27 replies to this topic

[needak]

ok, so my dad doesn't want me using stephans because they have no cushions at the tip. I was thinking of making a regular 2 inch stephan with a 1/2 inch diameter but putting about a 1/4 inch long tip of the same material I used for the body of the stephan. would this work or would it be wobbly because of the relatively light tip? (keep in mind that the foam tip is only 1/4 inch long)

[Bomberman]

I can't really understand what you just posted, but captain slug makes padded darts. There is a full instructional video on how to do it. I'll edit my post with a link in a minute.
EDIT: Here ya go.

Edited by Bomberman, 30 July 2008 - 01:37 PM.

[VACC]

ok, so my dad doesn't want me using stephans because they have no cushions at the tip. I was thinking of making a regular 2 inch stephan with a 1/2 inch diameter but putting about a 1/4 inch long tip of the same material I used for the body of the stephan. would this work or would it be wobbly because of the relatively light tip? (keep in mind that the foam tip is only 1/4 inch long)

Do a search for CaptainSlug's dartsmithing method. Felt tips are about as soft as your gonna' get in an effectively aerodynamic dart.

Edit: Someone beat me to it.

[needak]

I was thinking of using 1/4 inch long foam backing rod for padding and pennies for weights. I don't think the felt would be soft or thick enough for my dad.

[Bomberman]

Well, if you want a dart that flies straight, and does'nt sting like a hot glue and BB dart will, and is cheap, and easy to make, then felt is the best you are going to get. But no, if you take another piece of foam and glue that on, then the dart won't fly straight at all. Trust me, felt will be fine. Just about any material that you weight darts with is going to smart a little, but it won't like, leave a welt or anything. Just have a friend of sibling shoot you at near point blank range with a relatively low-powered blaster, and show your father that they are safe, and are not going to hurt. And wear eye protection. I was at a party with my friends, and we were having a nerf war indoors. A STOCK longshot, from about 15 feet, hit my eyelid, and it looks like I have a mini-shiner.

[Dr Moose]

I don't think pennies would work as weights unless you are using mega darts, because it wouldn't fit in any barrel material for micros, but I'm still not sure if they would work. I tried these a while back with foam at the end, and they don't fly very well at all. I switched to captain slugs method of making darts, and they fly very well and I don't see why you would need more padding than the felt tips.

[Carbon]

Pennies would be horrible, not to mention too big. Check out THA darts. They’re two sections of FBR held together with a length of bubble tea straw. You should be able to adjust the front piece to be as thick as you want. The pictures on the link appear to be dead, but the descriptions are good.

Out of curiosity, is your dad worried about personal or property damage? With proper precautions, stefans are very safe, and not capable of any serious injury.

Edited by Carbon, 30 July 2008 - 02:07 PM.

[Langley]

You could possibly stack a couple of felt disks on top of each other to make it thicker without causing accuracy issues. You could also try craft foam, which is denser than the foam used for darts. You could try cutting the craft foam by taking a size of brass smaller than your barrel material and using it like a stamp to pop out little circles of foam.

[chalywong]

I remember seeing a dart that 3DBBQ made that was essentially the idea you are thinking of. I've made a few myself and they worked rather well.

[Ubermensch]

Try making matchstick darts if you want soft tips.

[needak]

Try making matchstick darts if you want soft tips.

pardon my noobiness, but what are "matchstick darts".

[Shadow 92]

I make my darts with about 1/4" padded tip. They work fine.

[Bomberman]

Try the search engine whenever you need question answering. But I already searched it for you. These are matchstick stefans. They are tedious, and hard to make, but they produce great results.

[needak]

i think I'll use thick craft foam and metal BB's (my friend has a pack of about 1,000)

P.S. I kinda jumped into this without knowing what the body of a stephan is made of, could someone tell me?

[AssassinNF]

http://www.loghomest...acker-rod.shtml

Stefans are made of 1/2" Foam Backer Rod

I use the white FBR from the above link. I make stefans similar to CaptainSlug's, with craft foam instead of felt. If you want an easy way to make circles for the tips of the darts, cut the foam with a large three hole puncher, and use the perfect little circles it cuts out.

I've never really had a use for stefans, though. I have hundreds of stock darts, and I've only made 10-20 stefans.

[Bomberman]

It's called Foam Backer Rod. Or, Window insulation. If you have trouble finding it, just ask a store employee to get it for you. It can sometimes be called Backer Rod, Foam Backer, Window insulation, or Foam Backer Rod. It comes in a plastic package, and is usually about $4.00.

[needak]

how much do you get for $4, and how many stephans does it make.

Edited by needak, 30 July 2008 - 03:59 PM.

[jwasko]

IF you go to your local home improvement store (Lowes, Home Depot, Busy Beaver, Ace), you can usually get 20 feet of Foam Backer Rod (aka Caulk Saver) for a little more than $5 plus tax.

Most stefans are 1.5 to 2 inches long. You do the math to find out how lmany darts you can make.

[Mr Tubb]

If you do decide to use felt to pad your darts, I suggest using some felt squares from a craft store if you can't find any precut circles. I'm fairly certain it'd be cheaper that way, seeing as the felt squares are about 25 cents each for a piece roughly the size of a 9"x11.5" piece of paper. They also come in a ton of colors...

[needak]

ok, 200ft of FBR (foam backer rod) would make *gasps, faints*...2 hours later... 100 stephans *gasps, faints, wakes up, submits post*

Edited by needak, 30 July 2008 - 04:21 PM.

[Rogue Warrior]

well I suppose that if you are a real wimp you can try These

[Blacksunshine]

ok, 200ft of FBR (foam backer rod) would make *gasps, faints*...2 hours later... 100 stephans *gasps, faints, wakes up, submits post*

Try your math again there bud. If you figure about 2" per dart you are left with about 1200 darts from that 200ft of foam. 100 darts from 200 ft would be 2' long darts.

[needak]

thanks for the correction on my math (oops). and rogue warrior, I'm not the wimp; my dad just thinks everyone else is (it's f**ked up, I know).

[Rogue Warrior]

Never implied that you were I just threw it out on the table.

[CAPS]

Sorry for the random question but I'm planing on pluging the pump of my Spy Signal launcher. Does this mean after I plug the pump, will I need to pump less to get the same results?