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Reactive Targets

You learn something just about everyday. For your information, the plastic valves I bought for this project only holds air if the valve is in the fully close position or in the fully open position. When I aired up the three bottles, two of the bottles held the air but the third one needed to be tighten a little bit more. Once I was satisfied I had no air leaks, I started to turn the valve close and the air leaked out. The valves work like a rubber wall coming down from the top until the rubber wall compresses the bottom which makes a seal. I will have to take apart the parts that just unscrew and start from scratch again. Next time I will have to use the valve that acts like revolving door. Not sure how to explain it but the valve looks like a ball with a hole in the middle. Just looked it up. Its called a ball valve haha
 
Sorry, can't stop the engineering impulse. The above check valve was based on sticking with your PVC piping design. If you switch over to some sort of tubing you might be to dot it a lot cheaper with the following check valves, which are $3.62 and available in 1/8, 3/16, and 1/4" tubing sizes:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#7757k41/=zwcpog

How much pressure are you putting in those bottles? That's going to be something to pay attention to when picking out tubing and fittings.
 
This set up I have is working out really well. A quick turn of the knob closes the valve with very little air lost. I aired up the three bottles to 40 psi and after 4 hours, two of the bottles didn't lose any air while third lost very little air. I think I will air up the bottles to 90 psi in order to get a good explosion. I will record my result and post it tomorrow