8 replies to this topic

[MindWarrior]

Dart cutting by hand to me, is VERY tedious and I can never get a decent enough cut for a nice stefan. So I made a simple dart Mitre box to help my cuts, and it makes my blanks VERY straight.

Materials
From the following picture:

You'll need:
1. A glue gun
2. Some flat, hard, plate or surface, I used a CD case
3. A box cutter blade
4. Two segments of your airgun barrel material cut to the size you want your darts, make sure that they have straight, right angle cuts. I used Schedule 80 cpvc I had lying around, which has a VERY loose fit on my darts, and cut them to 1.5' and 1' segments. You can easily use OMC petg if you wish.

Construction


STEP 1

First, take your blade and slip it so it goes about 6/8ths in between the two CPVC segments as shown:

With the little bit of CPVC that does not have the blade covering, you can use to allign and straighten the two barrel pieces.

STEP 2

While tightly holding the two pieces of CPVC with your fingers, making sure not to off center the barrels, hot glue the bottom of the CPVC barrels and press it tightly on the plate or surface your using:

Ignore the cuts on the CPVC, I took this picture after I was done. You should waight, 10-15 seconds before letting go, this will let the hotglue expand the distance of the CPVC slightly, allowing very little wiggle room for the blade for a smoother cut. BTW, it LOOKS like theres a lot of space between the blade and barrel stub, but there isn't, I was pretty sloppy using a table saw and got some of the edges off the CPVC, but the barrels are still cut with a perfect 90 degree angle.

STEP 3
Now draw a cutting guide on your CPVC like so:


and use it as a guide for your dremel to get this:


And your done!

How to use:

Its actually pretty simple, just slip the foam through the opening until its flush with one end of your mitre box. The place one finger on each opening, on top of the foam, and lightly stretch it to help straighten the foam. Then, Place your blade on the slit, and cut!

I've learned that minimizing the amount of swipes for each cut should be minimized to two quick swipes to ensure a perfect cut.

At first when I first cut my first batch, they looked slightly off, but after heating my blanks the were or was near perfect. Hope this helps!

[Lucian]

Your cuts will be even more beter if you try using a box cutter.

Edited by Lucian, 21 February 2010 - 12:05 AM.

[MindWarrior]

My blade is virtually the same as the blade from a box cutter. But thanks!

Edited by MindWarrior, 21 February 2010 - 12:14 AM.

[AgentMoe64]

Thanks a lot dude. I haven't had the time to make my own miter box but this looks really easy.

[flipoffacliff]

I have done this before and it works great. But unlike yours I used multiple segments of pipe so I could produce alot more so try that.

[MindWarrior]

@AgentMoe64: Thanks!

@flipoffacliff: Good Idea.

[Daniel Beaver]

Ahh... I love those slots you cut out of the side. I have an almost identical setup, but those slots are a very good idea.

[Ryan201821]

Instead of having the "mitre box" so short, it is easier to use a long length of tubing so you can hold one end. It's a lot easier and less stress on your hands than trying to hold a tiny piece. You can even clamp the piece into something and just feed the foam and cut.

I've been using this method since I started making darts. I believe I first saw this method from the LGLF in the dartmaking thread, first post.

Edited by Ryan201821, 21 February 2010 - 08:58 PM.

[Broderick]

Your cuts will be even more beter if you try using a box cutter.

^ This. It'll also keep you from slicing your hands if you're at all clumsy like myself. I can't even count the times I've cut myself in the midst of cutting blanks (most of the time from it being 1 in the morning and being somewhat inattentive) while using a razor blade like the one you're using.
Anyway, the slots you cut in there are really nice, it's a cool thing to have. I'll make sure to put that on the next jig I make.