Barry's Coilgun Design Site

Read the slides for Magnetic Launches - Hands-on Ideas 10 , my presentation about coilguns on May 15, 2013. It explains what makes them work, their potential to solve real problems, and the challenges involved in making and operating them. It shares some designs and how you can build on this work. This is hosted by Openly Disruptive for people that want to define the future.

Current projects: Click here to see my latest coilgun, my best coilgun or my levitator.
Also try out my RLC Simulator and Inductor 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.

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