So in terms of good foam, would you guys recommend the Log Home white foam or the Mile High black foam? Which is better for stock blasters (i.e. no PVC or brass in anything, just stock barrels) ?

Thanks in advance.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm going to be buying material for captain slug's washer/felt stefans, and wanted to know if I could buy the foam in incriments of something between 25' and 250'. Optimally I would like 100'.

Here is the link to the part in question.

Thanks!

If you search for foam rod you can get it from there in 20' increments.

So I recently ordered and received 40' of LogHome's white FBR, and I have to say it's a night-and-day difference next to the Ace foam. It's got a much better diameter, way better density, and works great in stock blasters.

One note is that I did some testing with making slug darts (with the #8 washers and felt tips) and tried a couple of different lengths (2" darts vs. 2.5" darts) and, in clip system blasters anyway, the 2.5" darts work MUCH better. I'm guessing this is because the length of the dart is pushed farther back into the barrel, creating a better seal.

Also, I tried a couple darts burning a hole in the back of the dart, and some without the hole. I didn't see any noticeable difference in either distance or accuracy with or without the hole, so I'll probably do without since it's more work to make the holes as well.

EDIT: And in regards to adhesive, I tried this "Weld Bond" stuff that I found at Ace, but it's basically no better than Elmer's Glue, so I started using a tiny drop of hot glue instead. Works great.

I bought some FBR from Ace Hardware a long, long time ago (couple years at least), and it's sort of a dark grey color, nice density and excellent fit in stock blasters. Recently I bought some more Ace Hardware FBR, but this stuff is not nearly as quality. It's a lighter grey, less dense, and has a pretty crappy fit in stock blasters (too thin even after heating)

So, two questions:

1. What's the best source for FBR these days?

2. Is there any way to improve/fix the FBR I already have? i.e. make it thicker/more dense.

Here are some comparison pictures of the two Ace FBRs (most recent/crappy one on the right)

Sorry for the bump, but I have a quick question.

To those who removed the rod that the dart fits over--How did you remove it? It seems like it would be hard to get a cutting tool down in that tiny barrel, and so far I can't figure out how. I need to remove it for it to be able to shoot my Stefans with little or no hole in the back.

Thanks for the help.

EDIT:

Actually, I managed to get it out. Not in the "best" way, but it ended up turning out well.

I just took a cylindrical object (in this case, a head-changeable screwdriver minus the head) and pushed down on the rod until it snapped off. When it came off, it incidentally left a little bit of the reinforcement plastic on the barrel, so the darts won't get shoved too far down, but still without the rod. This enabled me to use my Stefans in the clip with no jamming and great amounts of power (I also took out the air restrictor, obviously) The Stefans I made are about as long as the foam part alone of the Streamline darts, so about 1/3 or so of an inch shorter than stock. But I'm pleased that they work so well. I can see where ones that were too short (maybe less than 1.5 inches or something) wouldn't get pushed far enough into the barrel to create a good seal and thus not work as well.

Anyway, just thought I would share my results.

Except among the darts I tried in the store, even stock darts wouldn't fit. My white FBR is a little fat, but it works fine in stock barrels.

I guess the only option is to order from someplace that has better tolerance control, like McMaster.

EDIT: The CPVC I bought from ACE is almost exactly 15/32, a full 1/32 too small to even consider using a dart in.

1/2" CPVC is way too small (i.e. can't even force the dart all the way in)

Sorry if you've already tried this, but when I first tried using cpvc as a barrel material I also thought it was way too tight. I, however, was just trying to push it in, instead of twisting. If you haven't already, try twisting the foam into the cpvc.

Sorry if that doesn't help you.

Yeah, that does help, thanks, but that's even only after drilling out the CPVC with a 1/2" spade bit, and even then it won't twist in all the way. It's just really, really too small.

There must be a huge variation because, like I said, I went to each store and took a variety of darts with me, and none of them fit well enough to use. 1/2" Sch. 80 PVC is way too big, and 1/2" CPVC is way too small (i.e. can't even force the dart all the way in)

So far the only success I've had with CPVC is by reaming it out with a 1/2" spade bit. Pain in the ass but at least it sort of works then.

To everyone saying you can get working PVC/CPVC from Home Depot, Ace, or Lowes, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. I went to both of my local ones and took some darts with me. NONE of the 1/2" CPVC I've found will fit darts comfortably (they're all way too tight), and the 1/2" PVC is obviously way too big. Do you guys all just buy it on McMaster now? Because without drilling out the CPVC with a 1/2" bit (which is a pain in the ass), none of it is workable as a barrel.

AA and AAA batteries do not last the same amount of time with the same power. The voltage is the same, but the amperage, which determines how long it can handle a load (basically, don't nitpick, I know the difference), is different. D batteries last much much longer.

Actually, I don't know about regular Alkaline, but NiMH rechargeables for both AA/AAA and D both seem to have about the same current-time rating (~2500 mAh) so in that respect they should have about the same power.

One question I had, which I wasn't quite able to discern from your writeup, was whether or not you were connecting the two 7.2V batteries in series or parallel. Also, what kind of battery life are you getting from that setup? When I get my hands on a Vulcan I'd like to do a similar battery mod, but I was wondering if it would be better to just get a higher voltage battery (9.6V or something) rather than buy two lower voltage ones.

AA and AAA batteries do not last the same amount of time with the same power. The voltage is the same, but the amperage, which determines how long it can handle a load (basically, don't nitpick, I know the difference), is different. D batteries last much much longer.

Actually, I don't know about regular Alkaline, but NiMH rechargeables for both AA/AAA and D both seem to have about the same current-time rating (~2500 mAh) so in that respect they should have about the same power.

One question I had, which I wasn't quite able to discern from your writeup, was whether or not you were connecting the two 7.2V batteries in series or parallel. Also, what kind of battery life are you getting from that setup? When I get my hands on a Vulcan I'd like to do a similar battery mod, but I was wondering if it would be better to just get a higher voltage battery (9.6V or something) rather than buy two lower voltage ones.

Typical capacity of a single (decent quality) D battery is about 12,000 mAH (link).

Yeah, I looked it up a bit after I posted and found that was true for alkaline batteries, though the consumer-grade rechargeables (Energizer, Duracell, Rayovac, etc) seem to only have around 2500 mAh apiece, which seems kind of lame, to be honest. To get something around 10,000 mAh you have to get industrial-grade NiMH, which cost a fortune (~$20 apiece).

And thanks for the info about the connection. I figure it was probably series, but I wasn't sure if running the motor at that high of a voltage was a good idea.

Quick question(s):

I did the basic mod (sealed air hole in barrel piece, cut away extra plastic in bladder, and sanded down OP nub) and with 35-40 pumps I can only get something like 1.5 clips off before it runs out of air. Did I do something wrong, or do I just need to pump it more? I don't hear any stress sounds or air leakage. Also, would plugging the hole in the plunger help? Because I didn't do that, but maybe that would give more air per pump, I'm not entirely sure how that part works.

Thanks.

I guess I am still a bit confused, since the original mod write-up seems to have not been fully updated with all the new(ish) information.

So do you need to sand down/reverse the green OP valve thing *and* add constant tension clamps/O-clamps? Or can you just do the green plug reversal and call it good?

Also, would hot glue work for plugging the OP valve or is plumber's goop a better choice?

Sorry for adding more questions to the thread, but I've read through it fully about 3 times now and can't quite figure out the final verdict on some of these issues.

Pretty nice ROF on that thing now.

Good music in the video, too.

Thanks for the replies. It's not a huge deal if I just have to pump it a few more times, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to exceed the bladder's capacity or something. Sounds more like it's an issue with the pump not making a great seal though, so that's ok.

I can't imagine the batteries would run out that quickly. I've got the Vulcan and I've fired many, many belts through it and the batteries are still going strong. That's the advantage of having those huge D batteries in there, lots of mAh.

I think for what you get with this (3 extended clips + (possibly) 1 standard clip, shield, foregrip) this blaster is totally worth $50. I'll definitely be picking one up when it comes out.

Let me just say...Awesome.

Ranges look average but probably with an AR removal they could be decent. Mostly I'm just excited about the idea of a clip system full-auto rifle.

I thought I might post an update on my situation.

It appears that adding the 9kg load spring purchased from SGNerf, as well as the improved O-ring and plunger catch spring, my Stampede will now operate at ~15-16v without the continuous firing. I haven't done much testing, but so far it looks promising. It also fires a lot quicker from trigger pull to actual dart firing. I'll do more testing and report back.

Possibly related...the stock motor is rated at 6 volts. I am going to ax man soon, looking for a 12v and a 18v. which of these would perform better?

6 volts? Wat? The Stampede operates at 9 volts stock.

...... Anyone have any insights as to what the deal is? I have double and triple checked the voltage/current with my multimeter. If we can figure out how to make the Stampede work with increased voltage running the correct way through the blaster it might completely solve the auto-run issue.

In Reference to your "autofire" ... I have 2 Stampedes, both can run the 16.8 setup just fine after using SGNerf's Upgrade kit. I strongly reccomend it to anyone with the "autorun" after jumping the voltage. I'm just waiting on a second shipment of batteries and converters from hong kong so I can have both up and running at the same time.

I did the conversion with SGNerf's kit as well and still get the auto-fire issue when using thicker (LogHome white foam) darts. I think it has to do with the black return spring, but none of us are sure.

Good to know. Likely the current draw is more due to the added torque from the 9 kg spring.

SgNerf, if it's possible, can you test the current draw in your Stampede?

i have serious concerns about using unprotected Li-Ion cells in my Stampede and would rather get some Protected ones.

I don't use Li-Ion cells, but I did test the current draw of the Stampede with stock voltage a few posts back in this thread.

http://nerfhaven.com...ndpost&p=285100

I have been using the stock ammo, as that is what everyone else at school uses, so I cannot speak for custom darts.

Yeah, it seems to work fine with stock ammo, though I will still sometimes get the occasional double-fire. I just want it to work with my tighter darts, though, since they fire a LOT better.

Possibly related...the stock motor is rated at 6 volts. I am going to ax man soon, looking for a 12v and a 18v. which of these would perform better?

6 volts? Wat? The Stampede operates at 9 volts stock.

The motor is rated at 6 volts. Assuming Hasbro used the same motor supplier for all the stampedes built thus far, every motor you find in every stampede should have "6 Volts" and an SLN on the side of it. A child could calculate 1.5x6=9.

Not to be rude, I haven't had my coffee yet.

A couple of reasons this doesn't make sense to me:

1. While they could step down the voltage from 9v to 6v in the circuitry, it makes no sense to do so when you could just as easily require 4 D batteries instead of 6.

2. Why would Hasbro intentionally overvolt a stock blaster?

EDIT: Actually, after further testing, the issue remains, but with one interesting fact.

If there are no darts being fired, the gun will fire just fine in semi- and full-auto modes at 15-16v with SGNerf's upgrade kit. However, if I put in darts to fire, it will fire continuously until all darts are exhausted.

This is interesting, because it means that something about the way the darts chamber or the pressure on the bolt is what is causing this issue to occur. Any ideas on what might cause the gun to fire uncontrollably with darts, but work fine without?

Also notable is that most of the time it will fire all darts with one trigger pull, but occasionally it will stop. Something about the interaction with the dart itself is causing this.


EDIT 2: It appears that using Streamlines works fine, but using my own homemade slug darts with white LogHome foam (fits tighter than Streamlines) causes the issue to occur. I'm guessing maybe it has something to do with the bolt not being pushed forward all the way and somehow not triggering a "stop" switch? I don't really know, because the darts fire just fine with any dart type, but using thicker darts seems to make the blaster fire uncontrollably until all darts are exhausted. It's not a length issue, either, because my slug darts are shorter than Streamlines and therefore length shouldn't be an issue.

I think that should work fine, since the current draw is only like 1.7A max. Pretty expensive, though. You might be better off trying to buy 4 of those 18650 batteries and put them in a holder. Probably would be a lot cheaper.

I did some estimates and it worked out to approx. 40 x 18-dart clips worth of darts test fired over the past few days.

Awesome, thanks for that info. I am looking at getting a 9.6v 1600 mAh battery pack, and it looks like that should be plenty.

Also, thanks for the new info regarding voltage. I wonder if it would work well to get a 9.6v pack connected in series with a 7.2v pack, for a total of 16.8v, which is right around your recommendation. I was considering getting another 9.6v pack in series, but that would be closer to 20v and probably too fast for the darts to load reliably.

Have you noticed any heating up of the battery or motor when using 15-16v?

In your opinion, would the stampede work well with stephans and if so do you plan on modding the cip to accept stepans?

After an AR removal, I've been using my stefans (which are about 1/2" shorter than regular Streamlines) and it works fine with the Stampede. More accurate, in fact, it seems like. They also work fine in all other clip system blasters.

Also, @SGNerf: What kind of battery life are you getting out of those 3.7V 14500's? Seeing as they're only 900 mAh or so.

So it seems like it might just be a better idea to get two lower-capacity battery packs for the same cost and cycle between them if needed. I wonder if the power draw is really the same for the Stampede as for an Airsoft gun, though. Don't they typically have much smaller plungers?

Do you think at any point, you would consider attaching a Tamiya large type plug (where the alligator clamps currently are), so that you would be able to use some hobby batteries, which can have very long MAH, and are fully rechargeable?

The batteries are available in just about any size, voltage, and MAH specs you want, for a price of $15-$70, depending on the quality of the battery.

I was thinking about doing this. Seen it done with the Vulcan and it looks like a pretty easy mod. Just need to find some reasonably-priced 9.6v (or whatever the closest to 9V is) packs.

Yeah, I've been looking around. Most of these battery packs are only about 1/6 the capacity of a D battery, so I'm wondering how long they will last with extended use in a battle. Can anyone comment on the charge duration of these packs? Or the power draw of the Stampede?

EDIT: I've been looking into it, and I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just get something like these, plus a charger:

http://www.amazon.co...d_bxgy_e_text_b

About twice the capacity as the max-rated battery pack, and would require no modification to the gun itself.

14.4V can be achieved nicely by running two RC car batteries in series, and cheapo (3000mAh) NiMh batteries should give literally hours of firing use without noticeable drop in voltage.

Yeah, I'm thinking now I might pick up a couple of 7.2v batteries and run them in series to achieve 14.4v easily. Will let you guys know when I get it done, possibly post a write-up (shouldn't be difficult).

I've got a general question to ask regarding battery packs:

Can someone with two standard 7.2v battery packs (like this for example) see if they will both fit in the Stampede without having to modify the blaster shell too much? Based on the measurements given it looks like they MIGHT fit, but they also might not by a small amount (kind of depends on how rounded they are on the height and depth side of things). I was just wondering if anyone had tried it, because it looks like almost the right size, but if they won't fit I don't want to buy the packs and attempt it if it's not going to work.

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE: I've installed the two 7.2v battery packs in series, and I'm having a problem where the blaster will fire quickly but then when I let go of the trigger it will continue to fire until I switch it off manually. Not sure what is causing this.

I don't have a picture but it's simple enough. It's like:

red alligator clip (hot) <-----> red wire of Tamiya 1 connector, black wire of Tamiya 1 <-----> red wire of Tamiya 2 connector, black wire of Tamiya 2 <-----> black alligator clip (ground)

The alligator clips are hooked to the inner leads of the Stampede battery compartment.

However, at this time I can't recommend doing what I did, as the two fully charged 7.2v battery packs in series appear to be too much voltage for my Stampede at least. It will continue to fire by itself after the trigger is pulled and it jams up extremely easily. I will do some more tests but at this point I may just have to re-wire it to accept one 7.2v battery pack, as I tried this and it seems to have the same ROF as 9V and actually works properly.

Not sure why 15-16V works great for SGNerf and not for my Stampede, but it's just too fast and doesn't work properly.

Just FYI for anyone interested:

I just recieved my 3000 mAh 7.2v battery packs and charger from Amazon. To my delight, I found that they both will fit easily in the Stampede battery compartment. Not sure about the battery sled itself, but it might be able to to be modded to hold them. In any case, I am charging the batteries now and will let you guys know when I get results, probably with a write-up and pictures.

Here's what I bought (for reference):

Two of these: http://www.amazon.co...&sr=1-1-catcorr

One of these: http://www.amazon.co.../ref=pd_sim_t_1

Also, it looks like the charger came with two female adapters which I can modify to use with the Stampede, without having to buy extra connectors (they come with the charger as adapters, but since I will only be using the one type of plug, I can just use the adapters for what I want)

--EDIT--

So, these two battery packs won't fit in the Stampede battery sled, even modded. But that's okay! Because all you have to do is take the battery sled apart, which allows you to basically disconnect the back screw cap of the sled from the rest of the sled. All you have to do then is jam the battery packs into the back (with padding so they don't roll around too much if you want, though they fit pretty nicely in there) and then screw the back cap back on. Works perfectly.

The variation makes sense, the motor isn't going to be doing the same amount of work at all times. Drawing the bolt back will take more power than in between for instance. That is still a surprising amount of current draw though. Thanks for doing the tests. I need to crack one of these open, but our walmart still has them flagged as not for sale.

I didn't think about it that way, but you're right. The high readings must have been taken when the motor was doing the most work (pulling back the plunger) and the lows must have been during the lower-torque part of the cycle. So for a maximum current draw you're probably looking at 1.6 to 1.7 Amps.

Also, thanks for the new info regarding voltage. I wonder if it would work well to get a 9.6v pack connected in series with a 7.2v pack, for a total of 16.8v, which is right around your recommendation. I was considering getting another 9.6v pack in series, but that would be closer to 20v and probably too fast for the darts to load reliably.

Just a heads up to anyone considering this, mixing batteries is generally a BAD idea. Especially true for rechargeables. Try and keep them the same (Voltage, Amp-Hours etc.). When you are using mismatched batteries, they can drain at different rates and can "empty" at different times. This can confuse the sensors built into the batteries and cause all kinds of unpleasant surprises. They most likely aren't going to blow up, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Go higher than what you want with your voltages, then bring it down to where you want in your circuit.

Can anyone with a Multimeter check the current draw on the stampede? I'm a bit curious.

Yeah, I wondered about this as well, actually. I went ahead and purchased two 7.2v battery packs of identical capacity and build to test with the Stampede, should get them on Friday. I will post my results when I test with them.

I will try to get some current draw readings as well, if I can.

EDIT: Just did some current tests. In my test, using 6 well-charged alkaline D batteries in the battery sled, the current draw was anywhere from 1.0A to 1.6A. It was not very consistent, though in fully-auto the first shot seemed to be closer to 1.6 Amps, while the subsequent shots were closer to 1.1 - 1.3 Amps. Sometimes there would be a random spike of 1.5 - 1.6 Amps after a few full auto shots were fired.

So for example, a readout while firing fully auto would be (each readout is about a 0.5 second time interval):

1.6
1.4
1.1
1.1
1.3
1.2
1.4
1.1
1.5
1.6
1.2

Something of that nature.

Question: What about this: (Laptop Battery) Toshiba SATELLITE PRO A210-16V 9 Cell

- Type: Li ion
- Capacity: 7200mah
- Cell: 9

Is this possible?

or this?

I would be wondering what the max current draw is on those batteries...

Keep in mind the stock Stampede needs like, 2 amps.