7 replies to this topic

[DJ Mashbot]

As a detailed write-up would be extremely tedious, I'm just going to post pics and explain how it works.

The right side:


The left side:



For firing/priming the gun I used a backwards hose handle, because if triggered quickly it works well, and I find it easier to trigger when it's backwards. The hose handle is epoxied to a brass ball valve with a straight lever handle. That ball valve controls the air flow between the main air tank and the firing chamber, which is the black hose and the inside of the hose handle. So, in order to prime the firing tank, the hose handle is twisted counter-clockwise, then returned to it's original position to close off the main tank. I did this so that I wouldn't have to shift my grip around to re-prime the gun. Here's a close-up:


For loading stefans, I wanted to try something experimental. I hadn't seen anyone do this before, so I wanted to see if it would work well. The barrel basically rear loads with a ball valve, with air entering just ahead of it. It is similar in principle to an RSCB clip, but with manual loading. I realize it doesn't have the high burst RoF that a RSCB clip has, but it can be easily loaded at a steady rate overall and you don't get misfires. Here's a close-up:


My goal for the gun was to have decent power with a good RoF, without having to move my hands all around to work it. For the most part I feel I succeeded. Only the left hand has to move to load darts (and this movement is minimal), the power is a bit less than my modded BBBB (this is a guesstimate), and it gets maybe 5 shots before it really loses power (another guesstimate). It's cold out and I'm sick, so my range tests have been limited to a 30' length in my house, and that's what I'm basing my range/power loss ideas on. Questions/comments/flames?

[durka durka]

Nice job. If your guesstimate is accurate, this should be war legal. Nice job, decent rof.

I think you should post a write up, however complex it may be.

[veginator]

I think you should post a write up, however complex it may be.

If he doesn't want to make a write-up he doesn't have plus it is fairly simple design that you could figure out just by looking at it.

Well any way I like your design and attatching the hose handle and the ball valve is just genius.

[UpperHand]

Pretty sweet homemade. And your first post as well!

[DJ Mashbot]

Thanks for the kind words. As far as a write-up goes, it's basically just a big air tank with a ball valve, hose handle, barrel, and stock. I'm happy to answer any questions, but I was experimenting with the design as I went along so I didn't document the steps with pictures. I have another design that I'll be working on next which should be cleaner, and in turn, easier to reproduce.

[Flaming Hilt]

I especially like the loading system. Very innovative, very effective.

Had you considered modifying the hose handle to put a trigger on front and removing the original actuation? I mean, it looks to work fine how it is, but you could get rid of that extra hosing and thus increase the range a little bit if you did the trigger mod.

[rork]

I like the breech. I'll have to try that on something... If it turns out to be too powerful, you can add an RSCB clip, and tune the range by adding or subtracting length.

[DJ Mashbot]

Had you considered modifying the hose handle to put a trigger on front and removing the original actuation?

I hadn't really thought of that, to be honest. Doing that would have allowed me to move the barrel further forward so as to make it closer to my left (dart loading) hand. I find it simpler to just flip the handle around, but modding the hose trigger like that probably would have helped streamline the connection to the barrel.

@rork: Thanks, I suspected that RSCB clips were better for guns outputting larger volumes of air, I may try one on a future project if it has that much power...