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[davidbowie]

To start, you'll need to make a few decisions:

1) Do you want a more compact, single-shot gun, or a bulkier, clip-fed gun?

This decision doesn't really matter much, because the clip is only an addition to the single-shot gun. The rest of the construction is identical.

2) What size barrel do you want?

I use a 3/4" PVC barrel for jumbos, but if you use smaller ammo you would be better off with 1/2" PVC. You want your barrel to be very sturdy (no brass) and a loose fit for your darts, because no seal is necessary, and friction only robs power.

3) What size grip do you want?

I normally like a grip made with 1", but that would just be ridiculous on this gun, so I went with 1/2", because I like the grip to be smaller than the barrel. It feels a bit scrawny though. Go with whatever grip feels right.

Ok. Now for the materials needed:

1 mini bungee cord. You can get them at HD. I used a 10" cord, which came in an 8-pack.

1 clothespin

1 nail. I find that a good length is a little under 1 1/2" long

1 very short section of angle iron, to use as a trigger

plenty of zip-ties

PVC in the size you want to use for your barrel

1 cross fitting for the same size PVC as your barrel

PVC of the size you want to use for a grip

1 reducing tee fitting (barrelXbarrelXgrip) If you can't find one, it's simpler to use the same size pipe for the barrel and grip, and just use a normal tee.

string. Kite string is good.

Tools:

Dremel with cutting wheel (be careful!)

drill

hacksaw

glue gun

PROCEDURE:

Start with your cross. Drill a hole in the locations the red arrows are pointing to.



The pipe coming off the right is your barrel pipe. It should be inserted like in the picture.

Hook one end of your bungee in each hole, then pull it back to a point that's a comfortable draw. Not too far. Somewhere around 9 inches worked for me.

Mark the point where you drew the cord back to, then let it back to it's loose position. Mark that point as well.

Cut the pipe about 2" farther than you stretched the bungee.

Now, take the barrel pipe, and use a ruler to mark a straight line between the point where you pulled the bungee back to and the point it rests at. There should be two of these lines, one on each side, lined up with the parts of the cross with holes in them.

Extend these lines by about 3/4" on both ends.

Now use the cutting wheel on your dremel to cut slots along these lines that are a little wider than your bungee. Again, be careful with those cutting wheels! Always have your pipe clamped down, don't just hold it in your hand.

Feed the bungee through the slots and hook the hooks on the ends into the holes you drilled in your cross. You might need to enlarge the muzzle end of the slits to allow the hooks to fit through.



Now, take your tee fitting and attach it to the back of the barrel. make sure the part that branches off is perpendicular to the arms of the cross.

The clothespin trigger would take a rather long paragraph to describe for something so simple, but the following pictures do a decent job.





One thing that doesn't come through too well in the pictures is that you should put the stub of the grip left on the clothespin very close to the branch of the tee, to save space. I used a scrap of one of the grips of the clothespin to fill in the gap between the clothespin and the pipe below it, but I suppose you could just use hot glue. Add zip-ties to every joint wherever possible.

Cut a piece of pipe the length you want your handle to be. Stick it in the branch of the tee. That's the basic handle. You can add some half sections to thicken it out, but that's not necessary. If you do, don't put them right up against the clothespin, because it needs some room to move.

Now, unhook one end of your bungee, and pull it out so that the middle of the cord is accessible. Cut a piece of string a few inches more than twice the distance from the back of the tee in the rear to the resting place of your bungee. loop this over the middle of your bungee, then feed it back through so that both ends of the string are poking out of the back of the rear tee. Cut a ring of barrel pipe, and put the string through it, then tie a strong knot. Re-connect the bungee.



You now have a functioning single-shot pistol!

To cock, pull back on the ring attached to the string while pressing on the trigger. Pull the bungee back behind the firing pin, then let go of the trigger and seat the bungee on the nail. It helps to watch through the slots the first few times to get a feel for the gun.

Push the ring into the back socket of the rear tee with a half-loop hanging out the back.

Push a dart down the barrel, aim, and fire.

Use your imagination as to add-ons. I've got all kinds of ammo holders, and there's plenty of other stuff to do as well. I'm working on a bolt-action stock right now.

Magazine writeup comes tomorrow.

[davidbowie]

Alright. Here comes the thrilling part 2 of the mini KISS writeup: the magazine attachment.

First off, you need to know where you will be placing the clip. Look down on the top of the gun while cocked. Mark the top of the barrel at the point where the bungees come into sight. Make a cut on this line.





Start by making your magazine. You can make a magazine out of anything, since it's just an open-ended box, but I will give you instructions here for a sheet metal one. If you don't already have tin snips or sheet metal shears, they would be a good investment, simply because sheet metal is some cool stuff.

To start, find out how long the darts will be that you are using in this gun. Mine are about 2". This will be the length of your clip (L)

Next, measure the width of the top half of the barrel at the point where you made the cut. This will be the width of your clip (W).

Also, now is a good time to decide how many darts you want your mag to hold. It could be a 100 dart mag and still work, but that would just get obnoxious. 10 darts is good for me, but I'm using jumbos, so a 15-dart version might be more reasonable with micros or megas.

Line up a clip-full of darts side-by-side, like they will be in the clip. Measure them. Add an extra inch for good measure. This will be the height of your clip (H).

Lay out some sheet metal like this. Mark all your measurements.

Black=bend
red=cut




Don't do anything with the little half-circles until you've done all the rest of the cutting and folding. These half-circles should match the curve of your barrel pipe as well as possible.

The folding shouldn't be too hard. If you have access to a sheet metal brake, use it, but if not, you can clamp a board over it and bend it by hand. Or, if you don't have clamps, you can use your knee against the board, putting the whole thing on the ground.

It should be fairly self-explanatory how to fold it up. Just make it so it ends up clip-shaped. If you need more detailed instructions for this part, say so, but I'm not a very good technical writer.

That little tab on the left gets folded over to meet with one of the long sections. You can hot glue it, spot-weld it, pop-rivet it, duct tape it, whatever you want.

Now that you have it box-shaped. Get on to those little semicircles. Cut tabs out of them by cutting like those red lines. They will be rather pointy, so it might be a good idea to truncate the points a bit.

Fold the tabs out.

Now, it's time to mount your clip. Put it on top of the barrel, with the rear side of it flush with the cut you made in the barrel earlier.

Look at where the other side of it is, and make a mark here. Cut there. Take out the scrap. check to make sure that none of the barrel top is visible by looking down the clip. You might need to bust out the dremel to clear it out.

Make sure you have the clip lined up right and the bungee is unobstructed by it. Now, use hot glue to secure the clip to the barrel, using the tabs for a stronger joint.

Find a good weight that fits in your clip. I use a 9v battery. make sure your weight cannot feed into the barrel, to prevent firing it at someone.

Load in all your darts, making sure they lie flat in the clip. Drop in your weight on top. Cock and fire!