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Stromfinder Rifle

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#1 HOTH

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 02:17 AM

Alright, after receiving the gun and all the materials, I decided that for this mod, I should contribute to the community through a writeup, so here it goes. Hope this makes it to the directory :P. This writeup is in no way completed, but I decided to post what has been done so far and call it part one, then wrap it up in a part 2 writeup which will most likely come tomorrow afternoon. The purpose of this mod is to turn a comfortable, smallish sidearm into an effective primary. But, I do not plan to use this as a primary, I created this solely for the purpose of using the R.S.C.B clip on a sidearm. In case this fails, I preformed the first prototype on the orange one, because the green one kicks ass. The gun stock:

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Crack her open. Dont forget these two screw, one on the front and one under the priming handle.

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The stock internals.

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Now comes the unique part of this mod, or, the icing on the cake. The plunger tube. Head over to PETCO and grab yourself some 1 inch PETG. This stuff is used for vaccums in fishtanks, and comes with two tubes per pack. The larger tube (in diameter) is the one you want. The pack was $7.00, and I got two tubes and an ass load of vinyl tubing. Pretty good deal, I think. Here is the stock PT compared to the replaced, 1 inch PETG tube.

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Now, what you want to do is grab a nitefinder plunger tube, and cut the PETG to the length of two nitefinder plunger tubes. You can do this with the stormfire PT as well, but it is easier with the nitefinder one because the barrel comes off without sawing, so you can get a preciser measurement. If you do use the stormfire plunger tube for marking the length of the PETG, make sure to mark it from the end of the gray piece, not the barrel or air restrictors.



In this picture, I have cut the plunger tube to the correct length, and then jammed a CPVC coupler into a PVC coupler, then electrical taped the exposed CPVC coupler until it was airtight in the 1 inch PETG.

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Now, after making sure your new CPVC/PVC coupler contraption is snug in the end of the plunger tube, drill a hole straight through all of it, like this:

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Apply some plumbers goop to the seal where the coupler and plunger tube meet, then run a bolt through the drilled hole, like so:
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Yes, I do plan to cut off the excess bolt sticking out. Now, we must move onto the plunger rod/head/springs. First, we will focus on the plunger rod. What I have done is temporary, because my Mcmaster replacement plunger rod has not arrived, but it will suffice, and will undoubtably give great results. I resorted to splicing up two nitefinder plunger rods and combining them. This is how I did it:

Sorry, no spoon-feeding pictures for this part, but you will understand when you see the finished product.


1. Take one nitefinder plunger rod and cut off the back handle that you hold while priming.
2. Cut a notch where the handle used to be. Make the notch large enough to fit the nub that connects the head to the rod on the other plunger rod.
3. Test fit the nub into the notch, and when it is nice and snug, put it in a vice grip and drill a hole from top to bottom, therefore, drilling through both rods. Yes, confusing.
4. I then ran a small metal rod through the hold, and secured it with loctite epoxy. Here is a picture from top view.

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The black dot is the small metal rod that I ran through the hole. Obviously, if that was too confusing for you, the mcmaster replacement rods will be 10 times easier.
Now, we need to fill one of the catch noteches with putty. You must fill in the one closest to the handle you hold while priming, so the catch skips over that and engages at the next notch on the other rod. A pic of my filled in catch notch:

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The amount of putty that you see in this picture was not enough, and I did end up adding more later, but you hopefully get the point.Now, onto the springs. Ideally, we would use a cut down [k26], but those were included in my order with the rods, so they are not here either :(. So, what I used in the meantime is a stretched NF spring combined with a strechted LSFG spring, and then an ace #49 spring. Clarifying pictures:
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Now we continue on to the plunger head. The great news is that both nitefinder/stormfire plunger heads have a beautiful fit the 1 inch PETG. The bad news is that I was planning on replacing the plunger head, but those pieces are coming in the infamous Mcmaster order. aww. Well, it is not a problem, because the stock head fit is amazing.
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The only thing left to do to the plunger head is e-tape, another o-ring, and some lube, but if you are attempting this mod, you will agree that it hardly needs any of that due to the stock fit. I decided to lube it anyways. I found this amusing:
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Now, we must work on the shell. First off, cut it down like so:
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i decided to leave the dart holders because it was not neccessary to remove them and it might be useful for a 2k integration sometime in the future. And now, to wrap up part one, dremel the living shit out of the inside of the shell, where the plunger tube goes. Do this until it fits. It did not take me a super long time, just be careful not to dremel through the shell.

Alright, that about does it for part 1 of this writeup. Forgive my spelling, for this entire thing was posted from my phone. Yes, that was painful. Expect part 2 sometime tomorrow, and expect and update when the infamous mcmaster order arrives. Also, excuse the shitty pics, my camera broke and these were taken by and old backup camera.

Edited by HOTH, 28 December 2009 - 10:26 AM.

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#2 Reconman24

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 03:12 PM

Dude looks amazing! Looks like a lot of fun when you get it working right. A++
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#3 HOTH

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 03:28 PM

Dude looks amazing! Looks like a lot of fun when you get it working right. A++

Thanks man.
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#4 Zorns Lemma

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 03:35 PM

Where is Strom and where can I find him? Joking aside, something I've noticed with all the current "pistol-rifle" builds is a tendency to stack springs, under the impression that this gives you more power.

Which kind of isn't true, because stacking springs decreases their effective spring constant. You do get more energy overall just from the increased draw, but stacking springs also increases solid length which means your draw is less than what it could be.

Until your industrial springs arrive, I suggest stretching a NF spring until it is the length you want, and then re-tempering it at 550F (or as high as your oven goes, or better, in a self-clean cycle).
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#5 angelfalcon

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 03:39 PM

I've tried that. It ends up really, really, reeaallly stiff. Don't stretch the NF spring, grab a stronger, longer, thicker industrial spring.

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT bake your springs. They shatter after being compressed a few times.
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QUOTE

According to your mom, size matters. My blaster is four feet long. What about yours?

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I measured mine and I got about 11 inches.

#6 Zorns Lemma

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 04:03 PM

I've tried that. It ends up really, really, reeaallly stiff. Don't stretch the NF spring, grab a stronger, longer, thicker industrial spring.

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT bake your springs. They shatter after being compressed a few times.


And I've done it to springs that have lasted this entire year of nerfing.
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#7 CA13

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 04:17 PM

Don't fuck with springs, beyond removing rust from them. We should all know, Bob, that rapidly cooling a metal, especially in a fluid besides oil, is a bad idea to begin with, not only hardening the metal but oxidizing it also.

I like how the rifle is coming along, but I hope you don't make the shell goofy by putting two of the same pistols in tandem. If you put a fury fire on the front, you could just use trigger pull to rotate a new chamber. That would be Effeminate.
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Doing this as I speak. I have no idea when I got it...my DAD got it some 15 years ago, but that doesn't matter. Anyways, it keeps jerking around all over the place. I try to hold it with a rag...It doesn't look like...much.

#8 flashflint

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 04:21 PM

Don't fuck with springs, beyond removing rust from them. We should all know, Bob, that rapidly cooling a metal, especially in a fluid besides oil, is a bad idea to begin with, not only hardening the metal but oxidizing it also.



Oil still hardens it, it actually hardens it more. And can still cause oxidation, although not as much.
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#9 Hi Yah

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 07:48 PM

$7 for 2 tubes? At my Petco it was $7 for 3 feet. How long were each of the tubes?
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The yellow balls are also slightly smaller in diameter than the green ones.

#10 CA13

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 08:24 PM

Don't fuck with springs, beyond removing rust from them. We should all know, Bob, that rapidly cooling a metal, especially in a fluid besides oil, is a bad idea to begin with, not only hardening the metal but oxidizing it also.



Oil still hardens it, it actually hardens it more. And can still cause oxidation, although not as much.


Exactly why oil is something you'd want if you needed to harden a spring.
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Doing this as I speak. I have no idea when I got it...my DAD got it some 15 years ago, but that doesn't matter. Anyways, it keeps jerking around all over the place. I try to hold it with a rag...It doesn't look like...much.

#11 HOTH

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Posted 28 December 2009 - 08:47 PM

$7 for 2 tubes? At my Petco it was $7 for 3 feet. How long were each of the tubes?

The pack came with 2 1 foot long tubes and 10 feet of vinyl tubing.
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