Coilgun Construction

The physical layout and construction is very forgiving in coilgun construction. Indeed, this is a large part of their attraction to me, since my shop tools and skills are not sophisticated.

Although the construction is not critical, it is useful to document how the Mark IV was built and explain some of the design choices.

Construction

The next few pages describe the dimensions and construction, and provides some background on parts selection along with techniques for speed measurement.

This photo shows the Mark IV coilgun during early construction, using a Variac-controlled adjustable power supply.