23 replies to this topic

[texmustache]

Alright, i found that if you put tape over the darts, they fly a bit farther and have reduced barrel friction. I used clear packaging tape on the yellow mega darts, and it works really nice...has anyone else tried this?

[leftnut]

Yea this has been done, I think I have heard them called cigars.

[Langley]

Hes right about the part about it having been done, but I think he made up the part about it being called cigars. Anyway, what barrel material are you using?

[ItalionStallion]

I've always called them cigars. I've never taped around my stock darts though, i usually do it on stefans but with electrical tape.

[Jappo]

You can get the extra distance, but when I make stefans, I make about 100-300 at a time. So its pointless to tape everyone.

[Zero Talent]

ItalionStallion, on Dec 30 2003, 11:13 AM, said:

I've always called them cigars. I've never taped around my stock darts though, i usually do it on stefans but with electrical tape.

Kids used to call that variation a "Zero Dart." Very glad it has changed.

[Oroku Saki]

I usually use electrical tape on my stefans too. It may be labor-intensive, but it is definately worth it.

[Jappo]

I disagree. With 300 darts you make, you spend abbout 1 min extra adding tape to it. Thats 5 hours of extra work on getting about 5 feet more distance... Even if you do tape it, making 300 darts, not many are gonna be perfect, so adding tape just increases how many you could potentialy screw up and make them shoot out at a 30 degree angle. if you can make 300 darts in a 3 hours, you are a happy camper. But making 300 darts in 8 hours is just complete crap. I just as well go out, get a job, and go buy some darts from Hasbro for the 8 hours of my life I just wasted. In my opinion, the time is not worth the distance.

[cxwq]

Electrical tape is high friction. Can't possibly help unless you had a very poor dart/barrel fit to begin with.

[Wax]

Just what I was gonna say, cxwq. I think that regular Scotch tape would work better.

[xedice]

I spend time on my darts. Instead of spending a couple of hours at a time on darts, I just make a batch of 25-50 high quality darts every time I mod or have some free time. They just accumulate over time ya know. I just hate when I'm in a small war and I think I got the shot made but thanks to the low quality stefan, it goes off course. Nothing like missing a shot from 20 ft away.

[Sylent Blade]

xedice, on Jan 3 2004, 11:31 PM, said:

I spend time on my darts. Instead of spending a couple of hours at a time on darts, I just make a batch of 25-50 high quality darts every time I mod or have some free time. They just accumulate over time ya know. I just hate when I'm in a small war and I think I got the shot made but thanks to the low quality stefan, it goes off course. Nothing like missing a shot from 20 ft away.

Dude, you think you spend time on your darts? I make my darts 4 at a time. I spend an averag of 6 minutes on each dart. I was making them all day today, and I got 30 of my highest quality yet. They are amazing. That's enough bragging, my point is just the same as yours. Spending time on your darts really does help in the long run. Consider it.

[ShortShit]

I agree that spending time on your darts can be totally worth while, but I also see how it can be an anoyence when creating bulk. Shoes used to be made one by one to fit the foot of the consumer, now we have mass productions, the shoes still nice, but not as nice as if it was made to fit your foot. SAME THING

[IronRhino]

You're wrong. Stefans aren't shoes. You can't apply the same principals. You look at it too simply. They made the shoes in bulk, and they knew they couldn't sell them for much. But they could make so many of them, the profit made up for itself and exceeded what they had before.

We need stefans to be as perfect as possible. It is already such an incosistent art that you want to make it as good as possible. Therefore you have to spend a lot of time for optimum, and sometimes the only acceptable, quality. I found that out the hard way. My team lost a whole war because I rushed the darts. Everybody had like 40, but they sucked balls.

Yeah, that's my mini-rant.

[Jappo]

Sorry if it seems like I don't care about the quality of my darts, its just the fact that when I play, we usually lose about 1/4 to half our darts (We live in North Vancouver, very wet and foreseted). We also play with people who don't care enough if a dart dosn't work, they just grab another. When making stefans I try to do it as well as possible, and I get an assembly line going with my friends. If the very first person screws up, by the time it gets to me and glueing they can be very messed up. I think its great to see some1 spending 6 minutes on a dart, but you most not loose nearly as many as I do. Its not that i'm not careful, its where I play. Maybe I should paint my darts bright orange, but that may screw up dart drag/weight and the way it flys.

[Sylent Blade]

It's alright man. And, that's what you should do. Colour. Now, what I did over the holidays was pick myself up a box of green glue sticks. They are amazing. Piercing colour, and they still make great tips. Try out the seasonal glue, it might just help you.

Edited by Sylent_Blade, 04 January 2004 - 10:48 AM.

[Spaztic 75]

Jappo, on Jan 3 2004, 03:54 PM, said:

I disagree. With 300 darts you make, you spend abbout 1 min extra adding tape to it. Thats 5 hours of extra work on getting about 5 feet more distance... Even if you do tape it, making 300 darts, not many are gonna be perfect, so adding tape just increases how many you could potentialy screw up and make them shoot out at a 30 degree angle. if you can make 300 darts in a 3 hours, you are a happy camper. But making 300 darts in 8 hours is just complete crap. I just as well go out, get a job, and go buy some darts from Hasbro for the 8 hours of my life I just wasted. In my opinion, the time is not worth the distance.

It is if you distribute the darts amongst your friends, 300 times 20 seconds(it doesn't take a minute to tear off a peice of tape and wrap it around a dart)=6000sec which reduces to 1.7hrs dived by 4 friends=.417hrs, thats less than 30 minutes of your life.

[Jappo]

Blah too much tape and time. You guys won't convince me

[texmustache]

Well, i use packaging tape, and you can wrap the tape around the FBR before you cut, which saves time. I also cut my darts really small, like 1" or .5", meaning NO TIME SPENT STRAIGHTENING (they're to small to be bent too much). And instead of using fishing weights (my dad wont let me), i use the bronze tacks. I get pretty good distance. After all this, you can put multiple darts in the barrel and you get a shotgun effect.

Edited by texmustache, 05 January 2004 - 07:36 PM.

[Black Wrath]

How does a dart that is 0.5 inches long, get any range at all? That seems like a dart for a shotgun type application, like you mentioned.

My darts are 2-2.5 inches long, and I weight using 1 and 1/4 inch threaded wood nails. Then I put a dome of hot glue over that for an even better weight. The fact that the nail extends about to the 2 inch mark (the nail goes into a dip in the tip of the dart approx. 1/2 inch deep.), makes sure that the dart remains ridged and straight. To me, this is a great way to make darts... never have to fumble with those pesky bent darts.

[texmustache]

you'd be suprised at the range half inch darts get. And they're very useful inside and for shotguns.

[Jappo]

texmustache, on Jan 5 2004, 04:35 PM, said:

Well, i use packaging tape, and you can wrap the tape around the FBR before you cut, which saves time. I also cut my darts really small, like 1" or .5", meaning NO TIME SPENT STRAIGHTENING (they're to small to be bent too much).

Wow, wrapping it around before hand... never thought of that. I may also have to paint it before hand too.

You may want to consider increasing your dart size man. I mean Nello and I made a whole bunch of 1-.5" darts and they suck ass compared to the 2-2.5" ones we use. But its your choice not mine. You also get alot more, but FBR is dirt cheap... whatever i'm going off on a tangent.

[fearmydart]

you really only have to put tape over the tiny hole to block air escaping

[TheNerfLoki]

fearmydart, on Sep 8 2008, 04:07 PM, said:

you really only have to put tape over the tiny hole to block air escaping

All I was going to say can be summed up in a few sentences. First this thread has been dead for 4 years, don't post in threads like this. It is now a necro thread. Second Capitalization and Punctuation are your friends. Don't take this the wrong way, I am trying to help keep you off the ban list.