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[Dragon]

I saw an article called laws on the cheap, let me tell you a story about a home made law. Last fri night before a sceduled scenario game at my field, a player brought in a home built law to show me and ask about using in sat game. IT looked well desighned and well built (one of the best I have seen) I compimented the player on his craftmanship and desighn, player thanked me and promised it shot great and wanted me to air it up and shoot it. I agreed so player aired up his law and the next thing i knew me and my 12 tear old son were blown off our feet by a deafening explosion. The law had exploded and turned into shrapnel in my shop out of reaction i threw my hands in front of my sons face and a peice of shrapnel went through my middle finger between the middle knuckle and the end of my finger and into his face. The peice that went through my finger destroyed the bone (shattered) and left 14 stiches in my sons face mostly in his eye brow (lucky). Now I am sitting here waiting to here if my finger can be saved or has to be removed due to lack of bone and nerve damage, my son has sworn of paintball (and was a heck of a player. luckily the owner of the whepon got knocked off his feat and no injurys go figure that. All this happend at 120 psi how it happened i don't know, what turned lose i have no idea, all i do know is it is a wonder we didn't get killed. So next time some one wants a law on the cheap tell them to call jcs or some company that builds them, a players cheap law has cost me quite a bit of money and hardship so far, cheap huh
Thanks The Boss

[gfgjester]

Incredible. I wish you and your son a speedy recovery. I hope that your finger heals with no permanent defects. I really hope that your son gets over this trauma and comes back to paintball. He can play for the rest of his life and never have to come close to a laws, again.

I would really like to get some more details about this incident. The builders name, etc. At this point, I can't help but think that the pressure went beyond the 120 psi that it was set for. But I'd like to talk to you and the builder and possibly get some photos so I can write on it. Please PM me if you're interested.

[socoj2]

if the PVC blew into shrapnel it was a lot higher then 120 PSI.

My Guess..

1. He was using CO2
2. He did not have a saftey pop off valve.

3. Even at 120 PSI Compressed gas has an incredible ammount of Force. But to Turn PVC into Shrapnel Ala Mr.Wizard then what you would have to do is exceed its rated PSi capacity by 15-25%, Possible ways of doing this?

1. A reg stuck open
2. Liquid CO2 into a reg causing it to freeze.
3. Being stupid and not having a Pop off Valve.



In the Future if anyone shows you a home made cannon and they do not have one of these walk away with a quickness!

[the boss]

it was compressed air, it had a pop off valve (rated at what i don't know) and a regulator ,and it went off like a bomb I think the problem could have been the regulator. something failed one way or the other the pressure had to spike it knocked me flat of my a$$ and anybody that knows me will tell you i am a big guy. Like i said it looked to be one of the best desighns i have seen in a while and i have a lot of them come through my shop. I am just glad nobody got killed

[crooked butt doctor]

i hope you and your son have a safe, and speedy recovery. in the future, i would recommend that when gassing up a HOMEMADE launcher of any sort, at the very least a paintball goggle system should be worn. launchers are just spud guns... i've seen more than a couple of spud guns go off. let this be a lesson to everyone, launchers are fun, but they're not toys. be safe.

[FIREBUG]

A safe and speedy recovery to you and your son. A field up in New York, befor Cousoins, had a "safe box", a old tractor trailer box with a remote control trigger system to try out ANYTHING home made. Players think that it was stupid, but it saved a couple of people in my time. Not that they did not allow homemade, they just wanted to make sure everything was safe. 5 shots of anything you brought with you.

[crooked butt doctor]

Originally Posted by FIREBUG

A safe and speedy recovery to you and your son. A field up in New York, befor Cousoins, had a "safe box", a old tractor trailer box with a remote control trigger system to try out ANYTHING home made. Players think that it was stupid, but it saved a couple of people in my time. Not that they did not allow homemade, they just wanted to make sure everything was safe. 5 shots of anything you brought with you.

not a bad idea. it does sound like one more line to stand in, one more hole to have punched etc etc, but still, a very good idea in the name of safety.

[warpedx]

Wow that's a story. Good luck healing from the injuries.
Unless it was some cheap pvc, I think it's pretty likely that it was over pressurized.
I know several members here have experience building with LAWS. Maybe we can put together a list of Safety Checks to use when building or firing such homemade goods.

[tetanus]

I was thinking the same thing, cheap PVC, do you know what schedule he used for the launcher?

[gfgjester]

I just ran into Mike "Coach" Cancienne of the Flag Raiders in Wally World. After showing me the rather long scar on his arm as a result of PVC, he said that even Schedule 80 will not withstand pressure over 220-230 psi. Sounds more like a regulator malfunction that lead to overpressurization and explosive decompression. Using PVC is dangerous in itself. If it could be used safely, you'd think that JCS would use it instead of aluminum.