1306 replies to this topic

[flash gordon]

My snaps:



The yellow/black dates from sometime last October. It's basically a Snap Mk. 5, though I wasn't paying attention and picked up thinwall pvc for the plunger tube instead of regular, thick wall. It still has a perfect seal, which I attribute to the fact that the washer that makes the seal is slightly swollen. Hits ~100. This was my first snap, and the pump action grip obviously needed a bit of work, as it isn't the most ergonomic. Still a great blaster though, and it's super lightweight cause of the thinwall pvc.

The blue/white snap has some new stuff in addition to all the basics. Basically an updated Mk. 5, except with a modified superlative head that uses a U-cup seal -- very low friction, 100% seal. It's awesome, hits around 110 with slugs. This blaster is rock solid. The pump action follows Rork's design, using a tee as the grip, which I find significantly better.

Where I deviate from normal design, however, is the 1&1/4 piping the grip rides on. Inside is a homemade air tank filled from the brass nipple you can see there. I don't have internal pictures, but it borrows heavily from Lt. Stefan PVAT, with the crucial difference that: 1) The air flow is better, and 2) It has a constant OD and as such can be combined with pump action for a kick-ass blaster. It's permamently shotgunned to three barrels, which I usually load with a total of 9 darts -- it hits around 90ft. The best of both worlds: pump action and an under-slung shotgun.





PM me with any questions.

[Wes7143]

Here's another WIP photo of the bolt action. The blockyness still seen on a lot of the stock will go away as I slowly use primitive tools to grind it down.



A blaster is never really yours until you bleed on it.

[landstricker]

My latest SNAP:



It has a 17/32 BritHopp, and a lot of black hot glue to seal up some gaps.

[blitz]

[lionhawk]

My snap, pretty ugly, I know.

[venom213]

Homemade Rapid Fire 20 Trigger: This was a long time coming. I have two RF20s that have been out of commission for a very long time, simply because the triggers broke and were lost or destroyed when I attempted to repair them. This homemade one is made out of 1/4" Polycarbonate. The hole drilled in it is 15/64". I hope to make some templates for future versions. This particular one was made by tracing what was left of the stock trigger as well as doing some sketchy measurements to reproduce the broken off part. It turned out acceptable.

[ricochet]

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a video must be even better. Here is a two part video of how to make a trigger valve for a magstrike or anything like it. Enjoy.

Part 1

Part 2

[Darth Freyr]

Some words first, then pictures. I've been working on a blaster design for a while now. My goals were to have it be comfortable, simple, fairly cheap, and pump action. My first attempt looked like this (1). After quite a bit of thinking, I was able to simplify a lot of the pieces. As it is now, no internal cuts are necessary. The plunger rod is constructed around 10-32 steel threaded rod, with locknuts at both ends and aluminium spacers acting as the catch, similar to that in a 2-11. The catch plate has no slots, and just slides between 4 screws (2). I also got rid of the extra support inside the plunger tube. Adding pump action was just a matter of a 2" PVC grip, a few minor changes, and a sliding plate (3), which I've widened since that one. From there, I went crazy.
*1 *2 *3



The last one is two plungers connected on the same handle. The top plunger has a 20-tube turreted chopper. The bottom plunger is pump action. The front plate has holes to put darts into.

I'm planning on shotgunning the bottom plunger.
I hope to have a write-up for the basic version in the near future. There are a lot more pictures here, though some are still pretty big. If you have questions, find me on the IRC.

Also, I've heard that some people think Zero valves wouldn't work.

Edited by Darth Freyr, 20 March 2011 - 11:27 PM.

[diamondbacknf1626]

EDIT: Thanks to taerKitty, I'ma go ahead and call this the minusBow.

So, my newest toy is sort of a mod to a homemade...I received a PACbow from Ryan McNumbers awhile back, and as expected, it was super awesome. However, recently I decided that the bow arms were annoying, even though I've never, yet, warred with the bow arms equipped. Maybe I just got stuck in too many doorways for my liking...Regardless, a solution was in order. Thus, I present to you my PACbow minus the bow:


Sweet, huh? Here's a little before pic from Ryan's sales thread:


Fun stuff. Basically, where the string used to go through the plunger rod, I added a machine screw, coupled with a nut on either side of the plunger rod, and some vinyl tubing over the screw to keep it nice and smooth-like:

^What you're seeing there is a bit of 1/2" PVC superglued to a flat-washer, with the PVC secured into the end of the [k25] spring. This is meant to keep the [k25] centered properly, and keep it from threading around the machine screw and creating lots of headaches.

[k25], you ask? Yes, [k25]. It allowed me to use a longer spring, keeping some precompression on that spring, makes it mad easy to prime, and it still gets plenty of power, but we'll talk about that later...

Instead of that big ol' dead-space-machine 'T' on the front, a simple, airtight bushing took its place:


Also added a string stop to the back of the plunger rod to dampen the blow a bit. Although not necessary, this keeps the noise down to a minimum, because rather than striking the front of the plunger, the plunger rod is stopped by the string:


I was looking through some threads earlier today, and the above blaster looks eerily similar to Beaver's proposed pump action rainbow variant...with a +bow catch of course as opposed to a rainbow catch.


Ranges:
With a 10 dart hopper (not-pictured), in less than ideal weather conditions, this thing shoots around 130-140'. How cool is that?

Another Edit: Cuz people are cryin...I'd just like to clarify that this can be undone at any point and can be returned to its former bow arm functionality. Easy as pie.

Edited by diamondbacknf1626, 20 March 2011 - 09:18 PM.

[Darth Freyr]

Well, I also finished up another blaster recently. It was designed before that other monster, but completed after. It originally had a pinky/ring finger trigger.

I updated it for the middle finger trigger, and finished up the plungers.

[KaneTheMediocre]

This is the apparatus I use to stretch the foam to a more conventional fit. Unstretched, the foam comes fairly tight, comparable to the thick beige foam. It's useable in powerful skirted blasters, or blasters with loose barrels, but we don't want it to jam up anyone's CPVC'd blasters with meh seals, so we stretch it. The resulting foam is a hair tighter than ace foam, but not as tight as the white loghouse foam that I've encountered via Demonlord.



Still working on the whole "lets revolutionize homemade darts to make them safer" business. We've come up with lots of significantly safer designs that fly poorly or don't feed through hoppers. As far as I'm concerned, there is only one good reason not to use stock ammo, and that's hoppers.

[pjotrkuh]

Made myself a test FPPVAT (Fixed Pump Pull Valve Air Tank):



(So if you can't buy a mega missile, build one!)

[Y-Brik]

Made one of these things. I like Hippo's name of RingCatch Pump (RCP)

Uses [k26] over a nylon plunger rod, a skirt seal, Sch80 for the catch ring, and Ace#2 for the primary catch spring. It's held together with #6 wood screws, countersunk of course.

(Holes are drilled for a string stop; I have to get around to installing it)
I got my magic thinwall PVC at Do It Best- 10' for $4, you can order online and have it shipped to your local store free!

Edited by Y-Brik, 27 March 2011 - 09:26 PM.

[Eik]

Did a bit more work on my VSS-SNAP
Stained the stock
Ghetto'd up a hopper clip– 10 dart capacity



Toooo dark

Edited by Eik, 19 October 2011 - 05:28 AM.

[Merzlin]

Finished up the pump-action plusbow this morning. McMaster-Carr was packed today
[sorry about the mediocre photos, HTC Incredible's lens does not capture good photos indoors]










And a matching pair:

Edited by Merzlin, 28 March 2011 - 07:00 PM.

[Ryan201821]

RainbowPACs









Available for sale here.

[Ozymandias]

Works similar to my first breech, just with clips.

That is acryllic with an ID of CPVC's OD (5/8),

The epoxy putty is so the 'bridge' doesn't crack.

[Lucian]

Woot.

[diamondbacknf1626]

For you, Mr. McNumbers...I hope you're happy

Yayayayay cell-phone camera quality!

[GeshmanWG]

QuadCB

Write-up here

Apperently there is no limit to how big of a hopper you use on a cobra. (I wouldn't suggest actually shooting people with a singled cobra) Also for those of you who think streamlines don't work in hoppers,
my cobra begs to differ.

[Lucian]

Doesn't look very homemade ^

[Eik]

New aesthetics



Accessory rail w/ trigger guard
Iron sights
Slick new paint w/ logos
Got some laquer on the stock, with "E" burnt in

I promise this is the last time I'll bring this SNAP up for a while...

[venom213]

Plusbow: This blaster has been through a lot. It was originally made my Hereticorp (aka herpescorp) over two years ago. Koree purchased it from him and used it for several months. Beaver was then given hold of the +bow with an objective to sell it. I bought it in an extremely degraded state. I tried fixing up what I could, but it was still nothing spectacular. Here's some random picture I have of it with a SGSL attached.



When I stayed at louiec3's house for ILFF 3 in July, I brought along my +bow for him to repair. He did a marvelous job; stabilized everything, new side plate, new plunger rod, etc. Since then, I replaced the plunger tube with a 1.5" Stainless Steel Sink Extension. It has more volume than the original, looks awesome, and is easier to clean. The seal for the stainless steel tube is two 1.5" OD Rubber Washers. Here's Louie marveling about it the night before:








With my usual massive hopper clip.

Edited by venom213, 20 April 2011 - 03:55 PM.

[diamondbacknf1626]

So, a little bit of gun porn...this is the entirety of my collection...the homemade branch, anyway.  Starting to build it up again.  I know I've probably posted about a couple of these blasters already, but in case you happened to miss them:

^My PAC, which I had at one point converted to spring power, and it was awesome, but then, after getting the blaster pictured below, I decided to convert it back.  It's super cool, and I think I'm going to paint the bow arms entirely red...cuz the red just looks super cool.


My RBP along with it's little bro, an LpL-sized pistol but with a Rainbow catch, which, IMO, is much sleeker and super cool in comparison.


And in the realm of opaque PVC...my fav SNAPbow, which rapes unbelievable amounts of face, as well as it's little bro, which I made today.  This little one shoots about as far as its polycarb cousin above it.

A better pic of the little guy, seeing as I haven't posted a pic of it yet:



One big happy family

My two other SNAPbows, that are equally as awesome as the first:

The top one I made at the house I was renting while my house was being rebuilt with like, zero modding supplies.  The bottom one, I actually prefer w/o a stock...I just run a hopper on it and shoot from the hip.

Also, I guess this is a homemade...

Louiec3 made it...it shoots really far.

[KaneTheMediocre]

I finished a bullpup, rodless pump action blaster yesterday. Has numerous flaws which necessitate a rebuild, but it's a working blaster, and it's about as compact as pump-action blasters get. Has 5.25" of draw, and shoots about 90-100'. Not quite +bow powerful, but closer than I expected to get.




Here's a size comparison with a rainbowpump: