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Terrible Tornado (photo heavy)

AT2K+Titan+Panther parts smushed together

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#1 Aeromech

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Posted 14 March 2014 - 05:51 PM

A blaster I have always had an admiration for was the Talos blaster created by Forsakenangel24. While I by no means plan to replicate or exceed that great blaster on my first heavy-mod writeup, I feel as though it was the inspiration for the creation described in this document. My goal was to created a blaster with a shotgun blast, as well as a secondary blaster that could fire one or two darts with a higher ROF than a single shot Titan blast, while maintaining ridiculously clean asthetics

The Koosh Tornado was a blaster that I always believed was begging to have a Titan tank inserted into it's sweet insides. The forward grip is completely barren of any working internals, meaning their is ample space to graft some in there. An AT2K fit in there pretty nicely, but looking back, there are certainly other options for this role.

Blaster Sacrifices
Nerf Titan: For the Tank
Nerf AT2K: For the Tank
BuzzBee Air Maxx 6: For the Pump
Koosh Tornado: For the Housing

EDIT: I thought I was using a Panther Pump originally, it is actually from a Buzzbee Air Maxx 6. If I reference a Panther pump, I am actually referring to this pump.

For this build, descriptions will be going underneath the photos they are referring to unless otherwise specified. Start by gutting your Tornado.


The Pump

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Gut the pump from the Panther andcut out a slot in the "I-beam" of the pump rod, as shown above.

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Place the Tornado "priming handle" into the slot you created until the bottom of the handle is flush with the pump beam. Drill two holes through both parts and screw together to unite the two components. Use the epoxy putty or hot glue to fill in the gaps.

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Cut down your pump plunger tube down to be about the size shown above. The idea here is to achieve maximum draw in the limited space available

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Sand down the top part of the Panther plunger to allow for an easier fit inside the shell.

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It's a bit blurry but the inside of the shell must be hollowed out in order for the pump to fit properly. A screwport must be sacrificed here. Not that the horizontal supporting rib was cut to allow a perfect fit for the pump, and the top of the rearmost portion of the stock was also sanded down to allow for the back of the pump, with a slightly larger outer diamter, to fit properly.

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Perfect fit. Note that the Tornado handle has been cut down, it can and should be cut down more to avoid interference later on with the Titan tank controls. Only about 3/4" of guide rail remains in the final iteration, so you can chop it down more at this point.

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Test fit.


The Shotugn

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Go to town on the inside of your Tornado. You need to fit something larger than a soda can in there.

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This is a short 1 1/4" PVC coupler I picked up at Ace hardware. It's about half the length of a typical coupler, so it helps in the small space we're working in. Cut off half the coupler leaving central rim. Sand it flush.

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Use plumber's goop to secure the coupler onto your Titan Tank. Mine already had the threaded portion removed, so if you haven't done so, take care of that.

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Test fit your Titan tank. A good way to find out where your parts are rubbing is to coat the suspected shell areas in white-out correction fluid, and observe where it rubbed off. Cut away those areas.

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To get the clear cover of the Tornado to fit over the coupler, file away at the rear corners until it can easily slide over the coupler, which should be poking out a little less than an inch. This step can be omitted if you don't care for the cover or the asthetics of the blaster.

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Lookin' good. When everything fits in place, take an exorbitant amount of epoxy putty an slap it in the shell to secure the Titan Tank to it. Ensure proper alignment. Not here that I plugged the pressure gage on the Titan, and bent the actuation rod on the tank as well, I will explain in a moment.

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Here is your "shotgun shell" consisting of five 6" segments of 17/32" brass barrels enclosed by a 1 1/4" PVC pipe length about 7" in length. It's incredibly simple in design. I used hot glue to glue together five brass rod segments. Using strips of foam cut from old darts, I created shims in the empty space between the brass and the PVC to hold the barrels straight. I then hot-glued together. Back to the tank...

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This is the trigger system, upside down at the moment. The red strip of material on top is a 6" ruler, cut down slightly and with a corner taken out in order to clear the plugged tube, shown in the next photo. The white semi-translucent chunk screwed onto the ruler in a piece of cutting board shaped to precision with a knife. A hole was drilled into this material to allow the bent actuation rod to fit right in.

The idea here is that the forward pump in the tornado, when pushed all the way back, will push against the ruler, which in turn will pull out the actuation rod in the Titan tank, and fire some darts. This naturally creates a moment about the point right where the actuation rod meets the face of the tank. We really don' want that. The next photo shows how I managed to combat the phenomenon.

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That white nub on top of the black Titan rod rests on the orange collet, and is attached to on of the support structures on the Tornado shell. This prevents excessive moments on the Tank, and takes the lateral force instead of the rod. This is also made from a piece of cutting board.


The Rotary

I followed Ryan McNumber's guide for this one, so I won't go into too much detail here. After the turret modifications are complete, the only real difference is the mounting of this hardware.

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The only difference here is the reloading hole, put it on the bottom to allow for rear loading in the empty space already in the Tornado shell.

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Cut off a tiny bit of the AT2K tank output protrusion, maybe 1/8".

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Cut out the shell as shown. Again, the best way to do this is to slowly test fit the parts into the shell.

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Here is what it should look like. On the output of the AT2K Tank, it is more apparent now how it was secured to the turret. Wrap the output tube in a few wraps of electrical tape, then use goop or hot glue to ensure an airtight seal. To the rear of the tank is the air input, created by drilling through the old input hole in the tank, and inserting about 1 1/2" of a section of a plastic "crazy straw." The fit was good and it was what I had on hand. Goop it in place to ensure a good seal.

Now it's time to create the trigger for this guy.

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Cut off the nub on the bottom of the Tornado trigger, as shown.

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This photo illustrates the versatility of cutting board. The white part has a small notch on the front bottom portion that hugs the actuation rod of the AT2K tank. The top face mates with the bottom of the Tornado trigger.

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Screw together the rear of the linking bar and the Tornado trigger.

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Drill two more holes near the front of the linking bar, and use two zip ties to hold the actuation rod to the linking bar. The AT2K should now be actuated when the tornado trigger is pulled.


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Connect together the pump and the two blasters together with adequate tubing. I was using 5/16" OD vinyl tubing I found at Home depot. A T-connector fits atop the tank in the bit of empty space in the top of the shell. The black, red, and green cylindrical device in the bottom arm of the stock is a check valve from McMaster-Carr.

We are almost done, but there are a few more steps needed to guarantee the function of this blaster. To avoid hitting the image limit, I will start a new section.

Edited by Aeromech, 16 March 2014 - 09:10 PM.

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#2 Aeromech

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Posted 14 March 2014 - 05:53 PM

This next section is the summary of about five or six hours of troubleshooting. These small changes are what makes the blaster go "pop" every time. Learn from my mistakes.

But First, this is what you should have so far if you followed my directions, which by no means are necessarily the best.

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The Finishing Touches

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The tubing protruding from the 2K Tank needs to go somewhere. Cut through the structures to form a tight channel for the tubing to ride through. The knife is pointing to a screwport that I needed to sacrifice in order for the tank to properly actuate.

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Throw in a return spring behind the Tornado Trigger to prevent the trigger from getting caught in the rearward position. The spring inside the 2K tank is kind of wimpy.

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This is how I set up the Titan return spring. This is primarily to prevent leaks in the tank, pulling the actuation bar forward and forcing the tank closed.

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The area behind the tank, as well as the space around the tank, are very tight. Hollow out as per the photo.

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The knife is pointing to the bevel on the top of the trigger. This helps guide the Top Tornado Pump to the ruler/actuation bar. The photo also alludes to the two fingers protruding from the bottom of the Tornado Pump. Bend one of the fingers up slightly to allow connection to the actuation bar every time; it accounts for some variances in the entry angle.

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The item of interest is the small nub on the front of the tank. This keeps the actuation bar on its' rail. previously, it would swing out of place after two or three shots with the blaster. This holds it in place. Now use your superpowers to close the thing.

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2 3/4 pounds

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Final Product

Results

-AT2K Range: 35-50 ft
-Shotgun Range: 50-60 ft

I am really bad at modding AT2Ks. I think the ranges speak to that. This was my first AT2K mod, next time I will take a little more care and test it before I insert the guts into whatever shell I'm putting it into. Still, I like the compact nature the system offers. The Titan is great fun. The OPRV is still active on the Panther Pump, leaving this blaster war-legal. With such a small pump it takes somewhere on the order of 35-40 pumps to fill from a fully empty tank. When the Titan is full, (you let off a shot with the 2K but not the Titan,) the fill time is only about 10-11 pumps before the OPRV kicks in. The Center of Gravity is about 2 inches ahead of the trigger. It seems heavier than it actually is because of this.

The primary use of this blaster is obviously for indoor wars, and I think I achieved something at at least stands a chance in shorter ranged situations. In any event, I learned a great deal from this build. Most notably that a homemade may have been easier than building this.

EDIT: I believe the 2K problem is deeper than just a poor barrel fit. There is no check valve between the 2K and Titan tanks. The Titan has a built in check valve, whereas the 2K does not. I believe some of the air pressure in the 2K may be bleeding into the Titan in a backflow. Future iterations will have this corrected.

Obligatory overly badass video here

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Here's your porn.

Thanks for reading. If I missed anything, please let me know and I'll do my best to add it in. Questions? Comments? Flames? Bring it on.

Edited by Aeromech, 25 March 2014 - 10:44 PM.

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#3 He Who Mods

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Posted 15 March 2014 - 01:57 PM

Great mod man, I love the look of the whole thing. Just to make it more practical, I would maybe try adding a new pump other that the at2k one to the blaster, it would greatly increase ROF and would take less effort. Also, I would maybe use PETG instead of brass because it is lighter, WAY cheaper, and easier to work with. All in all though, awesome blaster and I really want a tornado shell now.
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#4 Daniel Beaver

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Posted 15 March 2014 - 11:01 PM

Huh, that tank fits in there.

On an unrelated note: your pictures are well lit, I like them.
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#5 Boris99

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Posted 16 March 2014 - 10:38 AM

This is the most amazing nerf modification I have ever seen. However, if you did this again in the future, I'd suggest that you try to make the Titan and the AT2K fire seperately, otherwise it will go through ammunition like it's nothing. Either way,I want one.
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#6 Just582

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Posted 16 March 2014 - 12:12 PM

Nice job, very well done! One thing I noticed is that the pump is from an air max 6 not a panther. Don't try and use a panther pump, you will have to glue in tubing rather than use the little nuts on the air max 6 pump.

Also, you might want to remove that pink vinyl tubing on the pump, buzzbee tubing is very low quality and will give you problems

As for the 2k range problems, use a looser barrel fit! The air max 6 pump is not very ideal, and will give you low pressure. It is not a problem with the Titan coz there is so much air, but the low volume of the 2k you need a looser barrel.

Also, one other thing that really helps range 2ks is to expand the valve and turret opening. Cut off the thinner part of the stem and drill a 3/8 hole into the front of the tank while pulling back the firing pin. Drill a 3/8 hole into the back of the turret where the thin stem used to be. Put 17/32 brass over the nub on the turret, then put petg over the brass and remaining wide part of the stem to connect the tank to the turret. Hope that made sense...
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#7 Aeromech

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 12:06 PM

Thanks for the feedback! To answer some questions:

Just, The 2K advice has been taken, and will be implemented the next time I use one in a mod/integration, as I have an extra 2K laying around.

Boris, The 2K and the Titan fire separately. The Titan fires when the purple pump on top is pulled back, and the 2K is fired from the standard triggeBorisr.

Beaver, Many of these photos were taken at my workbench, which is well lit by necessity. Thanks again.
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#8 archangel24

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 11:27 PM

Get one of roboman's 3D printed 2K turrets, they work amazingly, and you don't have to do much to get them to work, unlike stock turrets which can be hard to persuade.
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#9 ejrasmussen

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Posted 21 March 2014 - 10:02 PM

Get one of roboman's 3D printed 2K turrets, they work amazingly, and you don't have to do much to get them to work, unlike stock turrets which can be hard to persuade.

An entire 3D printed turret? How much do they go for, cheaper than regular 2K turrets?

Edited by ejrasmussen, 21 March 2014 - 10:03 PM.

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#10 He Who Mods

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Posted 22 March 2014 - 10:36 AM

An entire 3D printed turret? How much do they go for, cheaper than regular 2K turrets?


A month or so ago, he was selling them for about $10+ shipping apiece, shipping is really cheap too, only around $3.
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#11 Thailyer14

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Posted 01 April 2014 - 10:36 PM

This is an amazing blaster fantastic job
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#12 nine

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Posted 01 April 2014 - 11:31 PM

Wow, nice work with this blaster. I especially like how you just crammed every last cubic inch of that blaster with tanks and tubing, but maintained a very good looking exterior.
If I had the money to buy a bunch of vintage blasters, I would definitely make this thing.
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