Speaking of 12mm or 13mm FBR, I was surfing the internet and I came across this Green FBR. I don't know much about it... and I won't be able to buy it anytime soon to see it's quality, so if one of you guys want to go check it out, go for it. just give me some feedback on the stuff because I am planning on buying some.

Ha! I saw the same stuff Wednesday! I do like how they package and ship it in strands instead of on a roll. I imagine that would skip the pre-strethcing I had to do with the Hot Rod foam. They also have pink. I'm quite curious to know if it's the same manufacturer Kane (if i'm remembering correctly) gets his foam from. If it's anything like the pink in density and size, Neon green would be 'friggan tempting!

Droid31 was kind enough to toss some samples in with a broken set of x-bow arms.

The sample that really got my attention was a small stub of dense blue foam - similar to the "craft block" or building block foam. I haven't been able to play with that yet, but I'd imagine that foam to be darn near indestructible. Was that also something that you extruded? I'm sure you get a lot less foam with that high of a density, but there really isn't anything out there that even comes close to a foam that dense. I could see there being a much larger market for the High Density foam than the large pore pool noodle-esque foam.

You do need to be a bit cautious though. It won't impact the simpler blasters but it can impact the clip fed springers. Puttiing padding on the plunger decreases the length the tube can travel in the tube. Reduce that travel too much and your plunger's catch wont be able to progress past the catch plate and it will be come painfully obvious that something is wrong when your blaster stops catching. I'd start by removing the main spring and sliding the bolt sled assembly back (as if to prime) and see how far beyond the catch plate the catch travels. That distance of excess is your maximum padding thickness that can be appled to your plunger face.

Crap. Double post. Apologies.

I'm gonna look for a lock n load or a splitfire but I'm an fng so I can't post in trading

Heh. Well then, sounds like you're starting out with the two most lustable pistols. The LnL is older, but rugged enough to still have survided, the splitfire is cool but prone to leakage with use giving them a limited life.

I'm not sure how old your siblings are but I'd suggest digging a little deeper. If they're all grown up, maybe you could find out what they actually owned, played with and loved when they were younger and nerfing. As stupid silly as it may sound, my brother ran with a missile storm and used it till the catch had worn down to a dysfunctional stub. It was one of the most inaccurate blasters ever produced, but he loved it dearly, and partied like a maniac when he got lucky enough to score a hit. He was beyond thrilled when I found a nearly new MS, and swapped that catch into his old beloved blaster. He was happier than if I had given him an NIB X-bow. Long story made short: You might get more mileage by helping them re-discover a sentimental favorite than simply buying an "everyone elses'" favorite.

I'm sure YOU would appreciate a LnL or splitfire, but you aren't shopping for you, and in all likelihood, as new or even non-nerfers they probably wouldn't appreciate the significance of either of those two blasters, and might not give them the proper care attention and respect they deserve. If they're just starting to nerf, perhaps you could overhaul some NF's or firestrikes for them? Owning a 'Squirtle Special' - something you've opened, touched and modified would be far more personal than a soulless piece of vintage plastic, worlds more useful too.

Like crusher said, Scotch tape. Light weight and durable. It's especially helpful to wrap them before you split them. Using the thinnest lightest packing tape you can find would be even better since you'll have more coverage with less overlap.

Ok, suppressing the laughter while at work is really starting to become painful now!

For the flywheel blasters - The dart pushers inside only need to push the tip of a stock 3" dart a little bit to nudge them into the flywheels. When you use a shorter dart, you subtract distance between the dart pusher and the flywheels. Shorter darts lack the extra inch of foam needed to get it between the wheels. You need to extend the pusher arm to make up the distance sacrificed by using shorter darts. You'll also need to modify your mag with a bar behind it to keep darts organized towards the front of the clip so they don't get hung up on the extended pusher.

For the spring powered/clip fed blasters - The breeches get tighter towards the back. This serves to get a firmer grip on the dart, allowing pressure to build up in the plunger tube before the pressure can over power the dart and pop it out like a cork. If you're using a shorter dart, your dart tooth isn't able to push your dart all the way to the back of the breech so you aren't corking the breech for pressure to build. Your best bet there is to insert a bit of 17/32" brass into the breech, moving the "tight spot" further forward to reach your shorter darts. Again - you'll have to modify your mag to fit your darts and keep them aligned in the clip.

Being Lego based you could probably make the pushed length easily adjustable son you can switch from full sized darts to shorter steffans. That'd be an awesome feature.

Wow. I haven't witnessed this level of "fugly" since TaerKitty modded. Functional, but... well I'm sure its your baby so I'll not finish this thought.

Interesting concept. I dont think I've seen anyone try to put a diy dart pusher into a blaster. I'd like to see it with a strife or raven as a base since they're already clip compatible. It may help with your reliability issues if the clip seats consistently.

Spiffy though. Its basically a ghetto'd rapid strike.

Edit:Didn't realize you were talking about that little one.

I have the Jet though so here are pictures of that blaster NIB in this album.

There is no sign of the little blaster on the box advertisement.

Wow. That... wow. I really would of expected to see a mention of it on box art - especially since the rest of the air tech line is being promoted on there.

Does anyone remember these as some sort of promotional item? Like a happy meal toy, cereal box top mail away - or bundled with the main air tech squadron blaster in a limited edition pack?

I bought some vintage nerf from an online classifieds ad and the lady was kind enough to give me the broken/ non working blasters along with the purchased ones. There were a couple of gems in that dysfunctional pile - namely a complete air tech jet squadron blaster complete with tail and 5 jets. The fifth jet was a puzzle until I found a little blue air pump blaster (also broken) with "do not modify jets or jet launcher" and a 2002 copyright (same year as the tech jet squadron blaster). Dots connected and I realized it must be part of the air tech sonic jet line.



I posted a brag pic to facebook and Bob O'Bob instantly hit on the little blue launcher as unfamiliar/ undocumented territory. After A little more googling I learned there was not an Air jet Tech "line". The squadron blaster was the only documented blaster released that fires the "sonic jets", making this little guy a complete puzzle.(according to orange's nerf page and nerf wiki, and every other resource I could find)




Has anyone ever encountered one of these before? Can you offer a name or even confirm that it actually is part of the air tech jet product line? The squadron blaster barrel pegs have a unique ridge along the top (and only the top) of the pegs. I'll check to see if this has that same ridge.

It doesn't work. It feels like the pump is pushing unrestricted air so either the o-ring is gone, a tube is blown or disconnected, or the tank is ruptured. There are two glued collars so I probably won't be able to open it without destroying it.

As soon as I get a better picture of the stampings I plan on asking the fine folks at Nerf if they can shed any light on the mystery - blaster name, how long it was available for sale, units sold ect. Any thoughts or knowledge from you guys would be appreciated. I've already asked the seller to check with her son to see if he remembers anything about it.

*Edit corrected pictures. I initially had 3 identical pictures.

My secret sauce just means that foam pulls off with the dart head, but dart heads still fall off after a few wars. I don't really care because slugs fall apart after just 1 war if the ground is wet at all (or sometimes fall off in the middle of the war) and glue domes have a lifespan drastically limited by trees.

I'm mixing GE Silicone II with DAP Alex Plus which seems to lower viscosity better than mineral spirits but contains such marvelous things as Formaldehyde http://www.dap.com/docs/msds/10002.pdf

Well, if you're pulling foam along with the head I'm convinced. Maybe I'll try mixing rubber cement in on a separate batch and see if that sticks without the formaldehyde.

I've had almost no adhesion problems with my foam->silicone stems. Its possible that because all of my stems injects are mixed with the something that isn't pure silicone and contains some pretty toxic solvents that it is forming a better bond to the foam. Also possible is that using the plastic baggie I can really get all of the silicone mix into the dart blanks. The final possibility is that the foam I'm using (MHA Pink) is just denser/less porous than the beige you're using (from looking at your picture).

I've heard about using a combination of rubber cement and superglue to prime and adhere silicone to foam, but that seems like a very painstaking process unless you are molding your domes with the stems and then doing final assembly of just inserting stems into molds.

I might pick up a box of walmart Q-tips and rubber cement and a tub of CA glue and see if I can replicate this since I do have a stem mold.

Beige foam is much more poreous, but oddly enough I've found a stronger bond between bare foam and silicone if it's more pourous. White foam had poor adhesion and amazon grey (very tight pours) had no adhesion at all. Our third version of gumdrops (gumdrops 3.0 - still mid development) is based around sticking a drilled blank in one side of a form and spackleing silicone onto the other side - filling the head cavities as well as filling the drilled blank - attaching the head to the blank as the silicone cures. The problem we've been having has been bond strength. Heads fall off after a few wars. Adhesion has been the last great hurdle preventing us from completing development. 3.0 construction really is as simple as drilling blanks, sticking them in one side of the form, spackleing silicone into the other, scraping off the excess silicone, dabbing a wad of dryer lint on top of the uncured heads (the loose fibers of the lint pull off and stick to the tops of the un-cured heads for perma-hopperability) and popping hundreds of completed darts out of the form once cured. Construction is stupid simple and crazy efficient, we just need the durability improved.

Zorn, I'd love to hear more about your secret sauce for stronger bonds! PM me if you're not comfortable discussing toxic mixes where younger nerfers might get themselves injured. If you can help us with that last problem, we should be able to finally wrap up development of a high rate of production metal free dart option!

The problem with using paper over the top is that only cornstarch-laden silicone would still cure. Unless you used something like regular paper, so it was still permeable. That might actually solve some of the adhesion problems too.

True! My earlier gumdrops have often used felt as a binding anchor because of the absolute death grip the silicone and hot glue formed with it. It was so painflully slow to cut out though, it killed the concept. Even pre-punched felt discs were tiresome. I'm not sure silicone will bond with paper. It was a good bond (but not death-grip) with denim. Denim is far more porus than paper, but stranger things have happened. Maybe we can back the heads on a paper sheet, soak the sheet of heads to strip away most of the paper and still have enough paper left to bond between silicone and foam? All we really need is something that will bond to both...heck maybe throwing a headed up felt sheet in the wash will be enough to separate the heads while leaving some felt to anchor too? I think I have a small sheet of gumdrop 2.0 heads somewhere. That just might be worth a try actually!

*edit* double post. Sorry about that.

I've noticed that if you don't scrape right, you can end up with messed up domes. One side of bottoms of the domes can have too much silicone and they'll be crooked on the foam or the scraper can stick to the silicone and pull material out of the holes, ruining the bottom and even the sides of the domes.

I've seen that happen to my gumdrops as well and just had a thought: What if a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper (since I'm all about kitchen tools at the moment) was placed on top of the mold and then scraped? It might be able to squeeze off the excess with out dragging un-due silicone out of the holes. It should be easy to peel the heads off the paper once cured.

The L.A. region has one of the more significant Nerfing Communities in the country. S.C.U.N. has some extremely well attended wars - including "Armageddon" - the second biggest annual war in the nation. You're very fortunate to live there. I'm in utah and have on multiple years driven 20 hours (round trip) just to war with the fine folks of S.C.U.N.

If memory serves - they even have their own forum... or at least did at one point in time. I'm not sure if that's where they still hang out, but you will see some SoCal nerfers here from time to time. Baghead, or Apollo will probably fill you in a little more if you message them.

Pro tip:
For anyone who wants and off the shelf blank holder - cookie cooling racks with 1/2" spacing works fantastically well with no modification needed. Holds hundreds of darts reasonably straight for filling. It's a little discovery my Mrs. wishes I had never made.



Zorn -

How's the bond strength on your domes? I'm still working with a small group on the development of gumdrops 3.0 and our big challenge has been bond strength and dart longevity. The heads kept falling off of our 2.0 versions. Following a tip from another nerfer - we've found rubber cement to be a fair adhesive (Finally! Something that adheres to silicone!!!) and have started priming the holes in our blanks with it. Adhesion has significantly improved, but we haven't been able to experiment much further with that development. I would love to actually see a little foam come off with the head if pulled hard enough to decapatate.

*I haven't noticed any swollen loss of density (that would be interesting to weigh and find out how much weight (if any) is sacrificed) but I have noticed significantly softer heads and easier fill if I mix in some mineral spirits with the silicone before adding corn starch.

*Not all brands of silicone cure faster with corn starch. Rather than make a list of what works, I simply suggest going to walmart and buying the $3 opaque tube with the black lettering. It's half the price of most other silicone caulks and cure time is accelerated with the addition of corn starch. It reeks - but it works and it's cheap.

*I completely agree with you on the sandwich bags! My Bans were failures (too light), but filling was fast and easy squeezing the silicone out of a bag.

To clarify the battery capacity question -
6D batteries are like a team of Husky dogs. They can pull a sled and run for miles and miles.
A single 9V is like trying to pull the sled with a team of greyhounds. They might be able to pull for a little bit, but you'll be pushing the sled once they're exhausted from sprinting.

With the original pictures nuked, I figured I would share pics of my Tetrahedral mobsticle - hand crafted by the Kitty, himself - so the NIC can benefit from this simple, freestanding cover...

Laying down and disconnected (you can see the blue rope threaded through the conduit legs):


Standing and set up:


Collapsed, folded, rolled and ready for travel:


They can be blown over, and you might have to deal with nerfers thinking it's a good idea to "camp" inside, but it's an extremely quick set up and takedown, and they can be transported easily as well.

Wow. I think that's a necro that's worth a re-read. I'm actually kinda intriuged with the bug sprayer tank option (provided it's clean and clear of chemicals). They're large capacity and are built and designed with pump and suitable oprv. They'll weigh a lot less than any metal hard tank as well. I think they would be crazy cheap and easy to dump in a backpack and run with... I wonder what pressure the oprv pops at...

Just a heads up, I think I'll have to wrap and be out by noon for this war. Lets try for a prompt start time to make up for it.

Theirs going to be a lot of nerfing time spent tying knots instead. Why not just use couplers for quicker set up and take down? You don't want a structure - and more specifically the liability of a structure strong enough to actually climb on anyway.

I've heard of people using boiling water to soften the glue. That warps and destroyed mine though.

I've found 2 100' bags of pre-cut 1.38", straightened beige Hot rod XL blanks from orders that had fallen through if you're interested. I'm selling them on a first post - first serve basis. I'm also waiting on payment for a third larger order of 2" cut blanks. Once they're all sold, I should be ready to buy another 2500' order of foam.

Pre-cut hot rod blanks

What size of wye works the best? I am posting this because I thought that there would only be one size of why when there is many.

1/2" is pretty standard.

Oh, wow. That is very interesting. I just e-mailed them asking about their pricing.
I've played "foam distributor" before and enjoyed it. With some of the recent inquiries for foam, I'm thinking it might be time for another order sooner than I thought. With the next batch I order I hope to not only sell foam - but also sell completed gumdrop 3.0 darts. Glory1610 has recently made a pretty big breakthrough and we're nearing the end of the development phase. Before I will place the next order though, I need finish my write up for the "auto blanker", as well as build another automated machine to drill holes quickly (I've got it conceptualized but not built). I also need to see if I can cut square straight off of the roll. Pre-stretching sucked, especially when I decided to run it through the dryer anyway.

Thanks for the heads up! If you're only looking for smaller quantities, maybe you and I can work out a group buy? One thing that makes me hesitate is the risk of getting stuck with a ton of foam without any buyers. I thought I might of dried up the Beige market with my last order.

Wow. That was a war to remember! Great company to road trip with - Thanks to Spoof (my sister), Jen, (friend of spoof) and NaturalMan7 (who shall forever be know to S.L.A.N.G. as "Kittens") You all made the 10 hour drive from Utah a joy and a pleasure. We nearly had to pull over in the last hour, we were laughing so hard. My van is a T.A.R.D.I.S! Whoda thunk?

Fantastic war, as well! It was great meeting so many new faces, as well as seeing a few familiar ones as well. The guys that flew in from the east coast were all studs. I really need to make it out to an Apoc someday.

That was a fantastic venue! It had the best mix of close quarters and long range I'd ever seen. I absolutely loved the freeze tag and lunch time speed rounds. I'll definitely be bringing them back home to play in Utah. It was hilarious watching the younger nerfers absolutely dominate the speed rounds! Watching the little lady with the single shot paint ball pistol own round after round was especially incredible.

3/4" petg shingles. The top end is plugged by a folded blank and hot glue, the petg friction fits into the 1/2" irrigation (garden hose) adaptor. It does require a short 1/2" pvc putt piece to stay in the wye. Light weight, cheap easy and clear! Reasonably sturdy, but not as solid as pvc (it wouldn't do well being sat on etc) but solid enough to withstand the avg punishments. Add your hatch, and it should be a solid option!

I really like the milk jug flap. The old method to plug shingles (Shingles have been the name I've most often seen applied to pre-loaded tubes)is to turn a 1/4" ring of 1/2" thin-wall PVC side ways and moosh it into the open end. It makes it a pain to re-load, and darts bounce out if you forget to plug it. Ring plugs are enough of a pain that it kills the efficiency gain from using a pre-loaded tube. The flap aught to be a good enough fix to compete with valves and dart doors. I've recently experimented with 3/4" Mcmaster PETG shingles. They're clear, extremely light weight and cheap. They also friction fit into irrigation (garden hose) fittings to adapt into 1/2" PVC. With your permission, I'll post a pic of them here. I bet your doors adapted onto PETG shingles will be a pretty big win. PETG shingles also sit reasonably well in the NERF bandolier elastics for an easy carry option.

I'm definitely confirmed, currently with +4 in my carpool but +5 is more likely.

It looks like I will be bringing about 5 guys. I think I could ask them to donate some money to the bachelor's party. Maybe $10 from you two with some stefans kicked in? I ordered the tarps. I will snag the shower rings, PVC, and barrier paper this weekend. Do the shower rings work for the top or do we need S-rings? I am also modding my 18 rd clip to take stefans. I am going to replace the stupid plastic rifled barrel with some brass tube in pvc or other plastic. Do you guys know what works best with flywheels? I got some trustfire batteries and I have a 3 cell Lipo. I think the Lipo will work best and easiest, so I will probably go that route. I have a red dot sight coming for it too. I even got a 35 round drum. I am going to attempt to make that stefan compatible as well. How long are the stefans that you guys make? I am really happy to find a group here. This seems so much better than paintball. Much cheaper too. Let me know if I am missing something. I am down to make gumdrops with you guys anytime. Just let me know when and where. Thanks.

5+you? That's awesome!
Drums are very difficult to steffanize. Straight clips are the way to go.

I like my Stefan to be 1.5" in total length, but that's all purely personal preference.

The only mobsticle I own is a tetrahedral built by a retired nerfer TaerKitty. I've never actually built any of my own. I've got quite a bit of weed cloth we can use, so hold off on that purchase.

I simply slap some trustfires in my rayven and spam stock darts, but a logo would probably be better. Our group kinda lacks an electronics guru.

My goto barrel materials are flo-guard-gold cpvc for spring powered blasters (the Lowe's on 9000s & ?00 East sells it) and petg tubing for air guns (that's a McMaster.com order). If its a flywheel blaster you want no contact with the dart after the fly wheels. Barrels are purely ascetic on fly wheel blasters.

I'm organizing a carpool to this years Gordon in California. The more people we can pack I. The value. The cheaper costs get. Might want to give that some thought too.

Oh. Shoot, I'll have to try that stuff out. I had no idea, and what youre saying makes a lot of sense. Lets just say for a moment that it is the wood being porous that slowed down the cure time so much. The type of silicone that absorbs moisture should preform the opposite of the other type in my wood mold, correct?

Correct.
The type you're using probably cures by releasing moisture. Putting it in a some what air tight mold, mixing moisture laden corn starch in with it (more moisture the silicone needs to disperse to cure) and expecting it to cure efficiently is like putting a cap (or a rubber banded finger from a glove) over the tube. It's holding in the moisture, and preventing the cure process.

The mold porosity and ambient humidity honestly has no impact on the cure time if you're adding corn starch to the right kind of silicone caulk. The corn starch is simply a vehicle to disperse moisture evenly through the silicone so it can all cure at once instead of slowly sucking moisture from the surrounding atmosphere. I've used wood to make experimental forms out of. The porosity impacts the surface finish of the dart head, (the reason I favor HPDE cutting boards for molds) but did not affect cure time at all. And like exo - I've also made large baby food sized blocks of oogoo. Such a large volume should of taken weeks to fully cure - but the corn starch cured it over night. It's not the mold but the ingredients.

I'd be interested in seeing the mold design you're using. Glory1610 and I are still actively developing metal free darts. Current experiments involve replacing felt tips with dryer lint to improve hopperability and production rate. Initial tests are very good, but who knows how the lint will hold up over time.

We need some of this for our yard anyway. I will snag a roll when I go for the PVC. I will get the stuff ordered so we have it in time for the war.

Some other members of my family have expressed some interest. My brother and brother-in-law have some stock blasters. Is there enough loaner blasters that fire stefans for me to bring 4 people? My son probably won't come if I bring all these guys. My brother is engaged, so it would kind of be an unofficial bachelor's party. He is getting sealed in the LDS temple, so strippers are out. We might be able to get some to come out again. Let me know what you think guys. Thanks.

That sounds awesome! I'm sure we can come up with enough blasters - even we have to resort to blasters firing stock darts. (I don't think we will though) Just let us know how many people you can get to come, and we'll do our best to arm them. Best case scenario - they love it and will want to join us for other wars!

I recently provided 95% of arms and ammo for a 45 person war at a singles ward FHE night for my sister in law. Blasters may perform in varying degrees of awesome, but I absolutely think we can cover it. I even have a large group game type that works fantastically well with mixed performance blasters. BTW, the only real modification needed to make a blaster fire steffans is removing the peg from the barrel. Blasters with "smart AR (air restrictors) systems (ruff cut, triad, zombie cross bow...) depend on intact AR's for their auto- barrel select function, but it is possible to remove the peg without damaging the AR's - it's just more difficult.

I've also been curious to try build to the same thing out of weed fabric. Its on a roll and about the right height.

Quick! some one hand me my hot glue "blaster"...

Here in Wisconsin (which I have to assume isn't too much different than Michigan) my silicone domes take a solid 2 days to cure in their molds, unless it is full on summer with High humidity, which neither Wisconsin or Michigan has yet. Also, if you made your dome molds too deep, those are going to take longer to cure as well.

The right kind of silicone at the right ratio of corn starch and silicone can cure enough to unmold in a few hours. Too much corn starch can make heads very firm, that can be countered by mixing in mineral spirits.

There are two types of silicon caulk. One cures by absorbing moisture - the other cures by releasing it. The type you want cures by absorbing it. I'm going to look in my crystal ball and predict that you've used GE II brand silicone or some other "low odor" silicone caulk. Thoses types cure the wrong way - by releasing moisture.

Go to Wal-Mart, look for a opaque tube with black printing - it will be the cheapest tube on the aisle most likely and buy it. That's the stuff you want. It looks like this (without the purple glove - that's just saving the unused caulk)

Thanks for thinking of this. Mayalmost completely got away from us!