The Air Cannon has always been one of the best startles we have. Usually it scares the parents waiting for the TOT’s more than the TOT’s themselves. Some modifications this year to the Air Cannon to make it even more effective include the addition of the following:
The original Air Cannon dumped all of the air once triggered due to the cheap plastic sprinkler valve not being strong enough to re-close once opened.
We replaced the 1″ sprinkler valve which always let off kind of a HONKING sound at high pressure with an industrial Deltrol EV3-5-A2 3/4″ Dump Valve. This valve maintains the pressure in the tank as long as air power is applied but using a diaphram NOT a valve instantly dumps the air in the tank once the air supply is cut.
Here you see it attached to the cannon in place of the Sprinkler valve. These are very high quality and should last thousands of cycles since there is no mechanical valve inside. This allows for fine control of the air release from a full dump to split second on and off rapid firing.
The new completed Air Cannon! Speaking of rapid fire…
When I was at Hauntworld in 2003 (wow long time ago…) I bought this Air Cannon Rapid Fire Controller from Haunt Master Products… I wonder if they are still in business… Yep they are! Though I don’t see this in their product line anymore…
This basically will rapidly cycle the solenoid on and off like a machine gun and makes this cannon even more effective as a scare.
Without Rapid Fire
With Rapidfire Controller