Barry's Coilgun Design Site

Current projects: Click here to see my best coilgun, and my levitator schematic and my RLC Simulator.

What is a coilgun or gauss gun? It accelerates a piece of iron or steel down a tube. The tube runs through a series of electromagnetic coils (like solenoids). There are no sparks or noise or impressive side effects (or parts to wear out). Some careful timing circuits energize each coil in sequence. The principle of magnetic attraction draws the projectile along at rapidly increasing speed.

Why build a coilgun? It demonstrates many basic concepts of magnetic machines. A coilgun is foremost an example of a solenoid. These appear practically everywhere, from car door locks to doorbells, from diskette drive ejectors to fuel injectors. The only difference is that most solenoids limit the range of travel, and usually have a spring return. A coilgun is also an example of a simple linear motor.

A coilgun is scalable to very large applications, possibly as large as a mass driver to put payloads into orbit. It's a keen space-age toy. It has no moving parts -- there's the magic of invisible forces at work. It requires no special construction techniques or unusual tools. Winding coils is fun and relaxing (at least for the first few!). Even small coils are remarkably powerful.

You can also learn about magnetic levitation here. These pages include complete design details for several maglev demonstrators which levitate small iron parts. Read all about it and see levitation pictures.

8/12/2008 - This mad scientist will be on TV in August 2008! Look for:

Discovery Project Earth
"Engineering the Future"
August 22 at 9pm on channel 8 in Seattle
"Professor Roger Angel at the University of Arizona believes that placing trillions of lenses in space can diffract the power of the sun to reduce global warming.”

How do you launch a trillion lenses? With a giant coilgun, of course. I was hired as the coilgun consultant for the 7 kilojoule coilgun that was designed and built in England for this Discovery Channel episode.

I was an ‘extra’ on location during filming in the Arizona desert at an abandoned silver mine. There’s a good chance I'll be in the background a few times. Watch me unveil the massive coilgun when the talent arrives. See me carry empty jerry cans from a superfluous army truck. Wonder why my shoes are covered with gaffer tape. Admire my giant rubber high-voltage gloves on the lead f/x technician. Great fun, tell your friends!

For background, please read Prof. Angel's Feasibility Study PDF (1MB).