3 replies to this topic

[Gutzenheim]

Well, when I first got heavily into nerf a year or so back I started off with this probably 16 year old nerf ball gun. It might have been old, but it was very powerful. Sadly the 2 we had broke and I've never seen them anywhere else. The ball actually popped into a pocket in the end of the barrel and could really rock a nerf ball with a good push of the plunger. I've never seen anyone create a successful ball popper end that actually held up. So I only had half my classes last week one day and was bored. I was looking at some old pvc I had including a coupler thing with rubber seals. When screwing with these rubber seals I realized I had just created a really good ball popping end that would be very sturdy. Anyways, I'll quit boring you now and show you how I made this. This ball popper could be hooked to the end of an air cannon which is what I'll be doing with it or it could be integrated into a homemade mechanical ball popping gun. Also, this was a budget project that spent no money on so I used parts and did things that were unpractical, so hopefully you can see where other parts can be substituted in and I'll make notes where other parts could be used.

First I'll show you the wicked old nerf gun I was talking about, some of you might know it.

Here it is:
OK.....I couldn't find any pics of the whole gun, put here's the ball popper end from it I talked about.


Anyways, now on to my creation.....

I started with this 1.5" coupler thing I had left over. It looks like this when unscrewed:

As you can see I put a little bit of duct tape on the rubber rings to make just a slightly tighter fit, I went around each ring once or twice with the duct tape.

Next I glued one of the rubber rings into one of the screw on pieces with about 1/4 of an inch of rubber sticking out of the top as shown in this picture:


Next I glued the other ring in the top of the main body of the coupler so the top of the ring would be flush with the top of the threads as shown here:
This is what you should have done so far



Next I cut the main body in a little less than half giving me this:


Then I took a 1 1/2" plug and cut the top out like this because I had no 1 1/2" pipe....if you have some use it for this part and you'll save loads of time. Anyways, here that part is:

Actually that was just the first drilling I did on it, I cut the whole top out.
Next put a little duct tape around that plug so it fits tightly in the body and glue it into the body so the top of it is against the bottom of the rubber in the body.
................

At this point if you had 1 1/2" piping cut a short piece and glue it in there as described above only you shouldn't need tape, at least not much. Now with that 1 1/2" piece of pipe you glued in there you can glue a reducer bushing into that making it whatever size you want.

After this point I didn't have the 1 1/2" piping so I had to do some other stuff because I wasn't thinking upon construction. If you want to know how I did this part for whatever reason I will, but you shouldn't need it though so here are some other pictures of the project as it progressed and then a final product. I still need to buy a reducer bushing, but other than that I'm done and you'll have a finished working nerf ball popper/ loader that allows you to a load a ball just py pushing it against the ground over the ball snd the ball won't fall out until you fire. Here are the rest of the pics:










~~Gutzenheim

[CaptainSlug]

First I'll show you the wicked old nerf gun I was talking about, some of you might know it.

You mean the blast-a-ball? It was quickly replaced by the blast-a-matic.
But you're right, nobody has bother to make any lipped barrels for the purpose of firing foam balls.

[Carbon]

But you're right, nobody has bother to make any lipped barrels for the purpose of firing foam balls.

Not quite nobody...athough I'll grant you it's an uncommon path of endeavor.

My solution was very functional, but the lack of "give" in the coupler means it had to be cut to a pretty exact size. It's an interesting idea...I'll have to check that out. Good job finding a stock part that works.

[Gutzenheim]

Yes captain, this old gun is indeed the one you were talking about