I am pretty sure this is my first write up here so I shall do my best.
Premise: The triad while nice with tree barrels seemed inaccurate and the darts seemed to fall out a lot for me so I set out to remedy this and make it look cooler.
So I will share with you how to turn this:
Into...
This:
So what do you need? (note this is just for luger, you can still use the concepts to single the triad into other forms)
Materials:
- Triad
- Some wood (piece of 2x4)
- scraps of polycarbonate (for sights, you can substitute most materials)
- epoxy puddy (or another form of body building material)
- plastic epoxy
- 1/2" cpvc or petg for barrel
- 1/2" pvc
- Paint
- Veneer (optional for the wood grain on the handle)
Tools: (these are what I used/recommend but are by no means the only way to do it)
- Band Saw (optional, can use hand saw or dremle)
- Drill
- assorted drill bits/fostner/spade bits
- dremel (primarily anding drums)
- hand saw
- Belt sander (optional, sandaing block/files will work)
- sand paper 100-400 grit
- 1/2" dowel
First things first, I always like to come up with some concept art of the finished project.
okay to start out with you need to cut off the "head" of the triad. I just made a straight cut from where the trigger guard meets the barrel all the way across.
Now being that I wanted to conceptually make sure the triad had enough power for a longer barrel I temporarily affixed one to test, which it surpassed a stock triad at indoor testing, so it was safe to proceed with the project and the barrel length.
Next I proceeded to make the barrel using a 6" length of 1/2" cpvc (it will be cut down to 5" later). I then took a length of 1/2" dowell and inserted it into the barrel and chucked the dowel into a drill. This allowed me to rotate the barrel as I sanded it to give it the nice taper that you see. I took it first to the belt sander to rough out the shape then used hand sandpaper up to 400 grit to smooth it out.
Then I made a rough tracing of the top half the gun to be cut out of my piece of 2x4 and just cut the wood to a block to start with.
I then took the block that I just cut out and bored a hole to hold the barrel.
Now I transfer the rough detailing of the luger onto the wood block to be cut out. Here you also want to line up what is left of your triad and mark the position and angle of the center of the plunger tube on the block, so you can drill the shaft that will connect to the barrel
Here is the block after drilling the hole and the cuts being made and light detail sanding done.
So now we need to make a joint between the pipe coming from the air chamber and the barrel, I achieve this by making a mitred joint at 45 degrees which I just adjust until it fits, you could also do some fancy math but its much quicker just to look and adjust on the fly.
Once the joint fits well apply some plastic epoxy to both faces of the joint and fit together, make sure to wipe the excess from the interior and exterior and let it dry.
Now cut a slice of 1/2" pvc about 1" long (this will nest with the 1/2" cpvc) and sand it untill it fits snug in the opening on the top of the triad. then cut an angle to match that of the 1/2" cpvc protruding from what will be the top half of the gun.
and glue it on with some plastic epoxy
you should be able to test fit it into the triad like so.
epoxy it together, here I only applied the epoxy to the 1/2" pvc and the parts of the triad making contact with the wood, this way when you stick the two halves together no epoxy will get pushed into the air chamber.
cut out and adhere with plastic epoxy the front and rear sights. I cut the profile with the band-saw and used hand files to slope the sides, and notch the rear sight
From here on out its just detailing, using the epoxy puddy i built up the handle and bolt region, and affixed a section of dowel to be the "draw" of the bolt. Add more details and or add or remove more material as necessary to get the right look or feel, there is a lot of personal preference here.
For the wood on the handle I opted to use some veneer i had laying around rather than trying to paint wood grain or adhere and stain a piece of wood to it.
Add a couple of layers of enamel and a couple of clear coats whalla!
Edit: I also forgot I drilled 2 air intake holes in the bottom plate as well, but don't have a picture of it.
So in conclusion:
My darts do not fall out any more, the gun looks and feels great. this process/style of singling can be performed to fit a variety of different handgun styles (I have a ppk drying right now). Will post some videos within the week.
Ranges:
Apologies in delay on these, but here we go.
First of when I range test i like to take the difference in range between the modded blaster and the stock blaster. Why because it will help take into account for atmospheric conditions.
so without further ado
my singled triad 5 1/2" cpvc barrel achieves on average 15' more (using bb stephans) than a stock triad both firing flat from the same location.
another thing to note is that the singled triad all the darts were in a nice neat little pile in comparison to the triad which deviated ~ 3 ft side to side. so in short you lose 2 shots by singling, and you gain 15' and accuracy
Edited by ProfessionalNerf, 12 April 2013 - 07:59 AM.
