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#268475 Guide To Barrel Material

Posted by moosa on 08 March 2010 - 08:08 AM in Modifications

So I recently went out and picked up some 1/2" CPVC from Home Depot. This stuff is surprisingly flexible though. And due to its inherent flexibility, the 10 foot rods seem to have some degree of permanent curvature to them. I'm worried about using this stuff for barrel material. Barrels need to be straight.

Does the CPVC that everyone's using flex under its own weight like this, or did I just get some weird crap? It's sort of a darkish beige color, and it was the only 1/2" CPVC they had there.



#269785 Guide To Barrel Material

Posted by moosa on 20 March 2010 - 10:16 PM in Modifications

So I recently went out and picked up some 1/2" CPVC from Home Depot. This stuff is surprisingly flexible though. And due to its inherent flexibility, the 10 foot rods seem to have some degree of permanent curvature to them. I'm worried about using this stuff for barrel material. Barrels need to be straight.

Does the CPVC that everyone's using flex under its own weight like this, or did I just get some weird crap? It's sort of a darkish beige color, and it was the only 1/2" CPVC they had there.

Yes, that's likely CPVC, it's usually a darker beige like you described, not white like PVC. It does have some degree of bend to it. Whenever I go to the store to get CPVC, I take a piece and try to roll it on the ground. If it's too bent, it won't roll easily, so put it back and try again. I can usually find a pretty decent piece. When you take it home, just let it sit on the ground for a little to try to straighten it, and store it somewhere where it can't bend, supported on a few spots throughout its length.

When you cut it down, it doesn't bend so much. It's just a little floppy as a 10' piece.

I just got back from the nearest Lowes, and I picked up some more CPVC from there. They only had 5-foot lengths, and it was a tad pricey ($2.78 for 5 feet), but this stuff was much straighter than what I found at Home Depot last time. The length could be a contributing factor, but I guess you just can't assume all 1/2" CPVC to be identical.

Around me, CPVC is 3.44+tax for 10'... hardly expensive, even for a college student, less than $.40/foot.

I got a 10' section and cut a 4", 5", 6", 7", 8", 9", 10", 11", 12", and 13" barrel, then I test my blasters to find the best length. It cost less than $4 to get all the barrels, worth the investment.

This is an excellent idea. I am definitely doing this. This is advice that anyone new to modding should hear. Thanks for sharing! :)



#269786 Plastic Safe Lubricants

Posted by moosa on 20 March 2010 - 10:25 PM in General Nerf

Finally found some at Lowes. Woot.

Posted Image



#268246 Plastic Safe Lubricants

Posted by moosa on 06 March 2010 - 02:27 PM in General Nerf

This lube issue is truly vexing me. It's so difficult to find a good lube. :wacko:
I went to Walmart and Home Depot today. Looked at everything I could find that said lubricant on it.
Many lubricants have some form of petroleum in them. This is bad, correct? Also, a lot of them have some sort of penetrant. This is also bad, right? A couple of the guys at Home Depot who helped me find the lubricants were commenting about the price difference between two different cans they found. "I thought silicon is silicon," one of them said half-jokingly. Ahhg. At least they're friendly.



#268264 Plastic Safe Lubricants

Posted by moosa on 06 March 2010 - 05:18 PM in General Nerf

Thanks. Yes, I beefed, but I don't think typos apply to in-person vocal communication. Couldn't find any "grease" or non-spray stuff that was good either. I'm considering traveling to ACE. I think the closest one is a half hour away though...

Edit: Ick! The closest one is 30 miles away. And I don't know my way around that town.



#266134 Deploy Cs-6 Overhaul

Posted by moosa on 20 February 2010 - 07:22 AM in Modifications

Thank you for this. Some valuable info here. Easy to follow, informative, and to the point.



#266259 Deploy Cs-6 Overhaul

Posted by moosa on 20 February 2010 - 11:36 PM in Modifications

That's probably not a good sign.

Anyways, nice work on that mod. I guess you lucked out on finding something that seemingly works so well in there.

It seems to me like the Deploy shrunk since the last time I saw it in that Youtube video... :D



#267167 Beginner's Guide To Machining Plastics

Posted by moosa on 27 February 2010 - 06:17 AM in Modifications

I've used the normal abrasive cutting wheels to cut Nerf plastic with my Dremel without problems. I don't push it too hard.

Also, Dremel now sells cutting wheels made specifically for plastics.
Link here.
They appear to also be abrasive type cutters. I have yet to use them.



#278177 Splitfire/2k Turret Modification!

Posted by moosa on 21 June 2010 - 04:47 AM in Modifications

I think using a turret on a Splitfire in this manner is very clever... I've never seen something like that before, though that may just be me. Awesome work.

I'm having a hard time understanding why you keep saying it's not worth doing.



#272756 A New Singled Longshot.

Posted by moosa on 20 April 2010 - 08:55 AM in Modifications

Haha what the hell? Glue a giant spring to the side of it. This is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY if you want the mod to work. :rolleyes:



#272001 A New Singled Longshot.

Posted by moosa on 12 April 2010 - 08:56 AM in Modifications

Who needs a 20 inch barrel...

when you have a four and a half foot long one!?


Bahahaha! I told you 16" wasn't enough. I LOLed.



#270946 A New Singled Longshot.

Posted by moosa on 01 April 2010 - 05:49 AM in Modifications

Is 16" really enough?



#270314 Extreme Nite Finder Modification

Posted by moosa on 25 March 2010 - 05:34 PM in Modifications

I never knew about this rule either. And I've seen others mentioning things were for sale at the end of writeups and such in the past. Is there an issue with linking to a sales thread or anything? Again, not arguing, but looking for clarification.

More on topic: I saw this thing on eBay, and I thought, "wow, sweet." I like the idea of cramming blasters inside blasters inside blasters, and it's crazy how you've managed to fit all of that in such a small package. Awesome work.



#266141 Reverse Plunger Dead Space Killing Method

Posted by moosa on 20 February 2010 - 09:02 AM in Modifications

That's not all.

The more flexible the material used for dead space reduction is, the more certain it is to absorb energy by flexing. Filling dead space with flexible foam is almost a complete waste of effort.


I don't follow you here. We're talking about air pressure, not direct kinetic energy. The foam may serve to absorb some vibration from the plunger action, but it's not going to absorb the pressure of the air, which is what is propelling the dart. The only way the flexible foam could reduce air pressure would be if it was allowed to be compressed under the pressure, widening the airway, which the plastic straw the air is passing through prevents from happening.

(To everyone:) If he says that this mod alone has improved the performance of his blaster, why argue that it doesn't work? He's said that he will do more actual tests on the range difference when he's able to. There's no reason to assume that he's lying or that he's incorrect in the actual observations he's reporting to us.



#303923 New Nerf Series!

Posted by moosa on 27 August 2011 - 08:06 PM in General Nerf

@moosa, LordDrac is quite amazing but somebody beat him to the first Vortex mod ever, known as SpectreX on the OMWF and the official HvZ forums, did a voltage mod on the biggest gun.


Cool. Link? I'd like to see it.



#304570 New Nerf Series!

Posted by moosa on 11 September 2011 - 05:36 AM in General Nerf

Well I have my Praxis here and I just did the spring reposition mod.


My brief experience shows that these discs are flying extremely inconsistently. They never just go straight, but some shots fly better than others. They basically all fly to the left to some degree, and often after banking left for a while they'll start to swerve to the right mid-flight... weird. I haven't been able to tell yet if the inconsistency is related to the construction of the discs themselves, but there's certainly no visible differences from one disc to the next.
They definitely do fly farther than stock darts though.

Please make it known how your experiences with these compare to mine.

Edit: forgot to mention that there was no noticeable wind, although it was a cold and foggy morning. Even the shots I took inside down the hallway, although it's only 20-25 feet you can clearly see most of the shots banking to the left as they fly out of the blaster. As you'd expect, the rare one that went straighter would also fly better.



#304644 New Nerf Series!

Posted by moosa on 12 September 2011 - 03:21 PM in General Nerf

So it could just be my blaster/discs that aren't shooting well. That's good to know. I hope most of them shoot better.

I made certain to hold the blaster level, and the discs would still come out leaning to the left.



#304023 New Nerf Series!

Posted by moosa on 29 August 2011 - 03:37 AM in General Nerf

If you could figure out a way to make homemade XLR discs that would certainly be awesome, but aside from the inherent difficulty in crafting such a thing at home I would guess that discs that weren't nearly perfectly formed in just the right aerodynamic shape would perform far worse than the Nerf discs.

The discs go about as fast as darts from a stock Recon compared side-by side, but they have a lot less drop. So they're easier to dodge than stefans with comparable range. Oh well.



But keep in mind that those are stock Vortex blasters. The stock Vortex blasters shoot at the same velocity as stock dart blasters, they just happen to go much further. A modified Vortex blaster could shoot faster just as a modified dart gun does.



#303939 New Nerf Series!

Posted by moosa on 27 August 2011 - 11:32 PM in General Nerf

Thanks, I found this one too:

Just demonstrating the higher velocities. I don't understand why these guys seem so bent on taking single shots with these. They're supposed to be full auto blasters- we want to see the rate of fire!

So I guess these things really do use flywheels? Seems like it has some kind of motorized delivery into the flywheels. I was hoping it would be some kind of rapid, continuous delivery so that these things could really pile out at a high ROF, but I guess the wheels wouldn't have enough torque to keep the ranges up that way without revving up between shots.



#304141 New Nerf Series!

Posted by moosa on 31 August 2011 - 04:59 PM in General Nerf

The new blasters are essentially shooting mini frizbees. Compared to the foam disks, darts are about as aerodynamic as cannonballs. It's obvious the improved ranges are a result of aerodynamics rather than anything going on inside the blaster itself.

If these blasters are going to be of any use, the disks will have to be modified, or a homemade solution will have to be discovered. Any modification to the disks will have to add weight which will cause them to fall somewhat faster, therefore losing their main benefit.


They didn't just replace darts with discs. The internals are completely different. These blasters have exactly zero of the issues associated with air pressure blasters.

Adding weight to the discs should be very easy; first we'll have to get more power out of the blasters themselves. I look forward to people destroying their complex internals with super beefy torsion springs.



#303892 New Nerf Series!

Posted by moosa on 27 August 2011 - 01:17 AM in General Nerf

Can you make darts bank left/right? DIDN'T THINK SO!
Seriously, if stock ranges really are significantly, maybe even dramatically better than for dart guns, why wouldn't you be at all excited? If nothing else it gives modders a chance to explore some fresh new mechanisms rather than doing the same blaster mods over and over again. Plus it gives you something else to look out for at nerf wars, especially if people get good at banking shots with these things.

Edit: SG Nerf reports 55-65ft. ranges on the stock Praxis with a shotgun-pump prime. I thought they would use flywheels, but nope, spring powered. That's literally 3 times the stock range of recently released Nerf dart blasters.
http://www.youtube.c...player_embedded

Edit2: Same ranges for all the blasters. These things look like they'll either be really easy to mod or really difficult. Seems like all you can do is replace the spring with a stronger one and then attempt to reinforce the parts. There's no plunger tubes or barrels to speak of. They probably all have the exact same spring and basic firing mechanism. The only real differences between the blasters appear to be the location of the priming mechanism, the way they're reloaded and the ammo capacity.

The Proton is essentially rear-loaded, and is a single shot blaster.
The Vigilon has a built-in side-loaded clip (so you don't need three hands to reload the thing), and holds five shots.
The Praxis is clip fed much like the CS blasters we know and love, and has that pump action prime we all know and dream about, with a generous 10 shot capacity (or 20 with the big clip, which is of course ONLY available with the Nitron).

Benefits: none of the blasters seem to have any trouble with loading, and the issues of air seals, dead space, etc. are completely non-existent, removing any reason to "single" them. It's like they've circumvented all of the biggest issues involved with nerf blasters.

Bah. I was hoping the Nitron might use actual flywheels somehow so it could actually have a rate of fire worthy of "full auto," but apparently not.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Xhw_cIoe-1s
I guess the good news is that supercharging the battery could create an automatic spring blaster with both impressive range and ROF, but that sort of thing still isn't practical.

Edit again: This guy's already started modding them.
http://www.youtube.c...hhZGdpXCTc&NR=1
Claiming 20 extra feet with the stock spring.
And more: http://www.youtube.c...&feature=relmfu

The discs bounce off walls. ;D



#279680 Bladder Indicator Light.

Posted by moosa on 07 July 2010 - 10:33 AM in Modifications

Clean indeed, and pretty Effeminate paint job.

Also, I really like your style of mashing blasters together. :)



#279747 Bladder Indicator Light.

Posted by moosa on 08 July 2010 - 01:32 PM in Modifications

Has anyone ever destroyed a Magstrike bladder? I just posted in another topic that Captain Slug says the things are pressure rated to 600psi. Unless you have sharp pointy things in your bladder chamber, I have a hard time imagining how any nerfer could manage to "burst" a Magstrike bladder.



#273532 Externally Singled Hornet (for Power)

Posted by moosa on 27 April 2010 - 11:54 AM in Modifications

Make sure your hornet doesn't have any leaks. I own 6 stock hornets and every one of them leaks air from multiple holes. Then check for air seal issues. What are you using to seal your tubing?

Although with six tanks you should be putting out a lot of air, there is a good amount of dead space introduced in this design. There's also the restriction of the tubing that could also be a limiting factor. Of course, with larger diameter tubing that would be introducing even more dead space. Its possible your barrel length might not be ideal, so it might be a good idea to experiment with different lengths. Just mentioning some things that could be effecting the range outcome.

Really the strength of this mod is the fact that you don't ever have to open up that pesky Humpty Dumpty!



#273562 Externally Singled Hornet (for Power)

Posted by moosa on 27 April 2010 - 08:04 PM in Modifications

Mait .Were you getting these ranges with the blast button or semi auto.


The semi-auto doesn't work any more. It uses all the tanks at once with the blast button.



#273412 Externally Singled Hornet (for Power)

Posted by moosa on 26 April 2010 - 03:24 PM in Modifications

I can't say I've never thought of this myself (as well as others I'm sure), but I will say that I'm a sucker for visual appeal, and that looks surprisingly awesome. The barrel is noticeably angled downward, but still.

Get us some measured ranges. :)



#274170 Externally Singled Hornet (for Power)

Posted by moosa on 06 May 2010 - 02:34 PM in Modifications

Hey guys, check out this awesome scope I added to my Hornet


Made me lol.



#275028 Magstrike Air Compressor Mod

Posted by moosa on 17 May 2010 - 07:34 AM in Modifications

Really guys? Can we please let this die? Every new post just makes me even more sad. :D
I endeavor not to bump this thread, but it just keeps sticking to the top of the list here anyways...



#270655 Singled Recon?

Posted by moosa on 29 March 2010 - 07:33 AM in Modifications

That's cool.

So, can we let this topic die now, or do we all need to continue reemphasizing one another's points over and over for another page or so?

Edit: Nice. Page 3.



#303894 Nerf Bolo Rounds

Posted by moosa on 27 August 2011 - 02:34 AM in General Nerf

These are great, but could you make them without needles in them?



#303918 Nerf Bolo Rounds

Posted by moosa on 27 August 2011 - 03:30 PM in General Nerf

You're only using the needle to thread the yarn through the foam. You're not actually leaving it in the foam.


Haha. My mistake.
Good work!



#274810 Air Gun Tables For Design And Testing

Posted by moosa on 14 May 2010 - 11:50 PM in Modifications

Could you do me a favor (and this is not simply for my sake but for everyone who may come across this thread) and make it abundantly clear what exactly it is you've set out to accomplish here? It's kind of one of those things where someone comes into this and starts reading, thinks "oh this sounds like it might be something useful," and then a couple paragraphs later they have no idea what's going on, or what exactly all of this could mean to them. I hope you see what I'm trying to say.



#274885 Air Gun Tables For Design And Testing

Posted by moosa on 15 May 2010 - 09:16 PM in Modifications

Perhaps the rest of the community can jump in here and we can compile a list of airguns, their blast chamber volume, approximate operating pressure, and their optimal barrel lengths.


I'm sorry but we've already been over this. There are too many variables to make posting a list of optimal barrel lengths a legitimate idea. Blast chamber volume is different, of course, as that's pretty much constant. And operating pressures, maybe, but that can be quite variable too, as I understand it.

Doom, I think the key words to describe the real purpose of what you're doing here are optimization and efficiency. You seem to put a focus on barrel lengths in your description and topic title, which could be a little misleading, as that seems to be only a small part of whats going on here. If the ONLY thing someone is interested in is finding the right barrel length for their blaster, I believe the "guess and check" method is still much better than trying to use these tables. If, however, one is interested in accounting for all of these other variables in their blaster at the same time, or is just interested in other variables besides barrel length, THEN the tables become useful. Does that make sense to you as well?

PS, I appreciate your maturity in responding to this feedback. It's refreshing to be able to discuss something intellectually without people unnecessarily taking things personally.



#274778 Air Gun Tables For Design And Testing

Posted by moosa on 14 May 2010 - 04:06 PM in Modifications

Yes. The model assumes that no leaks exist. From my understanding of the problem, this is okay for the slight amount of air loss from around a dart. If you find the tables are consistently wrong then this might be something to evaluate in the future. Let me know if that is the case.

I'll try to make assumptions like that more clear in an edit of the spreadsheet.

Another not obvious assumption: The gas starts are atmospheric temperature. Is this a good assumption? Intuitively, it depends on how much time elapses between filling the gas chamber and firing. I compared the two possibilities (hot gas from after pumping vs. atmospheric temperature gas) and found that the efficiency changed only a negligible amount, so this should be a good assumption for at least most cases.


Given the amount of variables that still exist, my inclination is that it would be more "efficient" to guess and check for barrel lengths, and probably without any resulting loss in performance over using your tables. Given how rigorous you've attempted to be here, it would be a good idea to evaluate for yourself the actual consistency, accuracy, and overall benefit of using your table method over the conventional means before you pin this as "useful." Unless others with as much scientific vigor happen around here and believe it may be worth their time to check your work, this may never become "useful" in that sense. And even if you could account for as many variables as possible, there's always variation within the components of the blasters themselves, which you have no control over and would further skew actual results.

Do you see where this is going? It's like the Uncanny Vally; the more vigor you put into trying to achieve true accuracy, the more rapidly that ideal separates itself from you. I don't think you're going to get any significant improvements in results via this method compared to conventional methods (let alone the extra work involved and whether or not anyone cares about 5 extra feet). I do appreciate the effort, and realize you're not making any big claims here, but I don't want people to come in here and be dazzled by all the mathematics and think this is the Barrel Length Guide thread 2.0, this time made by a Nerf god. :o I don't mean this to sound harsh, but you did sort of bring it on yourself. :blink:



#274903 Air Gun Tables For Design And Testing

Posted by moosa on 15 May 2010 - 11:06 PM in Modifications

Obviously, we need to discourage thinking that all guns are the same, so I understand where you're coming from.


Not only the guns, but the barrel material/dimensions, the dart size/fit, and the pressures you're pumping to. And obviously there's no possible way to account for all the differences in every individual mod. As long as its not a list that anyone thinks they can simply look up an optimum length for their blaster's barrel, then I don't see a problem with it if you find it useful for other means. I think we just really need to get away from this idea of being able to look up barrel lengths.



#276531 Air Gun Tables For Design And Testing

Posted by moosa on 31 May 2010 - 08:00 PM in Modifications

Can you show how to do an example with a common gun like the AT2K or BBBB?


You just find the values of all the variables, and then use algebra to solve and hope that the result is accurate enough to warrant all the time you just spent. ;)



#303946 Nerf Mod Community Dwindling?

Posted by moosa on 28 August 2011 - 06:32 AM in Modifications

Also since this isn't a mod post- this really should be in the general nerf section.


Well I posted here because it's mod related. I couldn't remember whether or not this forum was supposed to be only for posting actual mods, and I couldn't find any rule about it written somewhere, so I went ahead with it. If it's wrong then I hope a moderator will kindly move it. Sorry!



#304004 Nerf Mod Community Dwindling?

Posted by moosa on 28 August 2011 - 08:46 PM in Modifications

Thanks for the input guys. It's interesting.

In my opinion, The NIC has started to use more Homemades than modified blasters. It is a little disappointing because more people buy them made and the fun part of Nerf is the modding. Tweaking it the way you want it, not buying a polycarb one from someone else.



The fun part of nerf is nerfing.

There have always been contracts in nerf. How is buying a homemade from Ryan any worse than buying a 2k from roboman? For me I modded my guns to nerf. I now have more fun nerfing with a homemade which I built myself and made my own.


The fun part of nerf is whatever you personally enjoy about it. I myself found mods to existing blasters much more fun and interesting than building homemades. I don't have any problem with people making homemades and enjoying themselves- I'm sure it's rewarding- but for me personally that feels less like playing with really cool toys and more like building guns. Some of my favorite blasters are those that are considered much less capable for war use simply because they're fun.

Anyways, I do have a pile of stock longshots, titans, etc. down in my basement right now...



#303941 Nerf Mod Community Dwindling?

Posted by moosa on 28 August 2011 - 03:16 AM in Modifications

What's your perception of how the dedicated modding community has changed over the past year or so? Has it grown? Has it shrunk? Stayed about the same? How else has it seemed to change to you?

I disappeared from here and stopped thinking about nerf in general a while ago, feels like maybe a year, but I haven't been keeping track. I still have a giant stash of nerf stuff piled in my cellar, so it's not as if I threw a fit and got rid of everything, just put interest aside for a while. In any case, I decided to come back and see what's been up in the world of nerf.

Back when I was here before, it felt as though the community and popularity of nerf beyond the standard stock use and for those of us "older kids" was on a steady rise. I can't say I really knew that for sure but it's certainly how it seemed to me.

Coming back here now, it all seems very... slow. People are still here and still at it, for sure, but where's all the hoopla? I haven't even seen any recent noob bans yet (maybe the moderators are keeping things cleaner?). I wonder if as many people are even interested in the old rare blasters anymore, or if it's just the newer blasters that are getting the focus these days.

I noticed that NerfHaven was apparently down for a little while, so that could certainly have something to do with it. But really, I'm curious; how far off is my perception here? I've only started kicking around here again the past few days so I'm interested in your opinions.



#304102 Nerf Mod Community Dwindling?

Posted by moosa on 30 August 2011 - 08:55 PM in Modifications

Staying on topic is nice. And the philosophical debate wasn't really even part of the topic. I just wanted to know how people perceived the nerf community has changed in the past year. I'm glad to know that NH members are able to derail topics as effortlessly as ever though!