603 replies to this topic

[sam]

The thing with nanos is they are so damn small. You probably cannot fit two BBs on them. Also when you fire you better be willing to loose that dart, because they are pretty hard to find.

[Lotkid]

I have never tried this but putting the darts in a pillowcase and blowing with a hairdryer on warm is a method Ive heard of.

[CaptainSlug]

Yeah, that's how I straighten my cut lengths of foam. It allows me to keep an eye on the darts to make sure I don't overcook them.

[Shadow 92]

I have never tried this but putting the darts in a pillowcase and blowing with a hairdryer on warm is a method Ive heard of.

I'm pretty sure that's what the original author of the NerfHQ Stefan article does too. As for straitening my darts I tape 5' sections to my walls and tape three or four marbles to the bottom. After three days, they're usually as thin as CDTS.

[SirTofu]

Straightening my darts- not a problem.

Making them smaller- problem.
I have a log home store foam and I use OMC's petg. Are their any EFFECIENT techniques to shrink them besides a dryer?

[bobafan]

You can hang 5 or so foot sections with a weight on the end and then heat them with a blow dryer so they stretch a little.

If you stretch them too much, you will end up with nanos instead of micros.

[elf avec gun]

Sir Tofu, Throwing them in the dryer will expand them (and harden them/straighten them). Heat expands things (except for ice) cold makes them shrink.
I dont know a good way of applying these pricipals to dart making though.

[OfAllTheNerf]

I would just like to give some advice for people who are making CDTD' (or whatever the acronym for them is).

Do exactly what Falcon said on the second page, but instead of just putting the weight in, cut a slit of FBR (1/2"), and make it into a rectangle-ish shape. Put that down the dart, and then put the weight in. This will stop the dart from falling into the dart if the glue is hot. Thin nano FBR would probably work the same, if not better.

[TX-2000]

Fellow Nerfers,

I did not want to start another topic about a very simple dartsmithing tip I came across. I'm sorry if anyone has already posted about this, I did read the first 4 pages of dart tips before posting this.

Tip: How to know if your darts are equally balanced

Meaning, this will basically tell you if your weight to length ratio of your dart is balanced. It will not tell you if it will work for your gun or every gun. It simply is a method to determine if the length of your stefan is balanced with the amount of weight you are putting in.

Items needed: Custom made darts, an adequate sized bowl, water

Process:
1) Fill the bowl with about 1.5 inches of water

2) Depending on the size of your bowl, place a few darts into the bowl of water

3) Your darts will either flost (almost) perfectly vertical, float vertically at a slant, or the worst case... sink

4) If your darts float perfectly vertical then they are balanced, good job (You can skip the rest of the steps, your done )

5) If your darts float but at an angle, the weight of your dart is off, Either your BB/fishing splitshot/etc. is not centered correctly or your hot glue did not cool/dry/harden/etc. equally acros the top of your dart. The hotglue may have also been too hot and melted the inner sides of your dart. In this case that dart will sprial out of control from higher powered Nerf(and spin-off's) guns such as the Titan, BBB, At2k, At3k, LBB, BBBB, etc.

What you can do if your darts are messed up: 1) Scrap the FBR and make little tiny shotgun like darts from them. 2) Salvage the BB 3) Re-melt the glue and reset the BB or fix the hot glue as it re-hardens


-TX

[Prometheus]

That's a really good idea, save you from making tons of shitty ones. Make a few, check 'em, and revise your procedure if need be.

[Prometheus]

Nice. TriggerHappyAzn used a mitre box to cut his foam, which is ingenious. Very quick, straight cuts, and it is easy as hell. But yeah, this is good as you can't nerf well without good darts. A person is only as good a nerfer as their dart quality. Precision and a good investment of time will prove the most worthwhile in the end.

[Quilan Fett]

Just wondering. I have always used only hot glue weights and my darts preform fine. Would CS's darts preform better, or should I just stick with my method?

Edited by Qui'lan Fett, 12 June 2007 - 09:30 PM.

[Retiate]

Just wondering. I have always used only hot glue weights and my darts preform fine. Would CS's darts preform better, or should I just stick with my method?

If you use lower powered guns, your darts will work fine. If you want to use higher powered guns, the weights will keep your darts from spinning out and landing 10 feet in front of you.
I have never seen or tried CS's darts, so I can't tell you from experience. I don't think I've seen one person say he's had troubles with CS's darts. So I'm almost positive they will work great. Just make sure you cut the foam straight, so, like CS said, your darts will be "aerodynamically uniform". Cuts that aren't square will lead to unreliable darts.


CaptainSlug: If you have already tested each of your darts, which perform better for you, the converted ones or the FBR ones?

[CaptainSlug]

I ran tests earlier today with some darts I purposefully cut crappily and they still seemed to perform fine, but only slightly less reliable than the squarely cut darts. Cutting them nonsquare will cause drift over long distances but it doesn't seem to cause fishtailing. I've only had fishtailing with darts I've made when the foam became permanently dented or deformed.

CaptainSlug: If you have already tested each of your darts, which perform better for you, the converted ones or the FBR ones?

FBR darts are far more consistent in terms of diameter and performance than converted stock darts. I only bother using stock darts indoors where the accuracy doesn't matter much, or when I'm recording a video.

Frankly stock darts, converted or not, suck for shooting past 50 feet with any kind of consistency.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 12 June 2007 - 09:58 PM.

[lionhead333]

Glueing your darts
---------------------------------
The other day, my sister was using a parafin wax oil treatment thing, and it hit me. Why not seal my darts with wax? I just had to test it.

While it took a few seconds longer to dry, and it will deform a tad if you hit something hard. Besides that, they are perfect. The parafin wax I used was less than half the density of hot glue, and much smoother, so there was very little air resistance. Tested against one of my normal stefans, the wax darts caonstantly got 15-20 feet better ranges.

Not very durable, but I'll use them as loser darts.

EDIT- I don't know why it says loser, as I typed losing. It won't let me change it.

Edited by lionhead333, 14 June 2007 - 03:32 PM.

[used man]

ah the old loser loser block...

[vanpaun]

Check Out this website....

http://www.tundrafoa.../backer/101.pdf
http://www.tundrafoam.com/index.html

...all the colors and sizes, From orange to 6 inches. Possibly a new provider?

[Flapper12]

I was just wondering if anybody has ever tried this material out for darts? (www.mcmaster.com)part#4339T12
I don't know if it would work or not considering the material is EPDM foam rubber

Edited by Flapper12, 24 June 2007 - 07:07 PM.

[wldworld]

I was just wondering if anybody has ever tried this material out for darts? (www.mcmaster.com)part#4339T12
I don't know if it would work or not considering the material is EPDM foam rubber

I don't know if it would work or not, but if you're going to pay a dollar a foot you might as well buy stock darts.

[CaptainSlug]

I don't know if it would work or not considering the material is EPDM foam rubber

It's too "gooey" and stretchy to be used as a dart. ALL DARTS/ARROW/MISSILES of any size are made with close cell polyethylene foam.

[bpso86]

EDIT: Has anyone bought/used foam from here?
http://www.aloghomes...acker-rod.shtml

I just went to my first war with those darts, and they performed very well. Tight fit in cpvc, good for springers (I used cpvc in my ttg barrels, and they worked wonderfully). Very good fit in OMC's petg as well after straightening in the dryer. Definitely worth it. I would definitely recommend the foam.

[bpso86]

*EDIT-Double post, internet being fickle. Mods can delete this.

Edited by bpso86, 01 July 2007 - 09:08 PM.

[NerfMonkey]

Bpso, was that the white foam or the gray foam? I'm considering buying a few hundred feet.

[bpso86]

It was the white stuff. $2.50 for 10 feet.

[Coodude26]

I find my recipe for cooling the dart tips like this(also posted on nhq):

Small Ziplock bag
Water
Ice
Salt

Instructions-
It should be fairly obvious what to do- put them all in the bag with a fair heaping of salt. The salt will melt the ice and prevent the water from freezing. So now you have a bag of below freezing water. Make your stefens like normal but cool them by pressing them to the bag (head on, so it doesn't smudge) and it will be an excellent flat surface. Also, if you burn yourself with hot glue (which I've done more times than I'd like to mention) stick your finger onto the bag and it will cool the glue really fast, preventing an actual burn. I've used both of these techniques a lot, and the anti-burn one really works. It doesn't leave any mark, which is very helpful.