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#364747 Too Cool to be Left in Old School: Modernized ESLT Project

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 20 November 2023 - 02:37 PM in Homemades

Nice, glad to see it's still alive.

I guess the way to fix that rubbing is to get the layer lines orthogonal to each other?




#364741 Rainfaux

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 06 November 2023 - 04:45 PM in Homemades

The TPU skirt seals have been working better for me than OG skirt seals. I would recommend trying them out if you've got a printer that can print TPU. They'll give you a perfect seal, while also being very low friction. They were actually the first piece of this I developed, and I've been using them on my SNAP since last year.

 

Some other notes:

The plunger rod for a full-length Rainfaux is the only piece so far that can't be printed on a standard 200x200 bed - there's just no way to make it small enough. So you'll have to track down someone who has at least a 300x300 bed, and even then you'll have to print it diagonally.

The specific 4x2mm magnets I'm using for the catch are these. You can also use a ballpoint pen spring instead, although it makes the trigger somewhat stiff. The trigger uses a ballpoint pen spring to keep it open; I haven't sourced a specific spring for that yet. I might make that part magnetic as well.

 

The trigger is a slider, but it wedges against a little lever cam, which then pushed up the screw on the catch. The system has a lot of leverage, and so the trigger pull is quite light. The catch does survive the drop test - it shouldn't go off on it's own.

 

I use silicone-based Sex Lube for my blasters. That started as a joke, but the stuff works great, so I kept using it. Give it a try! I squeeze a few drops into the front of the plungers, and then run the plunger back and forth to get everything nice and slippery. I also add some to the front of the catch plate, and to the surfaces the trigger slides against.

To get maximum power out of this, you'll need a very long and tight barrel. I'm using an 18" CPVC barrel with ruby darts, which gets me out to 300fps easily. How do you detune it? The best way is to move the catch cutout on the plunger rod back so that the draw length is shorter.

Speaking of modification: this is all designed using FreeCAD, because I want these files to be actually editable by people. FreeCAD can be a little bit intimidating to use at first, but hopefully I've set up the parts in a way where major dimensions can be tweaked easily. That's going to be way more robust of a way of modifying them than trying to hack up the STEP files.

 

The Pump-action version is in the works as a weird amalgamation of the Quixote, the New Style and Unibody SNAP, using a lot of the same design language. I've been riffing on this same basic body configuration of blasters for more than a decade now, and I just think it's neat and feels great.

 

The Fauxpupwill be the next version after that... as well as a springer version based on the Sancho Panza.

And of course, I'll have to make the DCIT mk3 for koree ;)




#364739 Rainfaux

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 31 October 2023 - 02:33 PM in Homemades

It's been 13 years since our release of the Rainbow, and it has proven to be an effective, durable, and influential design. The design of the catch was a reflection of the fabrication techniques that were common at the time: hand cut polycarbonate plates, nylon rods, skirt seals and PVC tubes. Home 3D printers were in their infancy, but would soon become a core fabrication tool for nerf homemades.

The Rainfaux is my attempt at creating a classic style Rainbow using as many parts created using Fused Filament Fabrication as possible (this project started it's life as the RainFFFow). This is more than just a single blaster: this is meant to be an interchangeable system of parts that can be used to create many types of blaster configurations. With that in mind, the goals of this project are:

  1. Create as many parts as possible using a consumer grade desktop 3D printer with common materials.
  2. The blaster should be durable enough to last through years of hard play with minimal or no maintenance.
  3. Maintain the performance characteristics of the classic Rainbow
  4. Improve on the ergonomics of the Rainbow
  5. Create manufacturing jigs to aid in the easy fabrication of non 3D printed component

The current source models contain files for a full and half length Rainfaux pistol. The full length is a highly performant blaster, capable of 300fps velocities, and the half length is only slightly less capable. I'm working on the pump-action and DCIT version of this blaster next. My two prototypes have been war-tested a couple of times now, but long-term testing is necessary.

 

PROJECT FILES ARE HOSTED ON PRINTABLES

Bill of Materials

  • PLA Filament
  • TPU Filament
  • 14" of 1.25" PVC
  • [[[[k25]]]] spring
  • qty 2 1/4-20x1" screws
  • qty 7 M3 x 10mm screws
  • qty 1 M3 x 15mm screws
  • qty 7 M3 square nuts
  • qty 1 M5 x 15mm screws
  • qty 1 M5 hex nut
  • qt2 4x2mm magnet
  • ballpoint pen spring
  • AR compatible grip (a printable reference grip is included)

Assembly

 

Use drill_guide as a guide for drilling the holes in the PVC for the catch. An 1/8" drill bit will give you clearance for the M3 screws. The hole under the catch itself will need to be at least ¼" to accommodate the catch screw. 

 

Not all PVC is the same size, so it is possible you will need to use diameter_gauge_1.25PVC to figure out if the parts need to be resized. 

 

Use silicone grease on the plunger head to ensure a low friction seal.

 

The catch uses two 4mm magnets which should be oriented to repel each other. The trigger and grip have retainer holes for a small pen spring.

 

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s9jGjVA.png




#364738 Too Cool to be Left in Old School: Modernized ESLT Project

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 31 October 2023 - 01:28 PM in Homemades

I'm always glad to see the ESLT revisited. I've used mine as a loaner blaster at wars for more than a decade, and it's probably time for a tune-up.
 

Ability to swap between Talon mag feeding or Hopper feeding

 

I'm hoping you can get this working. Kane's mag implementation works well enough, but it's not the smoothest to swap back to hopper. Most nerfers seem to be more comfortable with box mags, but I NEED my hopper :)




#364729 Hell Before Halloween: Resurrection

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 14 July 2023 - 11:49 AM in Nerf Wars

-No removable/internal magazines are allowed.

-No removable drums/turrets/cylinders ie tomcat drum.
-No exposed brass barrels, we don’t need anyone being cored.
-Inlines, wye hoppers and RSBCs are allowed.

Bless you. Spending all your time between rounds reloading box magazines brings wars to a crawl.

I would make the specific suggestion of simply not allowing players to start the game with any darts loaded into magazines, dart clips, or anything like that. I think what specifically makes detachable mags such a drag on the pace of the war is that people get some "capacity anxiety" and spend way too much time pre-filling mags. What makes inline/wyes/hoppers (and speedloaders) nice is that you can top them off in seconds, and so there's never any significant interruption in play.




#364725 Hello? Is anyone there?

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 24 June 2023 - 12:17 PM in Site Feedback

 

What bothers me about Discord and other small groups like that are how they're difficult or impossible to search for

That's always been the biggest problem with Discord, Slack, Teams, and any other chatroom based communication tool. They're good for realtime or near-realtime communication, but using them as a reference library is a kludge. Searching through multiple Nerf related Discord servers for information is not usually very quick of enlightening.

Reddit and Forums are not a panacea for searchability, but they can work a fair deal better for documenting hobby stuff. Discord and Reddit have the same problem of being proprietary platforms that are experiencing a lot of pressure to monetize, and lock away all this information. They ultimately don't care about the health of a subculture of fans and hobbyists.

The history of Nerfhaven does demonstrate some of the limitations of trying to run our own fansite. It's completely dependent on the goodwill and effort of a few people to keep it running, and is vulnerable to the forces of entropy that act against internet-facing services. A major example being: new user registrations being turned off for several years now, because of the relentless and overwhelming onslaught of spam accounts. And so the decision was made to basically just put NH into hibernation... but to preserve it as a library of it's era of Nerf hobby stuff. In that way, I think it has already proved itself more useful and durable than a lot of other Nerf social media, which is slowly
disappearing from history.

I'm hopeful that in the next few years someone will come up with a better social media solution for hobbyists, something that includes the real-time communication for Discord, the ability to post articles, the ability to have threaded conversations, media hosting, and for all that to be searchable and preservable.


 




#364724 H2O Eh-Row

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 24 June 2023 - 11:52 AM in Homemades

Since r/Nerf is indefinitely borked, maybe I should inflict my weird builds on older message boards instead?
 

 

You say "inflict", I say "delight"

 

 

But one of the problems I've had for the longest time is structure.

This might sound primitive, but... have you considered just putting globs of hot glue on it?




#364714 McMaster Carr Guide

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 18 September 2022 - 08:24 AM in General Nerf

Seals

Name: [Skirt Seal] 9562K46
Notes: A dynamic plunger head seal for 1-1/4" PVC




#364693 Bowpup

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 19 May 2022 - 07:22 PM in Homemades

Hell yeah! Definitely worth the Necro.

I had been working on updating my old SNAP 2.0 and Quixote designs to integrate Adrian Kelly's 3D printed wye, since it works with modern short darts. I have basic 1-1/4" endcap coupler with integrate wyedesigned for those more "standard" blasters, but I think what would really be neat is to design a backpiece for the Bowpup that integrates the hopper, and stock, and bow arm slots all into one piece that you can stick onto the back of the plunger tube.The Bowpup is definitely not just a dead-end design in my mind, and I've been planning on revisiting it for years now to modernize it.




#364690 Buzz Bee shells - print your own

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 04 May 2022 - 04:08 PM in Darts and Barrels

I have designed and extensively tested 3D printable dart shells, compatible with all Buzz Bee blasters. These allow for compatibility with solid-core darts, as well as maintaining compatibility with standard buzz bee darts (which are somewhat thicker than regular nerf branded darts). They have better performance characteristics, and you should see an obvious performance increase over the stock shells.

The design has been optimized for both filament and resin 3D printing. You should be able to get good printing results without fiddling too much with settings.

Link to my Etsy shop, where you can buy a set
https://www.etsy.com...ance-compatible

Link to source files
https://www.printabl...r-dart-shooters

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zDjaZI3.jpg?1

Dimensions for reference. The source files are in FreeCAD format, so you can modify them as desired.

ydptISN.png




#364689 Project 13: Brushless machine pistol

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 15 March 2022 - 10:55 AM in Homemades

Very cool, thanks for making the STEP files available. I think 8.3DPS is plenty fast ;)




#364684 Project 16: A full-auto mag-fed shotgun

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 21 February 2022 - 06:49 PM in Homemades

Interesting, I hadn't heard of this concept before of feeding in 4 darts at a time.




#364680 Aeon Pro Pump Upgrade Kit: A Full 'Drop-In' System

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 14 January 2022 - 10:56 AM in Modifications

Great stuff.
 

 

help me figure out the best aspect ratio to use on my images

I've used 4:3 ratio @ 800x600 in the past, but that's pretty old school.




#364664 My solution to the 'Print-Zip' Noise from 3D printed Pump Grip

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 11 September 2021 - 11:15 AM in Homemades

Good approach. I wonder if you could cut out teflon inserts for those instead of printing the spacers?




#364651 Crossbow Tube Help?

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 26 June 2021 - 11:31 AM in Modifications

One thing I've been working on recently is printing out custom TPU skirt seals. If anyone wants to try one out, I can send them one sized for their specific plunger tube. I'm curious to see how well they hold up.




#364646 APOCALYPSE 2021 - NEW LOCATION SAME TIME

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 13 June 2021 - 01:04 PM in Nerf Wars

I'll see if I can make it out this year.




#364635 Clarification of differences between Hoppers, RSCBs, Choppers, and BRI

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 18 May 2021 - 12:59 PM in Homemades

RSCB

I forget what this stands for, I think it's an acronym of people's names. This is the oldest of these magazine systems, and it's core feature is the 90 degree elbow directing air into a T coupler. You then have the barrel on the front of the T, and the magazine behind. You have to tilt your blaster downward to load the next dart. These work well in airguns, but were always somewhat underwhelming on springers.
The oldest reference to it I'm aware of is ShortShit's writeup from 2004. I'm sure whether he is the sole inventor. The popularity of this system has waxed and waned, but it has never really been replaced. There are many, many permutations of this idea using all sorts of different components.
http://nerfhaven.com/mods/ss_rscb/

 

BRISC
This is an evolution of the RSCB. Uses 45 degree fittings instead of 90 degree fittings, the theory being that it improves airflow. Ice9 developed this in 2009.
http://nerfhaven.com...ng-the-r-s-c-b/

 

Hopper
This uses a 45 degree wye coupler, so that the magazine is sticking upwards and backwards 45 degrees, and the barrel is in-line with the barrel. Darts load automatically between shots. I developed this system in 2009, originally as an automatic blowgun (demonstrating it's auto-loading capabilities):

https://www.youtube....h?v=DB9b2nvAdJU

Ryan posted one of the original guides for how to mount them to +bows
http://nerfhaven.com...y-hopper-clips/

Chopper
An evolution of the hopper incorporating some of the concepts from the BRISC. A hopper, but with a bent magazine. Streamlines the profile of the blaster, while maintaining automatic loading. Later evolutions of this used a magzine tube that was heated up and bent into shape, rather than using a fitting. Muttonchops developed this in 2010
http://nerfhaven.com...per-with-brisc/

Inline Clips
One system you didn't mention are inline clips (I suppose "inline magazines" would be a better name for these). These have the magazine chamber for darts directly in-line with the barrel, and then the barrel front of that. If tuned correctly, there's just enough air to push one dart through the barrel with every shot. These are typically made by push fitting a barrel of CPVC into a section of PVC tubing about 3 or 4 darts long, and then putting the whole assembly into the front PVC coupler of the blaster. I have no idea where this originated, but I think the concept is a contemporary of RSCB clips.




#364632 Armageddon 2021

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 08 May 2021 - 11:49 AM in General Nerf

Probably not this year.




#364630 Sceptor... If you know, you know

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 03 March 2021 - 05:42 PM in General Nerf

These things wreck when modded. Super underrated.




#364623 Nerf Longshot feeding issue

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 27 December 2020 - 05:12 PM in Modifications

 Anyway to fix this short of brassing a new bolt or putting in a worker breech and barrel? Also I'm using a talon mag.

No simple fix, you do need a mechanism for pushing in the dart.




#364615 Crossbow Tube Help?

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 10 December 2020 - 04:41 PM in Modifications

I want to make sure my homemade internal making skills are good enough before I make any guides. 

Nah, just post it even if it's garbage.




#364612 Crossfinder

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 04 December 2020 - 11:05 AM in Modifications

It's definitely a mod of it's era.




#364605 "My First 3B"

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 06 October 2020 - 05:36 PM in Modifications

A quick update to the mod: if you have a 3D printer, you can use these tip replacements that I designed instead of modifying the coupler.

https://www.thingive...m/thing:4616582

 

large_display_20201006_084910.jpg




#364602 Project 12: 100% brushless Vortex blaster

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 18 August 2020 - 01:16 PM in Homemades

Very cool. Bravo on using Creative Commons licensing to enlarge commons of knowledge.

 

 

 

It’s having some reliability issues, but only with Pyragon drums. I’m not 100% sure what’s going on here. Might be just because it’s firing so much faster than the Nitron and the drums can’t keep up. 20 round stick mags are fine. I’m waiting for the chance to combat test this to see how it works there before I spend too much more time on it.

There's quite a lot of variability between drums, only 1 of the 3 I have work well. 




#364592 Front-Primed 1995 Kenner Crossbow

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 03 August 2020 - 08:47 PM in Modifications

I wonder if you could come up with some sort of pully systems, so that it could be a pump to prime?




#364583 What Happened to NerfHaven

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 24 June 2020 - 05:23 PM in General Nerf

You can't hide from us  :P




#364579 What Happened to NerfHaven

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 17 May 2020 - 05:07 PM in General Nerf

We use meetup.com (among other things) here in Houston. I won't say it's been the most successful tool we have, but there are several regulars that found our group through that site.

I'll have to give that a try.




#364574 What Happened to NerfHaven

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 13 May 2020 - 06:09 PM in General Nerf

Reddit is cute for showing off completed projects and capturing the culture, but not the proper layout for sales, write-ups, and organizing wars. I am assuming Facebook groups are more local and great for organizing wars?

 

Facebook has been a good tool for connecting with new nerfers in the Minneapolis/St Paul area of Minnesota. We have the very searchably named  "Minnesota Nerf" page and "Minnesota Nerf Community" group, which draws in a lot of randos to wars hosted by various people in the area. I do post war announcements on reddit and some of the discord channels, but I've never had anyone show up who didn't see it on NerfHaven or Facebook. I could see Facebook dropping off in usefulness in the near future as young people shun the platform en masse.

 

The disintegration of forums and the balkanization of online social media is not unique to Nerf at all. It's completely common nowadays to have multiple parallel social groups of a particular hobby active in the same geographic area, and be completely unaware of each other. It's interesting how the internet of 2000-2010 had a lot of centralized hobbyist forums that really brought everyone together, and how much that has disintegrated in a few short years.




#364566 Modded Stampede.

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 04 May 2020 - 07:21 PM in Homemades

I would take a look at these two threads first:

http://nerfhaven.com...-modifications/

 

http://nerfhaven.com...emade-blasters/




#364565 What Happened to NerfHaven

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 04 May 2020 - 07:20 PM in General Nerf

The fragmentation of online nerf is distressing, there's no longer an compendium of all information. Some people are still around and active. I certainly still do mods and homemades (I'm working on a Fang QS-4 mod this evening).

 

As for nerfing itself, this is arguably the best time ever to do it.




#364503 Smaller caliber darts?

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 14 March 2020 - 09:38 AM in Darts and Barrels

For reference 3/8" darts were referred to as "nanos". Not much ever came of them. One major issue is that the dimensional tolerances of FBR seem to be consistent across sizes, which makes the barrel fit very inconsistent on small sizes.

 

It's definitely possible to make practical small darts, but you need to use different materials and construction methods than is typical for stefans. Boomco's straw darts, for example, are 0.4" in diameter, and do perform well.




#364481 3d printed springer pistols?

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 25 February 2020 - 10:33 PM in Homemades

Pistols are the one case where I think modding existing blasters will give you better results than building a homemade.




#364449 Nerf Wars in Durham, NC area

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 08 February 2020 - 11:34 AM in Nerf Wars

The steps I would take are:
 
1. Post a thread of Nerfhaven. Which you've done already, good work  ;)
2. Post a comment on r/nerf. Also search through the post history for North Carolina and Durham to see if anyone else has posted about it, and message them directly.
3. Search Facebook for any local nerf groups. If one does not exist, create it. You want the group to have a very generic and searchable name, so that people can discover it - such as North Carolina Nerf, or Durham North Carolina Nerf. Once a group is created, people will start stumbling on it and sending you messages, so be sure to respond to those.
4. If you know even one other person, host a war and post the event across multiple social media outlets. You may actually have some randos show up, people who saw your event but never messaged you. The majority of people online lurk, but they are real and present.
 
There is a lot of diffuse interest in nerf wars out there, and so you have to take actions to coalesce it into a community of people who are actively engaged. That's where you have to just "fake it till you make it", host very tiny wars and post invites and information on a lot of online social platforms. Eventually one person will come, and then three, and then six... and at some point you'll actually have a local community of people who are actively participating. The only way to do that is to apply some elbow grease, and to believe in the project even when it seems like you're spinning your wheels.



#364448 Water vs. Dryer? dart saving methods

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 08 February 2020 - 11:28 AM in Darts and Barrels

I don't think either method is really going to revitalize the darts as much as you think. Darts are super cheap now, I would buy some from China.




#364415 Nerf Wars in Durham, NC area

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 26 January 2020 - 09:03 AM in Nerf Wars

War planning has gotten extremely disrupted by the expansion of social media, it's difficult to find them now. Basically, whoever hosts in the area has to post on whichever newfangled site/service that people use. For the MN wars I host, I end up having to post here on NH, on Facebook, on Reddit, and on Discord servers... and I'm still probably missing a huge chunk of potential nerfers. I don't think there's an easy answer for discovering nerf wars other than just spamming everywhere with questions, or trying to build up a local community on your own.




#364356 Ballzooka-compatible ammo?

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 22 December 2019 - 11:05 AM in General Nerf

Ballzooka topics are evergreen




#364345 Titan Modification Question

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 16 December 2019 - 06:21 PM in Modifications

It sounds like you're talking about a different blaster. Titans are air-powered, not electric.




#364299 Dcit

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 14 November 2019 - 09:04 PM in Homemades

That IS a giant jolt, not a dcit ;)




#364296 Tech Target - 3D printed barrel replacements

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 12 November 2019 - 11:57 PM in Modifications

This is a 3D printed drop-in replacement for the barrel of a Nerf brand Tech Target blaster.
 
2019-11-12 22.29.52.jpg
The standard barrel replacement is compatible with standard foam darts, simply push the darts into the barrel from the front. This works well with the stock spring, but is not recommended with an upgraded spring, as the high pressures will tend to damage stock darts. The standard barrel is compatible with half length darts, but requires a ramrod to fully insert them. With the stock spring, you can expect velocities of about 80fps.
 
2019-11-12 22.33.28.jpg
 
2019-11-12 22.33.54.jpg
 
The CPVC insert compatible barrel is a receptacle for a CPVC barrel replacement. This is recommended if you are using half length darts and an upgraded spring. A 4" CPVC barrel is optimal, and you can expect velocities of about 140fps.
 
2019-11-12 22.35.13.jpg

Attached Files




#364293 Dcit

Posted by Daniel Beaver on 11 November 2019 - 11:32 PM in Homemades

Crazy you're dragging this up DB, it's a giant jolt which is all the knockout is.

 

By "just a giant jolt", I assume you mean "the best homemade blaster ever made"

...if only a mk2 version was in the works...