The reason I avoid loaning out any variation of clip fed springers - especially lock/AR removed ones is that I'll invariably have it returned with either a dart pushed back into the plunger cavity, or two darts double loaded into the barrel. It's happened more times than I care to count. It's so much easier to stick to any type of front loader when loaning out blasters. 

I've actually considered the Rough cut. The problem however is that I've seen when fired, sometimes darts pop out of their chambers, preventing them from firing next. Is there a way to fix that?

Keeping your darts in good shape will help significantly. Don't store them in the blaster or clips. That will squish them and reduce the fill factor of the foam when they're loaded and ready. Store them so they won't get crushed. Rebarreling with brass will help, but only until the foam squishes down to the new smaller diameter of the brass instead. Once the darts aren't a tight fit - they won't stay seated well regardless of barrel diameter.

Straw modding the darts will help the dart retain rigidity too - but the added weight of the straw might also affect accuracy. It's a trade off.

How old are your darts? Do you store your darts in your blaster? If the tails have gone mushy it'll be easier for the AR's to push them all out at once. Try the heavier spring with newer darts before you give up on it.

The only concern i have from a barrel tap would be if the "tapper" had an uncovered brass barrel. I like Muttonchops idea of using the side of a barrel. I think I'll try to incorporate that locally.

I love my rip saw so much that i'll even run it in non awfuls rounds. 

 

The best lemon i'd ever seen used was an overhauled NF. The trigger catch broke so he had to fire it by slapping it on the side of the blaster. It definitely broke the awfuls range cap but it was such a hilarious handicap we let him run it anyway.

Thanks, it feels good to have my hook back. I haven't been able to use it since the days of Nrev.

I've sucked at posting war announcements here, but in case there are some Utah members I didn't know about, here ya go:

When: Saturday august 25 Set up and geek out at 9:30, Foam flies at 10:00.

Where: Murray park Soccer fields (primary location - remember it's in the east section of murray park. The section that only has road access via vine st. If the road connects from state st to vine, you need to take the next park entrance to the east. The one that dead ends inside the park!

We've had a lot of luck being able to use the primary location. The massive hill there rocks!

Wheeler historic farm park, south east lawn as the alternate location.

Blaster restrictions: the common offenders... Plugged bbbb's, singled titans....

Eye protection is mandatory!

BRING:
WATER!!!!! Its still summer. It's hot. Don't get dehydrated!!!
A primary, a pistol, and a quirky blaster that just don't shoot quite right for the awfuls round.
(If you're lacking darts, steffans, primaries, pistols, or awfuls, don't stress it. I bring a tub full of loaners - just let me know you're in need so I can plan extra extras.
Friends, bring friends... We need more participants.
Your B+ game (we nerf for the fun of it, not so much the win)


And there ya go. I'm actually going to send out an e-mail to my nerfers group. That should help attendance...

Screw it. I'm in! Jumping in a carpool as they pass through from Wyoming.

 

Oh man, I feel bad laughing about it, but this is a great description. I'm so sorry, I saw that second one start to curve in flight and my eyes got wide and there was nothing I could do because you were frozen and couldn't get out of the way. Every once in a while, an Artifact gets a mind of its own and decides to go on an adventure. I accidentally hit a teammate of mine in the back during one of the last rounds, I managed to hit Ryan's blaster at about two hundred feet purely by chance via a corkscrewing dart, and I hit Zorn in the shoulder while he was taking photos because a dart decided it would rather dive-bomb him instead of continue on the arc on which it was shot.

Ha, ha. Don't stress it. The artifact dart gut shots and the zing bow crotch shot was probably just karma balancing out my cosmic ledger after my own carpe confusion.

 

...and i'm definitely using that playing card team picking method at my family reunion this weekend.

It was a great war! I was so thrilled to have been able to make the trip out again - even though it was a last minute, poorly prepaired mad dash of a decision. 

 

Pros:

*Watching Langly quietly eliminating every single member of a 5 man team for two speed rounds in a row. He picked us all off with brutal precision and I can honestly say that it was the most beautiful display of nerfing i'd ever witnessed - even though i was on the opposing team both times.

*My cell phone holster acting as a codpiece against cannonballs zing arrow. Thank the nerfy gods that my holster was on the front of my belt! It was one of those situations where I could trace the flightpath, time froze and I knew there wasn't a dang thing I could do to change the outcome (besides squealing like a little girl as i braced for impact). Sometimes ya just get lucky.

*getting two tags with my gas station suction cup-on-a-stick shooter pistol.

*All of my blasters functioning for the entire time! That's a 'geddon first for me.

*Great rounds and fantastic organization. The playing card distribution was absolutely brilliant!!! It made deciding teams as smooth as butter. So many variations to pick from. red backs vs blue backs, suits, colors, numbers vs royalty... awesome. We were all able to keep the same card the entire day and teams changed fluidly and quickly.

*Thrifting a cool hat that actually fit my giant noggin. No nerfs found, but i've been looking for a non-ball cap hat for ages.

*Aggressively running my buzz saw during the final round of 3-15. Didn't get any tags, but team-dartsweep for the win!

*The face cards vs numbers round of freeze tag. Numbers had so many more players but team face card had most of the high powered and most experienced nerfers. It just balanced out beautifully. It was like a plauge of ants fighting a few grasshoppers. 

*Catching a pre war dinner with Bags and picking up a few more ballistic balls, a weird Tyco double barrel shotgun and a high quality hand crafted wand from the kindness of him and his shop. You're a class act Baghead. 

*Only two welts - both from Zeke, both were gut shots straight to the belly button. The second was intended for the guy running up behind me to tag me back in but his blaster is cursed with a sadistic spirit that grows stronger as it feeds on pain so it opted to drop one welt right on top of the previous one instead targeting the guy behind me. It was  great moment, A great painful moment but a great moment none the less.

 

Cons:

*Forgetting my team colors had changed during the first round of carpe and spending the first half of the round railing my own team mates with my a a bow. I am so, so, so sorry! Carpe has always confused me. Im not sure why, Its a semi simple game but the strategy of it just goes all to crap in my head once the Adrenalin of nerfing gets mixed in. That was not a proud moment for me and I felt like an absolute noob-doofus for the rest of the morning. I am ashamed and I really can't apologize enough.

*$4.50 a gal gas and a communal urinal fountain trough at a Philips 66 gas station outside of Barstow. I've never seen so much nope in a single gas station. 

Sigh. Another year, another no show for me. Wishing I could though...

Planning on making the pilgrimage from Utah again, possibly with +2 people. Still figuring out what will work for the other 2, but I'm liking June 25, and July 23.(my +1 likes June 23) I get every other Friday off, and I'll be able to avoid missing work, and using vacation days. July 9 is a family reunion, and the only weekend we can't come. If needed I can work with the other 2 options.

Are the pistol splat variations still acceptable?

Well the time has come to begin planning this year's largest west coast war so here goes.

Date: July 9th
Time: 9:30 am to 4:30-5ish pm

I'm making a Secret Vice Presidential decision here, and saying it's gonna be on July 2nd. Seeing as how Avatar of Woe(Brian), shmmee, and a few others stated that they can not make the 9th, it would be better to base the date around those with a longer travel distance, rather than the locals who live within 10 minutes of the location.

We'll give the thread another update this weekend after our SCUN war PAVLOV, and make the final decision on the location(s).

So DEFINITELY July 9th? I just want to be %100 sure of the date before I tell my guys and we start planning for everything. It would kinda suck if it was a typo, I know that I can make quite a few when it's late/early.

I'de like to second that confused look, and seek clarification on the "official date" discrepancy.

soo guys are we any closer to setting a date? our FB poll's most popular date is the 9th, followed by the 23rd and the 2nd as a tie, but that's mostly the same guys who posted here. sooo Apollo, Axel, what date do we pick mentlegen?

FB poll? Isn't NerfHaven set up to do polls (a place all ready frequented by many hoping to attend) Do I need to search out the FB poll referenced to cast a vote against the 9th (obligatory family reunion), or are results from both considered?

I do of course realize that no date chosen will agree with everybody. If it does end up being the 9th, well have fun storming the castle!

Regardless, a date would be helpfull to get travel plans settled.

Oh - last year I stayed at "Glendora Inns and Suites" (along with a few other nerfer). He asked us about the toy guns, and I told him we were there for an annual convention. He seemed interested in the influx of business, and seemed interested in offering a discount to participants of this years event as an incentive to come back. - If we advertised his business online. I haven't spoken with him since last year, and who knows if he'll remember anyway. This years event is likely to be in a different zip code, but hey the rooms were nice, and so was the price so, just throwing the option out there.

Are there any non-Elites that are considered better than their Elite counterparts?

There might be a small argument made for jolts over triads - but only if you prefer range over ROF. You can't remove the AR's from a triad and expect it to continue to function. A firestrike is pretty much a re-shell of the NF (as far as I am aware) With those exceptions Elites are in every way superior to their N-strike counter parts.

Can we include links when we reference purchasable darts? It'll make keeping it all straight easier.

 

 

As a christmas gift I took a risk and bought two 200ct  bundles (400 friggan darts!) of blue suction cup darts from amazon:

 

http://www.amazon.co...ailpage_o08_s00

 

Shipping was weeks faster than it predicted and the foam was denser than nerf's. The 10 I randomly picked shot without complaint from the rampage I had laying around. Some of the tails were squished from the packaging - but that should be fixable by a ten second tumble in a pre heated dryer. (test a small sample of darts first). The heads *seem* well attached, I haven't tried pulling on them to find out.

 

200 nerf-comperable sucker darts for $13 is a pretty amazing deal. 

That's really impressive. What's your professional/educational background? This deffinately isn't something the un-trained idiot could create.

I've put a screwdriver through the side wall of a barrel while trying to pound out an ar. What ever method you choose, make sure you do it in a safe, controlled fashion.

I'm fine with the fbr padding. The gumdrop heads are not gonna work. Dense silicone hardly seems padded. I'd have to see some samples ahead of time to be persuaded otherwise.

I don't know what type Nerfan is hoping to make and bring - but I would love to have these considered. I'm no where near going to Apoc, so I was hoping to attend vicariously through a new head. I certainly can't make enough to give samples to every one (even if I was paid - time is more precious than money right now), but Vacc, I'd be willing to send you some samples in exchange for an honest opinion - even if it's a negative one. PM me your address, and I'll send you some finished darts.

I just finished my first batch of felt tipped gumdrop heads. They're a bigger 7/16" mold, (the 3/8" ones were a little light, and flew funny) and I don't know how heavy each head is, but I'll try to find out in over the next week.

Some of the other reviews from people shot by gum drop heads (those made by myself, and by others) rate them as hurting less when compared to hot glue domes. (some said appreciably less at greater distances) At our last war we chose to ban hot glue domes due to complaints, but I didn't get any complaints about my darts.

I don't know where this new batch will stack up, or if the felt will help them hopper feed, but crap - at least they look good.



Edit: The square pictured above has 81 heads and weighs 42 grams. Therefore each head should weigh about .51 grams. (half the 1g limit.) These are an unusually big 7/16" wide by 1/4" tall. Most of what other guys are experimenting with are 3/8" wide, and 1/4" tall or less. Those should be even lighter.

It's a heck of a necro but with a semi relevant update and request for advice...

 

Intro: this dart door seals by trapping a dart in the entry way - sacrificing your very last dart as a plug. The dart trap is formed by two flaps placed over the passage darts are loaded into - kind of like a heart valve.

 

I printed one last night as part of a panicked last minute preparation for 'geddon. The instructions called for a .03" rubber sheet but I could only find .06" sheets locally. With that predicament in mind I tried a few alternatives on my RSCB'd panther...

 

.06 thick rubber - Could only get a dart through if only one flap was installed, but it was a tough dart crushing maneuver.

Craft foam - dart flew out the back and shot myself in the face.

Craft foam with packing tape to stiffen and reduce loading friction - same result.

.06 split leather (very supple) - couldn't load dart

single layer of latex glove (the thicker dish washing glove - not the thinner blue disposable ones) - dart ejected out the back again.

Folded layer of latex glove (Folds meeting in middle) Darts were loadable and stayed put when fired. I haven't war tested it but that might be a viable option if you're having trouble sourcing the .03" thick sheet. 

 

 

Does anyone else have any ideas where .03" ish might be locally sourced or harvested from?  or have any thoughts for other dart flap materials that might be worth testing? If carefully crafted the .06" rubber flaps actually formed an air tight seal when the dart was pushed through. The folded latex glove flaps are still a little sketchy. I've got some licorice sitting on my desk. It's packaged in some very thick Mylar. I think I'll try that tonight.

 

Also, is anyone aware of any other dart door-ish options? I've got the traditional flapper dart door but again with .06 rubber its hard to load.

 

 

So, theoretical question... if a nerfers RSCB ejects a dart out the back and he shoots himself... is he out?

Okay, let's get to brass tacks. I'm willing to start a group buy of these from Cabby's, then send them off to interested parties for R&D. This way, we won't be talking out our posteriors about theory. Anyone interested? Price will be my cost ($0.02 each) + S&H.

I'm thinking of buying 20g for use in 1/2" PVC, because I don't have anything barreled in 3/4" PVC, or ending in a 3/4" coupler, but I'll buy a bag of 12g if we get enough people to take at least half the bag ($5 for 100) off my hands.

Still concerned about the legality of it, but curiosity is also getting the better of me. I'll take 100 of the 1/2" variety, and consult with a gun nut friend of mine. Shoot me a Pm with a pay pal address when you have them available for sale.

Silicone has been suggested as a filler/cap/weight, but my experience with Oogoo is suggesting additional engineering would be required. Getting any of that stuff to stay in place required a fibrous binder (felt) for glue to bond too. That required each head to be independently molded, cut out, and glued in place. At that point you might as well be gluing washers onto fbr.

I would love to be able to "pipe" oogoo into one of these caps like I was frosting a cake, but unless something was glued to the inside of the cup first, and pressure could be applied to force silicone into the fibers, I just don't see oogoo staying put.

I can see and appreciate the overall potential of these, but I think the end product needs to be as much or less work as a slug.

I think we may be better off with more traditional foams as padding on this one.

There is another downside that I see that hasn't been discussed yet: At the end of any war, there are going to be darts left on the field. FBR may not exactly be biodegradable, but it will at least go away over time. I would hate to leave a public field littered with plastic shot gun projectiles which would remain for months after a war.

Another thought: these are probably classified as firearm munitions. Should they be recognized while nerfing, their presence can be explained, and defended. Should they be recognized the days/weeks/ or even months after a war - local law enforcement could be involved and an investigation launched to figure out why their field is littered with fire arm munitions. Because actual firearm munitions were involved, such an investigation could actually end in jail time for the users/host/and maybe participants. Foam with a washer on the tip is easy to laugh off. Using even a relatively harmless component of something designed to kill...maybe not so much.

As intriguing as these are, as much potential as they hold, and even if they were found to outperform steffans in every category, I really think we should take a step back and examine the legalities and consequences of modifying actual firearm components before falling in love with them, or even experimenting with them.

Any gun loving ATF experts out there who care to comment? I don't think I would allow these at any of my wars until I knew it wouldn't end in me calling my wife to bail me out of jail.

When SgNerf added a compressor to his ms he added a cut off switch behind the bladder so the pump shuts itself off when the bladder is full. So long as you trust your cut off switch to turn your pump off when the bladder is full, it doesn't matter how much psi your pump puts out.

SgNerf MS air compressor integration

It's a gorgeous mod. Just follow that (as much as possible)

Guessing at a clarification here, but are you asking about a dual bladder reservoir system? If so I can see your concern. I've been wondering the same thing. It seems natural that one bladder might be slightly weaker than its partner and that it might fill to burst pressure before its partner starts to fill.

I've been told that when a bladder fails, the sudden release of air can sound like a shotgun going off. The resulting calls to 911 about a gunshot at a public park would be some bad press for a nerf war.

I'm hoping Doom still lurks this site. He knows more about bladder systems than anyone I know. Anyone else tried dual bladder reservoirs?

how many pumps would it probably take if i kept the priming bar as the pump?

That will largly depend on your pumps diameter. Larger diameter - faster fill but harder pumps.

That's a pretty good question to ask. So many modders jump right into a project without pausing to evaluate the ramifications the mod will have.

The purpose of an AR is to both slow down the plunger in it's final moments of travel as well as to limit the amount of air delivered. They also prevent you from sucking darts into the plunger tube. Some AR's also act as a pneumatic switching method to send air to only loaded barrels (smart AR - Ruffcut2x4, zombie strike xbow...) Removing AR's from a smart AR blaster will basically turn it into a pretty useless absolved blaster since all the blasters will be receiving air, splitting the flow between them.

Removing the AR can shorten the over all life of a blaster, but with a stock spring it shouldn't be too much unless it's an inverse plunger. The life span of an inverse plunger blaster will be significantly shortened since the plunger walls are so notoriously thin. Once you add springs and remove an AR you'll be doing more damage to the plunger and the shell supporting members.

You can pad most plunger faces with as much padding as you'd like but there are some exceptions. Padding the inverse plunger clip fed system plunger faces (raider/recon) will limit the travel of the plunger and keep the catch from reaching the catch plate. Sucking a dart into an ar removed blaster is the cause of one of the more common blaster jams. Craft foam is the most common material for plunger padding. Craft foam can be stacked until it provides a sufficient padding, but at the slight sacrifice of plunger volume.

I keep some of my arsenal bone stock (locks and AR's remaining) so I don't have to tear the blaster apart after loaning it out. If you're loaning your blasters out often you might want to keep a few stock as well.

Ok that makes sense. My go-to valve is the clippard mavo-3. It replaces the blast button and isolates pump tubing while venting the firing tank, but clippard does mean awful nasty things to you at checkout with shipping and handling being a separate $10 charge. The RPRV looks like a much cleaner and cheaper option for a singe shot set up. Good find! I love back pressure tanks. I'm going to have to pick up a couple of RPRV's up. Thanks for including shopping links to the parts.

I think I've got the same bell bike pump on one of my blasters. It's a decent pump. The handle could feel a little more solid, but it is still sufficient for furious mid battle pumping.

Wow. That's one of the best write-ups I've seen in a long time. Very impressive. There is one point I'm confused about though - the "Residual Pressure Relief Valve". Does it replace the blast button? It's the first time I've ever seen one and I'm a little unsure about how it works or why it was used. Any chance you could do a range test comparison with and without the residual pressure relief valve? You might have to clamp the barrel down for accurate data. I'd like to see a quantitative comparison to see how much it actually contributes to the system. I love playing with back pressure tanks but they can be finicky. My experience is that the least amount of dead space between the blast button and tank the better. Adding an extra component and more dead space might be hurting rather than helping. But if it functionally removes dead space of the tubing between the pump and blast button so the blast button can focus on venting the tank stem - that could be a component I need to add to my parts bin.

Using the sanding drum mandril is a new centering method I've never seen before. Props.

Could you include a completed internals pic? I'd like an overview of how it all fits together.

 

This is why I plan to do based off this discussion and also what I've seen from Doom and Captain Slug's work. As for the tank, it'll be a modular quick connect that I'll connect to a few different things, I imagine. Primarily will be a large, high-pressure tank with a regulator. I might get a paintball tank + regulator and have it filled so that I can actually have a decent amount of air life time. However I also plan to make a backpack sized 100psi tank that I can clamp a bike pump to and pump up myself. The tanks will be connected via hose to a quick connect on the back of the gun, which of course has its own, must smaller, blast chamber on it and will operate and about 30-40psi with a controlled volume. Pretty standard for this kind of blaster, really.

 

Also, after doing a lot of reading on the forums. This one a SpudFiles I've actually ordered an air cylinder.

 

I didn't order a single-acting, spring return cylinder like you suggested. Doom came to the conclusion that he wanted to switch from his existing single-acting to a double acting because the single acting was really long and bulky. The double acting requires that you create your own return mechanism, so I was pretty torn on which to go with. But I ultimately went with the double. I am considering using an air spring for the return. It's hard to buy air springs that are small enough though. Most of them are meant for car suspension. If anyone knows a good solution let me know. I am considering just filling one side of the piston with some low pressure and seeing if that works for me. Otherwise, I might end up using an external spring attached to the mechanism that the piston is moving to return it.

 

Another decision I need to make now is whether to push the dart into the back of the barrel or if I want to pull the barrel back over the dart. Pull seems to have less dead space and makes machining the blast hole must simpler. Pushing seems to be less prone to jamming.

I've never researched air springs before, but i'm guessing they're just chambers you can pressurize slightly to supply a counter pneumatic force, right? That would be a low psi thing, I bet you could build your own out of pvc. Just goop a stem into a drilled hole and you can give it a little pressure to return the piston and then detach the pump. An air spring is a really good idea. I'll have to remember that.

 

Nerf favors a stationary dart and a retracting bolt slead. It's harder to get them to seal, but that may be more reliable with less modification. You could just attach the piston directly to an existing bolt slead. Poof done. I'm remembering a bolt sled seal but can't remember the name. I know it's not an angel breach... i think it might of been called a Rev breach? they used a petg tube inserted into the bolt sled and it would slide back and seal around an 11/32" brass tube nub. It might of been on the old and departed Nerfrevolution site though. It'd be worth looking into.

Awesome! I'm incredibly excited to see you bring it all together! Keep up with the updates, I'll be watching for them.

Would this situation actually negatively affect performance (range and/or muzzle velocity), though?

Great testing solution, using the overly long barrel, by the way. I was going to suggest comparing to a locked breech, but couldn't think of how to measure any differences other than a basic range test. Duh moment for me, I suppose.

...

Ideally the dart would of left the barrel right as the power from the tank is exhausted from pushing it. Prematurely venting tank air or an improper barrel length could be pretty costly on ranges, performance and air efficiency, and thanks jwasko.

 

This testing method is all unproven theroy, but come to think of it, an excessively long barrel could potentially be applied to traditional springers too for establishing a ball park barrel length. I suspect it would be even more accurate in tighter cpvc barrels where the dart is likely to stop much closer to the point of lost air pressure. Accuracy could be increased further by using a headless foam blank to test with. A foam blank without a head/washer would help the dart stop because of friction the instant it exhausted the propelling air pressure instead of coasting until a strong enough vacuum was formed.

 

It would require a chrony to really verify that method but I can't see why it wouldn't work.Would anyone mind testing that theory? Ranges wouldn't be as good as a chrony, but they'd be better than nothing for verification and sadly, I just don't have the time to do the leg work on this one.

 

 Anyone have a better idea on how to test whether I'm getting enough overlap with the ram into the barrel without a high-speed camera?

 

 

 

From personal experience on my prototype, if your ram is retracting before the dart has left the barrel you'll notice a significant drop in range/power. If you don't have a chrony, you could put on an excessively long barrel, a barrel 2 or 3' long should work. You want a barrel so long that the dart stops in  the barrel with the ram braced forward. With the ram forward, the dart will stop abruptly because it is pulling a vacuum in the barrel. Release the brace and let the ram retract as quickly as it's able. It will suck the dart back a little. Measure how far the dart travels in the excessively long barrel by sliding a stick down the tip of the barrel. That's your control. Your baseline. That's where your dart should be stopping if everything is working perfectly.

 

Shoot again with the ram operating freely. If the dart stops again in roughly the same spot as your control, the ram is engaging until all the air in the air tank is exhausted. If the dart stops significantly before or after your control depth the ram is disengaging early. The dart is either sliding past the control depth, coasting in the barrel farther because the ram isn't sealing long enough to create a vacuum and stop the dart or the dart is stopping short because the ram is disengaging before all the power in the air tank is transferred to the dart and usable air pressure is hemorrhaging out into the mag well.

 

Doing that should also give you a pretty good idea how long your real barrel should be for maximum efficiency.

 

And great work so far dskippy. You're putting a lot more quality and time into your build than I did. It should have a much better chance of succeeding than my attempt did.

The model in the video was only meant to be a proof of concept prototype, one which I never managed to revisit and improve upon sadly. As such I wasn't looking for a perfect seal, or even a decent one. With the piston extended in the sealed position (I harvested a pump from a secret shot II from my parts bin for my piston) I could blow on the end of the barrel and feel a steady stream of air rushing out of the breech with very little resistance building. The piston on my prototype didn't travel far enough forward to completely move past the breech, which leaked horribly. Darts fell out of the barrel with the enthusiasm of a geriatric sloth.

 

The breech only needs to seal for as long as the dart is in the barrel. Bracing the piston forward and range testing or chrony-ing a few shots would give a good baseline of what the blaster should be doing. If the breech opens prematurely range/dart speed will drop significantly.

 

Choking off the air line to the piston was something I was planning on exploring in a later model - to see if it was even need at all. If it was needed I was going to tee the tubing to the piston and add check valves to create a dedicated fill and return air line - and choke off the return air line. (fast fill, slowed emptying)  Choking off the return line was something i was hoping to avoid. Plumbing the tank to the piston added the bonus of making the piston into an expanded air tank. If pressure is slowed it would of negated that and any air in the piston would of been wasted. Since you're planning on utilizing a 3d printer, it should also be possible to engineer a longer sealed section between the tank and the mag well so the piston can begin it's return travel and still remain sealed. It would be adding dead space as the piston retracted, but at least the air in the piston would be feeding back into the tank and out to the barrel at it's fullest velocity.  I'd guess it wouldn't take more than a quarter inch or two of seal to give the dart enough time to exit the barrel, but that's yet to be proven.

 

I also remember learning that they make pistons with an internal spring to automatically retract the piston once it looses air pressure. That would be worth looking into, that way you can ditch the rubber band return spring and place the piston directly behind the mag well. You would still need to use a pusher rod so the following dart can't hop up and get caught behind the piston head once the piston pushes past to load a dart though. Ditching the home brew rubber band for a piston internal return spring would also make one less thing to go wrong. Since you're planning on using stock darts, I'd suggest looking for a piston with 4" to 4 1/2" of travel. That should give you your 3" for the dart and another inch or so to play with in seal and return clearances.

 

It's also worth noting that even an efficient semi auto system with a small tank will use a ton of air. I used a clippard mavo-3 3way valve to make a semi auto dart tag gun with a bike innertube reinforced RF20 bladder (I think I got it up to about 45 psi) and a panther tank. Tons of pumping to fill the bladder and I could only get 8 of the 10 shots off. It was tough keeping that turret fed as well. It was an awesome blaster, but it's combined hunger for air and individually loaded darts made it tough to manage in an open field war. It would of been a little easier if it had been a clip fed system like you're working towards, but it'll still be a ton of pumping air. 

 

So, what are you planning on doing for air? Bladder, small hand filled hard tank/regulator , large compressor filled hard tank/regulator, single shot pump to prime?

I'm having a tough time accessing my photobucket account, but I've got a video of a (Failed) attempt at a piston breech loader I tried. It loaded darts well, but it failed to seal well enough to fire it. The concept was extremely simple. I'm hoping it'll give you another option to work with. It could be modified to shoot stock darts by substituting a longer piston with more travel (About 3.5" worth) I'd suggest one with a 3/8" or 1/2" bore for this project. Any bigger and you'd be using a ton of air since the piston is acting as a tank expansion, and the increased force from the larger diameter could break your build.

 

I used a back pressure style tank (hornet, panther, big salvo...) and gooped a hose from the side of the tank to a piston. I chopped a mag well in a piece of sch 80, and tee'd the tank in crossways just in front of the magwell and used the piston to advance a pusher rod (a 1/2" wood dowel) that fed a dart from a mag forward into the breech. When the tank filled, the piston extended and it pushed a dart forwards into the breech. When the tank fired (depressurized) the piston also depressurized through the tank and a rubber band pulled the piston backwards retracting the pusher and allowing the next dart to come up from the mag.  It didn't require any action beyond filling and firing the airtank and with a mavo-3 3way valve the system became semi auto. It just didn't seal well enough to shoot more than a few feet. Proof of concept achieved though.

 

I should of used a real piston with more travel instead of substituting a secret shot 2 pump for the piston. It didn't have enough travel to load the dart (slug) and seal the breech. Solve that seal issue and you'd be set. 3D printing the breech would of helped too since it would of been easier to design in a conical receiver in front of the mag for the pusher to seal against.

 

I'll try to edit this post with a link to the video once i'm on a more friendly computer. I've shared it to NH before, but I really doubt you'll want to go through all my posts to find it... Hopefully it'll provide you with some inspiration to work with. 

 

... I tried uploading it but appearantly " you aren't permitted to upload this kind of file". It's an MP4 video. Admin thoughts?

 

... I wandered back through my posts and found it. I hope the link works, and that it's the right video. I can't verify it from this computer...

 

http://vid1107.photo...to/DSCN1997.mp4

I spent quite some time trying to develop a semi auto valve. I was trying to use a tee with a plunger sliding back and forth between the middle leg to fire a back pressure tank.It was having seal issues. My next step was to try building this:


It's based off of two reversed oprv pop valve to make a pull pin blaster with a pull pin reserve tank.

It was never made due to lack of funds and parts. Yeah, I'm presenting an unproven concept, but feel justified in doing so because of the open ended nature of the topic.

I gave up on development and bought a marshmallow M forcer (20 shots, semi auto, rear loading) from drugstore.com. Just needed PTEG barrels and a pump replacement.

Are there any accufakes out there with heads just a bit smaller than the foam? With a .5" head pushing through cpvc accufakes are hardly viable due to barrel drag. I've been looking for the best full length, cpvc friendly, soft impact darts possible (we have kids playing along with the adults in our super stock group). I've had very little luck finding anything decent. Men Gun darts are ok, but they've been tough to find lately too.

As much as I enjoyed road trippin from Utah to war with you guys for the past two years, I'm going to be sitting this one out. Don't forget to post pics of the event so I can live vicariously through them!

I intitially ignored this as a copy of the RFID tech that nerf is being rumored to develop - something that would be squished by copyright lawyers long before being released. Glad to see that it isn't. I'm guessing your dart materials utilize a material the touch screen can read? Well done. Should be loads cheaper than using RFID's (If you ignore the cost of the "target").

I do share the same knee jerk fear for the safety of the device. It's something you may have a tough time overcoming.

My initial thought though - Why aren't your darts magazine compatible? With ROF playing such a key role in so many of the games your video demos I would think developing darts to fit a clip would be the obvious choice.

My second thought - You'll definitely want something that distinguishes your darts from standard nerf darts, but the side channels shouldn't be it. If some blasters will split a full walled elite dart, I can't imagine how severely your side grooves will limit dart life.

Have you given any thoughts to developing stickers that can be placed on standard nerf darts for screen interaction instead of complete darts? You're all ready using their blasters for your product, why not use the darts too? Might be easier in the long run than developing and producing entire darts. Stickers would also be cheaper for consumers to buy granting more bang for the buck. Having the option to outfit all of a players darts for screen compatibility could really open up game options utilizing your technology - Shoot opponents to access and shoot their screen to achieve some sort of greater goal. Replacing all of the darts in play with your darts - just in case you get a shot at a screen probably wont be economically viable.

How big is the back end of these bits? My drill only has a 1/2" chuck which limits the size of things it can grip.

I've been using these (also from harbor freight) to ream out my pvc ends:
speed bit

It gives a very gradual smooth taper, so much so that it can destabilize the grabbyness of the pipe being couplered if you take off to much, which leads to barrels popping off...

Shmmee
Favorite primary: petg'd M'forcer, but it usually changes with every round.
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah