17 replies to this topic

[Doom]

I'm building a Nerf homemade, my second one. I've built one before out of extra parts from my homemade water guns, but it was really nothing special. I want to make sure I'm doing everything correctly because I really don't know exactly what I'm doing on this. I don't want to cement it until I'm sure I didn't crap it up.

http://www.sscentral...es/DSCN0166.JPG

There's the basic gun. I made my own breech system because I didn't like the one in the homemades section. I also made the air chamber have a screw off cap, so I could expand it if I want to say shoot 10 darts or something.

http://www.sscentral...es/DSCN0167.JPG

There's the breech open.

I just want some verification before I potentially make a mistake permanent. If anyone likes the design then I'll make some instructions.

[NinjZ]

I dont think your twist cap idea is going to work. The air will most likely leak out. You can always try though.

[Doom]

Thats what teflon tape is for my friend. I have an entier roll in the first picture. I put that on before I put the primer on.

Edited by Doom, 04 July 2004 - 05:15 PM.

[Vassili]

I love your breach design.

The only thing I would change is I would move the pump a lot closer to the barrel, and maybe add a stock. Otherwise, nice design.

[Crankymonky]

How easy is it to hold? Looks like it would feel awkward.

[Doom]

It's fairly easy to hold, not akward. I can see why it looks akward. The hose handle was the cheapest valve I could find, just under $3. It's not exactly straight and the pump really is way too low. I had to improvise because I had limited time to shop for parts and money. It's only my second, and by the time I get to my third and forth I'll have all the bugs of my early ones fixed.

I've been considering modifying the hose handle so it will have more output. You know that little metal thing at the end of the nozzle? It's not needed to get air through, all it does is let the user change the shape of the water stream. There is no water stream here and I believe that all that is doing is limiting the air flow. Should I remove it? I believe I can with a dremel.

[Crankymonky]

Drilling a whole through it would achieve the same thing. Removing it is achieving the same thing as removing the nozzle when converting a water gun to a nerf gun. I had a homemade plan using the stream selector for multiple shots, boy as that sexy.

[CheeseNerfer]

First of nice design and second I noticed that you used a ball inflater for a pump and i was wondering what the piece connecting it to the air tank was? heres the pic with the thing i'm talking about circled in red:


thanks and good gun

[Crankymonky]

check valve I believe, but wouldn't the check valve be built into the pump?

[Doom]

That's a 1" check valve, was about $10. I actually used a pump made for twisty balloons (you know, the stuff clowns make balloon animals from) that I picked up at Wal*Mart for less than $3. I thought it was a steal but then I thought it's built in check valve was probably weak so I got a real one for it.

[CheeseNerfer]

I know this is probably a dumb question that makes me look noobish (i have made homemades before!) but what is a check valve?

[blink 182]

Well my good sir, the check valve is the backbone of the pump. If this little device was not installed to fulfill your needs then you sir would be a sucker. So what I am trying to say is what this does is when you pump you gun ( they are installed in every gun) this allows air in the valve but not out. Most balloon pumps have them but they are very weak due to the there is not a lot of pressure pushing against the check valve because it is only a balloon, so you bring in yours truly the check valve.


<blink>

[Doom]

A check valve basically is a one way valve. It is designed to let a fluid through in one direction. They also are fairly easy to make if you have to right parts, I have before.

I've decided to get a second angled coupler to make the pump straight. After that I'll use the primer and cement it a few hours later. I'll get pictures and accurate ranges tommorow, likely after lunch.

I have also thought of a way to make my breech design into multiple barrels, similar to that one I saw on a webpage. I was messing around last night with the breech thing and I turned the smaller tee on the left so the unused end was pointing down. It was then that I realized I could add another barrel under there, and if I had one of those things that split it even more then I could have more barrels. I won't be able to do that due to my extremely limited budget, I was just putting the idea out to anyone who want to try it.

Edit:

Now I've thought of an even better way to improve the rate of fire. On the side of the coupler (well actually tee in this case) that the barrel plugs into I can put 2 darts in a special holder. I then can move the barrel into the holder and pull out the dart. I have a working model already, not glued yet because my dad said he'd buy another angled coupler and I'm waiting for that. Pictures with descriptions are below. I am sorry that these images are so huge, I don't feel like opening Photoshop or another image editor at the moment.

http://www.sscentral...es/DSCN0168.JPG

The darts in their holders. The holders will be put on the sides of the tee. You actually could make the holders out of schedule 80 PVC and an endcap, I just didn't have any leftover endcaps.

http://www.sscentral...es/DSCN0169.JPG

The barrel plugged into the holder.

http://www.sscentral...es/DSCN0171.JPG

The barrel is pulled out and the dart is sticking out a bit...

http://www.sscentral...es/DSCN0172.JPG

...so I push it in as I plug the barrel into the tee. This all actually can be done very quickly.

Now that I have the two couplers in front of my I see that all they do is create an extra large right angle one. I should think a bit more before buying. I'm just going to get a right angle one and use some styrofoam to keep the gun more stable. I don't think I'll be able to complete this homemade today now. I hope that gives me more time for ideas.

Edited by Doom, 05 July 2004 - 11:24 AM.

[Vintage]

That's an interesting idea for ROF. How well does the barrel grab the dart out of the holder? Obviously the barrel must have a tighter grip on the dart.

My concern is that you would need the dart sticking out of the holder quite a bit for the barrel to grab it. This could cause the dart to jam when you try to push the barrel over it. You would need the dart to be sticking perfectly straight out of the holder and at just the right location on the chassis for the barrel to slide over it.

Oh well, you probably have all this figured out, I am just trying to learn.

~Vintage

[Doom]

Actually the dart does not have to be in straight, you just move it over the head of the dart and then slide it into the holder and it works. The barrel grabs the dart out very well. I experimented and found that a 1/2" piece of schedule 80 will hold the dart in well but also allow it to be pulled out. I also tried a 1" piece which didn't let the dart be pulled from it.

[SnIpErX125]

I like your burbery carpet.


Nice gun too.

[Doom]

Who doesn't like my carpet?

I've bought the last remaining parts to make this gun a little more comfortable. The total of my new parts at Lowes came to 88 cents but and I overestimated a lot and paid $2 (everything must have been on sale or something). The poor retarded register operator gave me 22 cents change instead of the $1.22 I should have had. My parents dragged me out before I realized that he messed up my change.

It's also nice to see someone make a new topic with the exact some title as this very recent one. That doesn't happen too often, in fact it's the first time I've seen it happen.

Bleh, I'm going off-topic, I'll be finishing the gun today and take ranges tommorow. Thanks for all your help. I hope my ROF idea works good, I think it would work best if I replaced everything below the hose handle with the attachments for some air backpack with a regulator.

[Doom]

Sorry for the double post, but the gun is complete. I took a semi-accurate range test, a level shot was 93 feet with a bit of wind. I didn't get angled range because it was a little windy when I decided to test it. In reality the level range probably is more like 85 feet.

http://www.sscentral...es/DSCN0185.JPG

There's the completed gun. In my next one I'm going to use a real pump, this balloon one is pretty shitty.