Tennis Ball Cannon - Auto Loading

grabcad

This is a tennis ball cannon I built a couple of years ago and it works well for launching tennis balls out about 100 yards/meters. it uses compressed air and has a pop off valve to ensure that operation is well within the PVC pressure operational ratings. It is relatively simple to build and is constructed of PVC tubing and a pop up sprinkler to actuate the bolt, It has a feed tube on top to hold the tennis balls that automatically load after each shot. It utilizes two trigger (had come up with a design to have a valve assembly to do both, but this was much simpler), one that moves the bolt forward to load the tennis ball, and the other which pops off the air via a modified sprinkler valve. The first time I tested it, kids down the block came running up to see what it was. Soon we were also launching plastic water bottles (same diameter as a tennis ball), and they burst when they hit the ground, which got them even more excited... Too much fun !