Racquet Ball with Compression/Piston Design?

[Tinbot99]

The compression/piston design is a design that is quite widespread in which a falling mass shaped to nearly perfectly fit inside the drop tower, is dropped and compresses the air launching the projectile. Now in all the iterations of this design that I've seen, a ping pong ball has been used as the projectile. I was wondering if anyone has ever seen a design that utilizes a piston design and launches a racquet ball or if you think that there is a possibility that an air piston design could be constructed that is able to launch a racquet ball 8 m with the 3.5 kg falling mass and 75 cm constraints.

It is important to consider the masses of each type of ball:
Ping Pong Ball: 2.7 g
Racquet Ball: 40 g

[knightmoves]

The convenient thing for a ping pong ball is that you can buy standard schedule 40 PVC that is about the right ID for a gun barrel for a ping pong ball projectile. There isn't a similar standard pipe that matches a racquet ball.

[p1o2i3u4]

That's an interesting idea! While a racquet ball is significantly heavier than a ping pong ball, it might still be possible to design an air piston system to launch it 8 meters with a 3.5 kg falling mass. However, as knightmoves mentioned, finding a suitable barrel might be a challenge since there isn't a standard pipe that matches a racquet ball's diameter as conveniently as there is for a ping pong ball. You might need to custom-make a barrel or find an alternative material that fits the racquet ball closely. Additionally, you would likely need to adjust the compression and sealing mechanisms to handle the increased mass and ensure efficient energy transfer. Has anyone tried experimenting with different barrel materials or custom solutions?