Incredible 3D Printed Rail Gun

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Over the weekend a crafty maker named David Wirth uploaded pictures of his latest project, a working, handheld railgun capable of firing several different types of metal rods as ‘bullets’. The railgun was constructed using a combination of 3D printed parts, readily available electronics and hardware. Just like full sized railguns being developed by the military, this railgun uses a set of parallel electrodes to launch aluminum, tungsten, graphite or even plasma projectiles at up to 560 mph. You can read more of this project over on 3DPrint.com: http://3dprint.com/101512/3d-printed-working-railgun/

[curious aardvark]

how can it launch a 'plasma projectile' ?
Seen railgun projects before - usually very cool and bloody dangerous.

Interested to read about this when the page is there :-)

[Feign]

how can it launch a 'plasma projectile' ?

By putting it in a vacuum and feeding hydrogen onto the rails with the voltage cranked up. Such a device can only very loosely be called a "railgun" though.

[curious aardvark]

it's definitely a rail gun.

But there's a video of a pistol sized one that fires a lot faster somewhere on youtube.