A thompson coilgun as I like to call it, is basically a coil wrapped around a steel shaft or stalk and instead of a easily magnified metal like steel for the projectile we use a non magnetic metal such as alluminum.

The non-ferros alluminum ring is slid onto the steel rod till its nice and snug against the coil you have wound around the rod. When we send a current through the coil it creates a magnetic field or eddy currents. Since the alluminum is a great conductor it will will absorbe these eddy currents from the coil. When this happens the coil and alluminum ring will repell echother in opposite directions.

Im sure you allready see the most attractive advantage in a Thompson Coilgun. YOU DONT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT TURNING OFF THE COIL BY THE TIME THE PROJECTILE REACHS THE CENTER!!! yaaaaaayyyyy

No more calculating the projectile speed, projectile mass, turn on time, and turn off time of coil. If that wasnt great by itself but theres more! I have found a increase in effieciency over 20% in my first basic models, and over 40-50% increase in my now new advanced models.

After getting to a point with coilguuns where I would have to increase the amperage 2fold for only a %10 increase in velocity due to the short energy transfer periond which was inturn due to the suck back point having to turn off the coil before the projectile reached the center of the coil. I had seen the advancements in thompson coilguns and had decided to give it a shot or two. Since then I am most dedfently sure it was the right decision, and I advise anyone else to do the same.