9 replies to this topic

[ferball]

I have searched the forum and not found any information on this question, so if you know of a thread that already covers this please point me to it. The closest I could find was the deodorant clip on the Big Bad Bow.

Has there been any experimentation with a gravity feed "clip" vs the tube used by wye hopper set up? I see the main problem being double feeding. I am going to experiment with this, but any previous work would be nice to know about to save me from reinventing the wheel.

[Carbon]

It's been a long time since there was much work done with a gravity box "clip", mainly because the system is fraught with problems and is generally a pain in the ass to use. The biggest issue is that the darts don't usually stay nice and straight once you start running. Usually, some manner of follower was employed, but that could suffer from the same issues. Adding a spring added its own problems, since it would deform the darts.

Other issues are that such a system usually requires some manner of breech, which are (in)famous for jamming and munching darts. A breech also means that a second forward/back motion is required, or some manner of linkage needed to connect it to the priming motion (which is usually moving the opposite direction from the breech).

With all these issues, it's absolutely no surprise that tube-style magazines took the nerf world by storm.

Anyway, there was a lot of experimentation with deodorant containers (I used one in the SNAP-4), as well as cassette cases and the like. It's probably been at least 4 years since they've been worked with, so you'll be looking at older threads.

[Daniel Beaver]

Angel's deodorant clip BBB is still the definitive example of a gravity fed box clip. These are not reliable, since the darts will tend to tumble in the clip while you're jostling the gun around. Spring fed box clips are much more reliable (relatively speaking).You can use modified N-Strike clips for that, and it's not much more complicated than using a deoderant clip. Building either type is a total pain in the ass, and will more likely than not bring shame and tears to the builder.

Edited by Daniel Beaver, 24 July 2012 - 11:02 PM.

[ferball]

I was trying to stay away from breeches because of the added complexity and dart munching. My thought was to have the darts drop into the chamber from above rather slide in like a wye tube. A strategically placed nail would drop the tip enough to fill the barrel, but I could see double feeding being a night mare. I had not even considered what running around would do to things.

How much work has been done with vacuum loading from some sort of magazine set up? I can see that being an interesting development for springers, suck a dart into the chamber when you prime the gun. I have some ideas but given how late I have jumped on the nerf train I can't imagine I am coming up with anything new.

[zx532]

'ferball', on 25 Jul 2012 - 04:01 AM, said:

I was trying to stay away from breeches because of the added complexity and dart munching. My thought was to have the darts drop into the chamber from above rather slide in like a wye tube. A strategically placed nail would drop the tip enough to fill the barrel, but I could see double feeding being a night mare. I had not even considered what running around would do to things.

How much work has been done with vacuum loading from some sort of magazine set up? I can see that being an interesting development for springers, suck a dart into the chamber when you prime the gun. I have some ideas but given how late I have jumped on the nerf train I can't imagine I am coming up with anything new.

Problem with that idea is that the dart has to have a seal around it, and as long as it is in the place where it dropped from the clip, there is none. However the moment the dart moves anywhere to create a seal the same thing that allowed it to drop out of the clip would cause another to do the same.

That was a long way of saying you will need at least a basic breech with any sort of clip system in place, or you will have some bad ranges due to excessive deadspace and double feeding

[ferball]

'zx532', on 25 Jul 2012 - 04:37 AM, said:

Problem with that idea is that the dart has to have a seal around it, and as long as it is in the place where it dropped from the clip, there is none. However the moment the dart moves anywhere to create a seal the same thing that allowed it to drop out of the clip would cause another to do the same.

That was a long way of saying you will need at least a basic breech with any sort of clip system in place, or you will have some bad ranges due to excessive deadspace and double feeding

I figured a sealed clip with an airtight fit would take care of the seal problem in the same way that a wye hopper does, but the drop into the chamber and double feeding is where I see the hang up at. As I kick it around in my head I don't see an upside from the wye hopper. If I could get a clip to work its only real advantage is maybe that it looks cooler than a hopper, but I can't see it being more reliable.

[TantumBull]

I tried deodorant clips back in my noob days. Mine was spring loaded, so expect a gravity feed to be even less consistent than mine was (and it wasn't that consistent...)

Hoppers are cheaper, easier to make, and feed WAY more reliably.

[makeitgo]

Baby Bottle Write Up

Baby Bottle Hopper Vid.

Edited by makeitgo, 25 July 2012 - 03:22 PM.

[ShaNayNay]

In the past I thought about trying out the deodorant clips myself, but for a Barricade and/or Tommy 20. By putting them on top of a semi-automatic electric blaster, the seal problem would be irrelevant since the gun is not a springer, and a breech in not necessary as well. However, I decided to just put a recon magwell on my barricade, and my t20 broke, so it would have been pointless to mod it further. However in theory a deodorant clip on a T20 could be potentailly fairly effective from my perspective.

[ferball]

Put together a simple proof of concept. It double feeds like nobody's business. I may mess with it a little more, the only way I can see to make it work and keep it simple is to do some sort of vacuum feed or have some genius inspiration and come up with some incredible chamber jetting system the loads the darts. WYE hopper is in my near future.