25 replies to this topic

[b00m13]

First I just want to say, be prepared to have de-ja-vu, because some of the mods on this tutorial
have been done before. In my defense, for a common gun that's been modded to death by thousands of
people thanks to its' easy accessibility; how often are the chances of new original mods to show up?

Now that that's out of the way, here's a short list of some gun parts that I would highly recommend
you have or can get your hands on:

x1 Magstrike pump

x1 Hornet side button release valve (from underneath the big orange button on the sides of Hornet guns)

x2 Big Salvo air tanks

oh... and this one's kind of important...

x1 Big Bad Bow

(Please don't be mistaken, you'll need many other parts later on, but they can be easily substituted.)


Now before we start, I guess I should mention what it is we'll be building... Well I suppose you
could call it a Peasant's Guru (PG). It won't be built from expensive non-manufactured guns *cough* Guru
*cough-cough*, but rather from common; "easy to get your hands on" guns.


Okay lets get started!!
We'll begin by opening up the FRONT frames of the BBB.
Attach the sanding head piece to your dremel, and do you see those 2 "vein-like" sections on the upper area
of the frames? You'll need to sand roughly the bottom half of them down (until they are on the same level as
the rest of that area). Check out the pic to better understand what I mean.



After you are done sanding down that area, repeat the same thing on the opposite side frame. When you
are complete with that, test putting the Magstrike pump between them in that area, and close the frames
back up. The pump should fit PERFECTLY between the gun frames; not too loose or too super tight; but just
tight enough so that it'll grasp the pump pretty well and not allow it to wobble or slip around.
Now Krazy glue the pump to the "Right side" frame (the frame shown in the pic above), so that you'll have
a guarantee that the pump stays in place (while still being able to open the gun frame up to do repairs should
they be needed).

If you're wondering why I chose to recommend the Magstrike's pump... well... I didn't...

It... chose itself!! *crowd gasp!!*

That's right, of the many types of pumps out there, the Magstrike was of the few that had the perfect
dimensions to fit itself between the BBB frame, and also... it had something the rest didn't. Of the many
pumps, it has one of the highest resistance OPV (over pressurizing valve)... so high an OPV that you won't
even need to plug the pump; I think it's because it was meant to build up enough pressure to fire off an
entire Magstrike clip before needing to re-pump.
Oh... and the other reason I used the Magstrike pump was because it was the only pump I had
available on the floor.


Okay lets work on that plunger now~

First, you might want to slice off about 1/3" of the top section of the rubber plunger head piece (it'll make
life less complicated if you do it now rather then run into problems later...take my word on this).

Now grab the metal washer piece and place it on one side of the orange washer piece from the BBB plunger.
Hold the washer with a plier and saw the metal washer to match the orange plastic washer (obviously put the
orange piece down, you don't want to melt it by holding it right on the burning metal washer~).
When you are done, repeat it with the 2nd metal washer piece. Once both metal washers are sawed, glue it
to both sides of the plastic orange washer (melting hot glue works fine here).
Check the pic to see how it should come out to look like~




To make the BBB give a little bit more "oomph", you'll need to do 2 things.
First, take an 1/2" PVC coupler, and cut it to about 3/4" length. Then insert it into the plunger tube and that's
the end of step 1.

Now for step 2; adding an extra strong spring...
I'd recommend either a Recon or LS spring (I went with a Recon spring myself). BUT I WARN YOU NOW!!
Don't push your luck by adding a 3rd spring. If you do, things might seem better at first, and it might fire
stronger & harder... but over time, the plastic mech catch will weaken and eventually bend... and become
un-usable EVER AGAIN!! Take my word on it... I've had many experiences with this. So remember, just 2
springs at most.

Follow the pics' instructions if you don't quite understand~




Now take the BBB's AR's out (they come out with no resistance), and do the barrel mod you prefer.
If you want to do a breech mod like I did, then cleanly saw off the orange stock barrel and grab your
PVC/PETG tubes.

Making the breech is quite simple. You'll need an inner tube that'll fit perfectly into the ID of
the outer tube. I couldn't get tubing of such, so I had to make due with 1/2" thick walled PETG and
1/2" PVC sch 40 (from Home Depot). The PETG is to be the barrel that holds the stefans, but my stefans
would originally fall out of the tube if I ran (while aiming the gun barrel downward) or just bumped it too much.
To fix this small problem, I just cut a strip of E-tape about 2.5" long, and applied about 2" of it to the
inside wall of the PETG and it immediately helped in holding onto the stefans when I moved around. In case
you're wondering, I folded the rest of the E-tape to the outside wall of the PETG (this would prevent the
E-tape from peeling off from the inside wall that would have occurred from over-time/use).
I figure a pic says a thousand words... so 3 pics must say... a thousand+ words? *insert small laughter*

This first pic shows how the breech itself is made. BTW the gray stick is metal stick that you insert
at the rear of the PVC tube; it's to prevent the stefan from going any further back when the PETG is pushing
itself to insert the stefan into it. And the thumb tack; make sure that after you remove the needle piece
from the thumb tack, you gently sand the bottom section of the thumb tack so that it can fit perfectly onto
the wall of the PETG later on.

PS... the pieces on the red & blue pic aren't to size/scale... so do the measuring yourself~




If your inside tube/PETG is a bit too loose while inside the PVC tube, then just wrap some E-tape until any
or all of the areas where air would have been lost (during firing) is sealed. And do some measuring before
you apply the E-tape, so you can figure out if you can keep the E-tape hidden when in or not in use; because
lets face it... we all want our guns to not only fire well, but also to look good. (Exposed E-tape = eewww)
Here's how mine came out after I used a bunch of E-tape to seal the gaps and help stabilize the front
section of the barrel (by wrapping a few layers of E-tape on the front section of the PETG, it helped
prevent the PETG from being crooked while inside the PVC).



And now, no more visible E-tape



BTW, for anyone who thinks a thumb tack being Krazy glued onto the wall of a PETG is not going to be
very secure, and would easily snap off at any moment... A few weeks ago, I needed to do a small repair
on one of my breeches. It was the same type as the one I just posted, but to make the repairs, I had to
get the PETG out of the PVC. To do that, I had to get the thumb tack off of it. So I gently and slowly
tried to snap it off... it didn't work, so then I applied some force; I ended up hurting my thumb, splitting
the PETG down the middle, and cracking a small chunk of it off.
So the lesson here is... Krazy glue = crazy strong... and thumb tacks makes great sliding breech handles.




Okay, the basic BBB mods are done, now to do something that most experienced modders never do.
ATTACH THE ORANGE ARROW CLAMPS!! (The orange clamps that came with the BBB; that holds the
spare arrows on the sides of the BBB; the normally pointless accessories that many modders just toss
out... yep, those clamps...)

When you're done with that part, let's work on the air-pump integration part of the gun.

Take a thumb tack, and saw off the pointed tip of the needle, and the plastic grasping part of the thumb
tack. Then Krazy glue what's left of the needle part into the center hole of the button release valve (the
valve obtained from the sides of the Hornet gun). Once the glue's settled, and the thumb tack is firmly
glued into place, sand off the 4 areas shown in the picture below. This will allow the air flow to be released
in a quicker speed which is much better then if you hadn't (again, I've ran dozens of tests doing this over
and over again, it will work more efficiently if you do it).







This next part is very simple and you'll enjoy it a lot because it means YOU'RE ALMOST DONE!!

*tears of joy*

Grab your 1/4" vinyl tubes and Tee joint connectors and start Krazy gluing them together!!
(After you've done the proper measurements for each part of course~) Glue a short strip of vinyl tubing
to the Button Release Valve. About the Big Salvo air tanks, one must have a shorter vinyl tubing then the
other (I'll explain in the pic later). This part of the tutorial will be for if you're "right handed" and hold
the BBB gun trigger handle with your right hand. Take the BS air tank (the one with the shorter tubing)
and connect it to the Tee-joint, then connect the tubing from the Button Release Valve and connect it
to the same Tee-joint. Now connect the 2 Tee-joints together with another strip of vinyl tubing. Finally
connect the other BS air tank and the Magstrike pump to the Tee-joint.
Connect the BS air tank (the one with the Button Release Valve) onto the left clamp, and the other
BS air tank onto the other clamp. Then drill 2 tiny holes on the left side of the BBB frame so that you
may screw the Button Release Valve onto it (with tiny screws). Whatever you do DON'T GLUE THE
BS AIR TANKS ONTO THE CLAMPS!! The reason should be obvious, it's so that if you ever need to make
repairs on the inside of the BBB, you can easily detach the BS air tanks and unscrew the Button Release
Valve. As always, here's a few pics to help you understand what I said~






For the final step, you will need about 2 tubes; 1/2" ID about 4" long each. (The tubes you would
normally use to make breeches) They will be inserted into the black barrels of the Big Salvo air tanks,
and don't glue them in; this way they can be removed and allow you to shoot 5/8" stefans or even
STOCK FOAM ARROWS!!

Here it how mine looks for shooting 1/2" stefans



and here it is when shooting stock foam arrows




So there it is... my tutorial~

BTW, the gun is very comfortable to hold, and the Button Release Valve is very well positioned...
just see for yourself~

(In these pics, I didn't move my arms or the gun; I just rotated my body 90 degrees clockwise while my
lil sis helped take the pics)




Lastly, here's my video review of "Peasant's Guru" (Hey, it's my mod, so I get to name it~!!)


<-- Click here~
(And yes, I did draw that with colored pencils)

Edited by b00m13, 28 April 2009 - 03:35 PM.

[Vincent]

Do you lose any range on the salvo barrels because of the tubing? Or is range about average?

[CaptainSlug]

No matter how well you attach the locking pin to it, thin polyester just isn't strong enough to take the kind of abuse a slide breech can go through.
You need to make your breech housing longer so that it can protect the polyester when it's in the forward position. Or you're likely to run into something or trip while running and snap the polyester barrel in half.

I made the Rev.2 slide breeches the way they are because I had easily broken the Rev.1 breech several times. The tab either broke off at the glue joint, or took part of the barrel with it when it snapped off. I had the same problem with the Rev.3 breech even though the polyester was 3 times thicker.

Anything I want to be sure can survive a Nerf war I will let some neighborhood 12-year-olds play with for a little while. They can break anything that's likely to break in short order.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 16 April 2009 - 10:45 AM.

[Mehku]

Anything I want to be sure can survive a Nerf war I will let some neighborhood 12-year-olds play with for a little while. They can break anything that's likely to break in short order.

Very, very true.

I like this idea. A lot. Because I don't have the money or willingness to go out on e-bay to buy a five-hundred dollar plastic toy, no matter how good it may be, and I also don't want to look for a splitfire. I might actually attempt to build your peasants guru. My questions are: 1) How reliable is it (besides the broken petg), and 2) Do the ranges compare to the original guru?


I can't resist. My one-hundredth post.

Edited by Mehku, 16 April 2009 - 11:01 AM.

[b00m13]

Froot - the ranges were as you guessed; about the same. Also in a Nerf war, it isn't exactly the easiest thing to hit a moving target 100'+ away.
Hitting one 20'-50' is more likely to happen, and the BS guns have no problem hitting a target within that range.


CaptainSlug - I actually had a few reasons for modding it as I did. The main was because I feared that having an outer barrel so close to the stefan
as it was coming out, might've hinder the outcome/range/power of the dart. (I guess I'm a bit of a worry-wart) But I understand what
you mean, and since I have a free day today, I'll give it a longer outer barrel; 3" longer should be enough.
I'll post a pic when I'm done later today.


Mehku - Heh, Mehku... don't worry about the picture. I didn't accidently break the PETG in a war; I broke it by force (at home) when I couldn't
remove the breech slide pin to take the PETG tube out of the protective/outer barrel. And I'm sorry I can't answer your second question,
I've never seen Groove's Guru before... but I can safely assume that of the main guns (Xbow & BBB), the Xbow is way stronger... but
from personal experiences with Splitfires, that the BS on my PG might be stronger.

[Herpestidae]

Stylish and deadly. Excellent work Boom!

I guess the only thing that I see that I don't like is that the magstrike pump is between the BS barrels. Did you give any thought to running it backwards and attaching it to the rear of the BBB? I know some people have done that before with airtech 2000 pumps.

Edited by Herpestidae, 16 April 2009 - 12:43 PM.

[Soothsayer]

I like it. Clean integration without it being too much. I'd like to see a spiderman gun trigger so you can fire each salvo separately. good work.

[k9turrent]

First one to bite the bullet huh? but I looks clean. Good Job overall

[Gazoo]

So is it a 1" coupler or a 1/2" coupler? The step says 1" but the pic says 1/2"?

[PointBlank]

I like it =]

[b00m13]

Herpestidae - There's no rule that says you have to do everything the exact same way I did~
If you like pumping it in the rear, then pump it from the rear... heck I tried pumping it from the rear once too... but it just
wasn't my thing. I much prefer the front.

Edit : I want to explain why I chose not to attach the handle of the pump into the sight glass area of the BBB (to pump the BS tanks). I've
actually considered doing it originally because I saw it done on a BBB/LBB mod that was done years ago, but I chose not to use that
technique because the distance that the pump's plunger will come out is about half of how much you'd get if you did a full pump that you
would get from my build. I'll try to explain in simpler terms. When you pull the BBB trigger back (allowing you to slide the BBB's front
& rear frames apart & together), you'd only separate them by a few inches; so the plunger would only be able to fill up the pump by a few
inches worth of pressure. But if you followed the guide, then you'd be able to use up all of the air inside the pump (instead of half) and
force it into the barrels.
So with my way you'd only have to pump it 13 times, while with the rear way, you'd have to pump it 26-30+ times.
Lets not forget that with my way, you'd only be pumping a light handle 13 times, while with the rear way, you'd be pushing and pulling
the entire BBB frame 26-30+ times (It might be exhausting after each shot).


Soothsayer - Actually, it's pretty easy to make it fire individually if that's what you want Sooth. Just install a check valve right after the Tee-joints,
and install another Button Release Valve on the opposite side of the gun frame (the side w/o a "BRV") and repeat the "BRV" installation
steps. Then you can fire all 3 barrels separately.


k9turrent - Thanks~!!


Just Some Bob - Haha, I actually didn't know that, thanks for the info~!!


Gazoo - Ah, my mistake, I edited it; it was meant to say 1/2" coupler, thanks for spotting it.


PointBlank - Again, thanks~!!

Now as I promised earlier today, I would make a longer protective barrel for the breech section.

Here's the original breech laying next to the pre-built newer longer breech. (I guess in this isolated case, longer is better... )



Here it is having been just installed, and you can see the size difference.



And after testing it, the results were pretty much similar, and now the PETG is more well protected in war games. Thanks CS

Edited by b00m13, 16 April 2009 - 07:30 PM.

[rork]

I frakking love this. I've been considering doing something similar for quite a while. One possible upgrade (I and run think it might be what Herpestidae was referring to): integrate a 2K pump into the upper, sliding part of the BBB shell, so you can squeeze the BBB trigger, open/close the shell a few times to pump the salvos up, then prime the BBB and proceed. I still can't get over how ridiculously good-looking the red ones are...

[Herpestidae]

[quote name='b00m13' date='Apr 16 2009, 04:18 PM' post='223983']
Herpestidae - There's no rule that says you have to do everything the exact same way I did~
If you like pumping it in the rear, then pump it from the rear... heck I tried pumping it from the rear once too... but it just
wasn't my thing. I just prefer the front.


"Smacks himself in the head"

I can't believe I walked right into that.

Rork-yeah we are referring to the same thing. Personally I have never seen that particular mod done so I don't know how useful it would be.

Boom-About how many times do you pump it to fill the BS tanks? I mainly suggested moving the pump because it would seem awkward to pump it in between the two barrels to me. Once again though major props on creating something really functional.

Edited by Herpestidae, 16 April 2009 - 05:44 PM.

[Pearson2]

Well done. You certainly have set the bar high for the competition. I love how clean the mod looks as well.

[bobbybilly60]

Very nice mod and the second one in this week from you! I am excited about this competition because normally there are very few write-ups.

[Zorns Lemma]

If you want to still fire arrows, I suggest cutting the wide stock black BS barrels in half, nest your main barrels inside, and then fit the other black piece over.

In the video, it appears as if you shot the left barrel half-off. With a tighter dart and a war situation, you might end up shooting the entire barrel off, which is highly inconvenient.

[b00m13]

rork - I've answered your reply by editing my response to Herpes's first post. And what you said is very doable... I was actually
conflicted when working on this mod to whether or not do it that way... but for convience's sake, I chose my way (yeah I did
some testing with it by pumping it in the rear before, and boy... let me tell you... it was EXHAUSTING!! I had to work almost
TWICE AS MUCH!!)


Herpestidae - Aww Herpes, don't smack yourself, anybody could have walked right into that one. *points to rork's reply*
Also I wish I could show you that the BS barrels don't get in the way at all when firing the stefans. The left barrel does
get in the way for firing Stock Foam Arrows though, but as I showed in the video clip; if it's in the way for you, just unclip
it, pump the pump, and reclip it when you're done pumping. (Unclipping and reclipping takes less then a second.)


Pearson2 - Thank you, and let me just say now that if anyone else leaves a positive comment, thank you in advance just-in-case I don't reply~


bobbybilly60 - (Read above)


Zorn's Lemma - The BS black barrel is about two and three forth of an inch long. The rear section of the barrel is filled/occupied by a part
of the BS's air tank. So by cutting the barrel in half, and gluing the forward part of the barrel onto the inner 1/2" tube's frontal section,
and gluing the read of the 1/2" tube into the rear BS barrel. We'd be able to fire 1/2" stefans and Stock Foam Arrows, but we'd be
limiting ourselves to ONLY being able to fire those 2 types of projectiles. In my guide, you're able to fire 3 types of projectiles.
And if you are worried about the 1/2" tube flying out during a war game, then just wrap some E-tape around it for a tighter fit...
it's simple yet effective~

Edited by b00m13, 16 April 2009 - 09:15 PM.

[dizzyduck]

Nice write-up, and really good work with the diagramatics. Did you render those in MSPaint?

Anyway, the only gripe I have is a trivial and personal one with your choice of Comic Sans for a font, but that's just my inner Graphic Designer being bitter about its overuse.

[BustaNinja]

Nice write-up, and really good work with the diagramatics. Did you render those in MSPaint?

Anyway, the only gripe I have is a trivial and personal one with your choice of Comic Sans for a font, but that's just my inner Graphic Designer being bitter about its overuse.

Well not everyone can have awesome diagrams and cool pictures... sadly...

Anyway, AMAZING mod. It looks clean, is fairly simple, and it works. Whats not to like?

Edited by BustaNinja, 16 April 2009 - 09:53 PM.

[A side of nerf]

B00m'ies back!
Did you get those fittings from McMaster?

Edited by A side of nerf, 16 April 2009 - 09:57 PM.

[rork]

That's a very interesting point in regard to the pump issue.

For Dizzy: http://m.assetbar.co...ewood/uua7g0JV2

[fallinouttadabox]

This looks excellent, and the diagrams were wonderful. The only question I have is can you hit the blast button without moving your hand from the grip? If doesn't look like I'd be able to comfortably.

[Renegademilitia15]

This just might be the right thing to get me off my butt and actually buy a bbb.

Really nice work.

[Ambience 327]

This looks excellent, and the diagrams were wonderful. The only question I have is can you hit the blast button without moving your hand from the grip? If doesn't look like I'd be able to comfortably.

If you hold the BBB the way he is shown holding it in the 3-angle pic at the end of the first post, you would easily be able to reach the blast button unless you had very small hands. (I currently hold my BBB like this - it allows shotgun-style cocking and just feels more comfortable to me. I plan to build on this concept when I finally get around to modding it.)

[flyingchicken]

Awesome gun b00m13! It totally blew the one I was gonna submit away.
Good luck with the contest!