17 replies to this topic

[bex]

I noticed a huge problem with nerf flywheels. The plastic is super soft and they are not balanced. Mine wobbled when they spun. I am having some produced at a machine shop out of aluminum. It will be interesting to see how they perform.

Edited by Snoop Doggy doge, 17 April 2016 - 07:57 PM.
Modified so it wouldn't cut out part of the sentence

[DLO01]

Wow, that is pretty impressive! Well done!

Are they the same dimensions I guess? How do they fit on, are they are press fit on to the shaft? Have you considered to do a concave design on the dart face?

Keep us updated. Looking great!

Edited by DLO01, 28 May 2015 - 04:01 AM.

[bex]

They will have a 2mm grub screw to lock them on the motor shaft. They are the same dimensions, but the tip is slightly thicker to accept the grub screw. Concave would be much harder to machine. I will stick with flat for now.

[Birch]

Those look great!

Here are a few things I would do to the flywheels to make them even better. A) I would look into putting knurling or some type of texture on the flywheels to get better grip on the darts. Knurling may be overkill, so something finer may be a little better. I would take out as much weight as possible. Maybe drilling holes on the top of top of the wheel or thinning them out. Aluminum is light, but it won't compare to plastic, and even the plastic wheels are a little heavy.

[Duke Wintermaul]

I don't understand why people are doing this.

https://blasted.de/t4924/

Report back with chronograph readings, but I have a sinking suspicion you just threw away your money.

[bex]

I told you why I am doing it. The plastic flywheels cause problems. I am adding holes similar to the link. I was planning on using some 400 grit sandpaper to rough up the surface. I know it is going to be heavier, but I think the added power of my motors should overcome the weight problem. This is an experiment. I will see how it turns out. Thanks.

[Lunas]

I don't understand why people are doing this.

https://blasted.de/t4924/

Report back with chronograph readings, but I have a sinking suspicion you just threw away your money.

it is about surface area the higher the surface area the more contact or grip on the dart thus the more kinetic energy can be transferred to the dart.



To the op make a video to capture the sound it makes with those wheels also i would try it without roughing the surface first the smoothness might be a factor in gripping the dart so you may wish to use 1000-2000+ grit to polish the wheels to a mirror like finish for more grip...

[bex]

You are probably right. I will try the 1000 grit first. I might just put some grip tape or plastidip on them. I will experiment and find which works best.

[MAV13]

For the record, you don't want lighter flywheels, they don't spin faster or anything. Heavier flywheels retain more rotational inertia and are better for repeated firing than a lighter wheel. A light wheel will spool up to full speed more quickly (possibly an unnoticeably small amount, assuming you've spent as much on a motor system as you have on these flywheels), but will lose more energy with each shot.

That said, it's possible that with aluminum wheels conventional wisdom for plastic wheels may not apply. It's likely that these are already more than heavy enough to not be affected by a stream of darts flying through. Either way, I wouldn't drill holes in your nice, new, one-of-a-kind flywheels unless your motors aren't up to snuff, even then I'd suggest upgrading the motors instead.

[Lunas]

For the record, you don't want lighter flywheels, they don't spin faster or anything. Heavier flywheels retain more rotational inertia and are better for repeated firing than a lighter wheel. A light wheel will spool up to full speed more quickly (possibly an unnoticeably small amount, assuming you've spent as much on a motor system as you have on these flywheels), but will lose more energy with each shot.

That said, it's possible that with aluminum wheels conventional wisdom for plastic wheels may not apply. It's likely that these are already more than heavy enough to not be affected by a stream of darts flying through. Either way, I wouldn't drill holes in your nice, new, one-of-a-kind flywheels unless your motors aren't up to snuff, even then I'd suggest upgrading the motors instead.

you would want as much weight to the outside ring as you can. With the overall weight being as low as possible. That said if your motors can spin them up fine i would not bother with holes if they have issues with wind up time then lighten them but right now they are probably evenly weighted any holes will change the balance.

[Astech]

I told you why I am doing it. The plastic flywheels cause problems. I am adding holes similar to the link.

Can you keep the flywheels perfectly balanced while drilling holes? If not, the vibration produced might be counter productive to better performance. Besides, metal flywheels will always be heavier than plasic ones. It'll come down to your play style. If you're the kind of person who loves to fire a solid stream of foam downrange, metal is perfect. If the sneak attack fast draw is preferable, lighter flywheels are probably better. Either type can suite both purposes, but you'll have to decide which is best in what scenarios. Of course, if you're making custom flywheels you've probably got the cash to build a second, lighter, flywheel gun.

[bex]

Here is how they sound. They spin up pretty quick. There is certainly vibration, but nothing that I couldn't live with. I will probably put in some different motors. These are a little too hot. I will assemble it with these to get some fps numbers.
Nerf Rapidstrike cs-18 aluminum modification test:

Edited by bex, 26 June 2015 - 01:46 AM.

[bex]

Pictures. These are an early prototype. The machinist has a better machine coming for the holes in the side. I wanted six, but got five on these. The holes will be bigger and more even on the next set.

[bex]

Since they are spinning up fine, I will try them without holes to see if it cuts down on vibrations. I am going to balance them with a rc plane prop balancer. Thanks a lot for the suggestions. The machinist is a friend of mine. He is happy to work on something unique. The cost on these is very low. I would still like to explore a lightweight option to see if a stock rapidstrike with a lipo could handle the extra weight.

Edited by bex, 26 June 2015 - 02:21 AM.

[meishel]

Since they are spinning up fine, I will try them without holes to see if it cuts down on vibrations. I am going to balance them with a rc plane prop balancer. Thanks a lot for the suggestions. The machinist is a friend of mine. He is happy to work on something unique. The cost on these is very low. I would still like to explore a lightweight option to see if a stock rapidstrike with a lipo could handle the extra weight.

You might want to try the ones from taobao (paste the link into the search bar at buychina.com to order them). I got 3 pairs of them, and they are just barely double the weight of the original flywheels, so the spin up time isn't much worse (barely noticable with proper motors/battery). I got about 10-11 more FPS out of them with proper motors. I was averaging 126 FPS with meishel motors. I put them in my afterburnered hailfire (has 180s and falcons), and it spun them up super quick. They do not get foam build up, and they add a little more dart wear, but I get MUCH more consistent FPS numbers. I didn't have a single dart drop below 115. With stock flywheels I always got the random dart in the 90's when doing a chrono of 30+ darts. I can't stress how much you'll need proper motors for those, and likely some sort of ventilation.

[bex]

It has been a long time, but I got my blaster together. Here is the first test. My Lipo is dumping. I will charge it and get another video up.

[CCBall]

It has been a long time, but I got my blaster together. Here is the first test. My Lipo is dumping. I will charge it and get another video up.

I want to see what the old motors on 2s did with that rapidstrike. You could put 180s in the flywheels; they have more torque. Especially compared to mini-z motors.

[nine]

Do you have access to a chronograph? That would pretty much quell any disagreement on how effective these are. Also, I noticed that the new flywheels aren't sitting quite in the centre of their housing. Would adding a spacer to the post they're on further decrease vibration?