CO2 tank from a paintball gun, removed the handle from the slide and made a pneumatic piston for the main chamber. If you used a solenoid and pressure sensor to avoid shattering the gun you could have an "auto-pumper". That would REALLY kick some ass at a squirt gun fight.

  30. The Exterminator by Mr.+Fusion · · Score: 2
    I just can't wait till they merge those Super Soakers with the old back pack waterguns.

    Super soakers make great cat behavior-correction devices too.

    I can see it now...

    Muscular man with shiny futuristic armor walks in, metal jingling on each footstep, holding a bazooka-shaped water gun with the emblem "SuperSoaker XPS 3000a." He stops in front of a small grayish brown feline, licking its paws.

    MAN: Hasta la vista, kitty.

    A wave of water flushes the kitty down the street as the cat's bellowing cry diminishes over the horizon.

    His next victim has been perambulating the streets for quite some time. The figure's bowl-cut haircut and PocketPC protector both shadow over the evil lurking beneath. Only the twinkle of dollar signs through his thick glasses and the insignia of framed flying windows give away his ebony demeanor...

    No real cats were hurt in this whimsical tale of pure delight, much to anyone's displeasure.

    -Mr. Fusion

  31. You made PETA mad! by tarbabyxxxx · · Score: 3
    Super soakers make great cat behavior-correction devices too.

    I imagine that tomorrow morning the FBI will break down your /. cult doors and haul off all your cats while screaming PETA members spray you with water cannons. Remember what happened to the Bonsai Kitten plant!


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  32. Re:For the confused by CrazyLegs · · Score: 2

    Um...Dude...Brian Tobin is not the Premier of Newfoundland anymore. He's been in Federal Cabinet for, like, a year or so (Minister of Labour or whatever...). Furthermore, he's touted as Uncle Jean's hand-picked sucessor.

    --

    CrazyLegs

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  33. One time, at Band Camp . . . by servasius_jr · · Score: 2
    Actually, it was at Scout Camp; we had these old portable fire extinguishers that were basically a big pump action nozzle attached to a big metal tank, worn as a backpack. As I recall, they had pretty good range and firepower, (waterpower?) and with something like 5 gallons of capacity, gave you pretty good staying power. They were made for putting out fires, right? I advise anyone who sees one at an antique store or where-ever to grab it.

    Also, I wonder if somebody could hack something together using an old portable marine bilge pump. Full automatic would rock.

  34. Re:Modern water guns suck. by tb3 · · Score: 2
    I played Assassin about 20 years ago at college, using the orignal rulebook from Steve Jackson Games. By the third game we had almost the entire college (150 people) playing. Total mayhem and paranoia for about a week. Of course, back then a banana with a lethal weapon. You could stab or shoot someone with it.

    I've still got my Intertek Uzi somewhere, but the damn things kept breaking down, and you had to take them apart to fix them. I had one of the battery operated pistols, too.

    The reason toy guns look fake is a federal law. Some kid pulled a toy gun on a guy a few years ago, and the guy shot him with a real gun. With the screwed-up gun laws in this country they decided to ban toy guns, the work-around being toy guns that look like toys. If you want something that looks like a real gun, get an airsoft pellet gun, but those have to have bright orange paint on the barrel.

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  35. They skipped an entire generation. by Jade+E.+2 · · Score: 3
    The article went straight from squirt pistols to second generation Super Soakers, without ever mentioning the originals. The original Super Soakers weren't of the 2 reservior variety, but were a single reservior into which you pumped more and more air, not water, to build pressure.

    Doesn't say much for their research.

    -Jade E.

    P.S. Yes, I've emailed the author about this and posted it in their forum. No response yet.

  36. Re:How Stuff Works by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 3
    --
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  37. How Stuff Works by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 5
    --
    main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
  38. Don't try this at home by s20451 · · Score: 2

    Firstly, the supersoaker is made of plastic, which would be dissolved by gasoline. Secondly, again with the plastic, it would melt under all but the briefest flame bursts - and if the fuel reservoir melted you'd be having a bad day. Thirdly, you need some way of keeping the flame away from the outlet so that it's not sucked back into the fuel container, and it wasn't designed with this in mind.

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  39. The Ultimate Watergun by mcowger · · Score: 3

    I can't believe no one has mentioned John young's Ultmiate watergun Aside from being a pretty ridiculous hack (imagine 100+ PSI from a backpack mounted FIRE EXTINGUISHER BOFY), he gives it out free to people witha good reason. He gave it to me and my friends for a college party (the "Beach Party") and it was the collest thing I have ever played with...I am working on building my own version. This guy truly has the ultimate water gun.

  40. Funnily enough... by Richard+Bannister · · Score: 2

    ...I always wanted a Super Soaker as a kid. All my friends had them. I was given one recently, and the magic is still there.

    I still believe, though, that a Paintball gun is far more effective for a good afternoon's fun.

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