105 replies to this topic

[boltsniper]

Some of the XP springs have slightly steeper coils meaning less overall coils and a shorter fully compressed length. If it is about 13" uncompressed than you have a rifle length spring.

[Greek Assassin]

Is it just me, or should a 13" spring get a lot more than 80ft flat. My crossbow only uses a 7 inch spring and it gets similar ranges to that. Do your really need a spring that is twice as long just to make up for the imperfect airseal?

[NJNerfer]

This is a little off topic:

For all of you making this gun and trying not to buy so much. I have found a material that can be used in place of the music wire. It is the wire from a coat hangar. Just as strong (stronger maybe?) and easily bent with pliers.

I have also come up with a detachable bipod that can be used with this gun. Since the bipod would be to bulky with the mag on, I have also come up with a mag well cap. Sketches will be up as soon as i make them and scan them onto my computer.

For the mag well cap there is really nothing to draw. It is litterally a second mag without the spring and very very short. If you dont understand I will try and make sketches.

Edited by NJNerfer, 20 April 2005 - 04:30 PM.

[EleMenT]

could you tell me exactly what size o-rings you used on the plunger? on the diagrams you said 1 and 1/8 by 1/8, however i am confused because they go around 1/2 inch pvc so how would this work if the o-ring is almost twice the diameter of the piece it is going on?

[foamsmith]

could you tell me exactly what size o-rings you used on the plunger?  on the diagrams you said 1 and 1/8 by 1/8, however i am confused because they go around 1/2 inch pvc so how would this work if the o-ring is almost twice the diameter of the piece it is going on?

1/2" pvc is actually about 5/8" ID, and 7/8" OD.

[boltsniper]

could you tell me exactly what size o-rings you used on the plunger? on the diagrams you said 1 and 1/8 by 1/8, however i am confused because they go around 1/2 inch pvc so how would this work if the o-ring is almost twice the diameter of the piece it is going on?

Keep in mind the O-rings don`t need to be tight around the plunger shaft, but tight against the plunger tube/bolt. Just find some O-rings that fit tightly inside 1" PVC. They will be extremely loose around the 1/2" PVC but the section of 1/2" coupler will keep them in place.

A coat hanger would probably work for most applications in the FAR, although it is a little thick. I would not consider it a direct replacement to music wire though. Music wire is tempered so its very resistent to bending and very strong. Coat hangers will bend quite easily. The thickness of coathanger wire might cause some problems when using it for a pivot shaft in the trigger for instance. i`m sure you could modify the design to utilize it though.

I thought about making a foldup bipod. I even sketched out the design for it. I couldn`t ever imagine a situation where I would be shooting this rifle prone. Still may build it just for the hell of it.

A faux mag isn`t a bad idea. When the mag is empty I simply chuck shells in through the ejection port. The magazine follower acts as a floor plate.

Free length doesn`t have anything to do with the springs performance. The actual compression displacements of the FAR and the Crossbow aren`t all that different. I would image the Crossbow spring has a slightly higher stiffness. Also keep in mind that the mass of the plunger will effect its accelerations. The plunger in the FAR is pretty heavy compared to the plunger in a Nerf gun. I get about 90 feet now with an Extra power spring. Personally , I beleive there is an asymptotic limit for the range of a spring/plunger Nerf gun of around 100 feet. I also think there is an asymptotic limit for Nerf darts in general around 200 feet.

You people are just never satisfied........

[Greek Assassin]

You people are just never satisfied........

If we ever were satisfied, would we modify nerf guns?

Edited by Greek Assassin, 20 April 2005 - 09:57 PM.

[NJNerfer]

Alright, I have been considering making several magazines for this gun but I realized I do not have the type nor the number of springs to do this with the current design. Therefore I decided on a gravity fed clip with a side mounted scope. Making this will be much easier (I hope) than with the spring as i will (hopefully) be able to fit a few more cartridges in there. The only problem I can think of with this design is that with the mag being so long it would be awkward. I might shorten the mag, but this will be fine since I plan to build multiple mags.
Changin the design is not hard at all. I also hope to fit detachable bipod on the barrel, more for looks than purpose. The bipod will most likely have a tightening screw mechanism. I got this idea from my dremel platform. Any questions and I will be happy to answer.

EDIT: Just realized as I was fooling around with pics and drawing the gravity fed that if I am to do this I will need to get rid of the top cover and move the bolt action spring to the bottom. May prove difficult...

Edited by NJNerfer, 21 April 2005 - 07:23 PM.

[jdp204]

Hi, I was thinking of scratching my pump shotgun idea becasue I cannot retain the overall look of a shotgun becasue the barrell has to be so short to be an effective gun. But to save my shotgun I was thinking of sleeving my short pvc barrell with some much longer ( around 3 foot) copper tubing. this copper shouldnt effect the firing in theory, but I wanted everyone elses opinion on this as I am newer to this than most of you.

thanks.

Edited by jdp204, 21 April 2005 - 09:08 PM.

[boltsniper]

To use a graivty feed magazine you will have to reloacte the action spring, but that isn`t that big of a deal. It might make the layout of the gun a little awkward though. I can`t think of anything else that you would have to change though. Just rotate the magwell around so its slightly off vertical.

[NJNerfer]

Yeah action spring moved and then I would move the vertical foregrip closer to wear the mag used to be to ease up on the awkwardness. Still in the designing stages, I am beginning to veer away from it. As soon as I get all the necesary materials I will make my final desicion. I just want to change up the design and put my own personal flair on it instead of becoming a "Bolt clone".
Most likely I will trash the mag altogether and make it a loser type rifle. I have a design for a colapsable stock. I got this idea from a Gi-Joe gun that I found lying around. I would simply take a rod of pvc and stick it out the back of the gun. Over it I would slide the stock. Then I would make a catch mechanism towards the end of the pvc that is covered and wallah. A stock than can be lengthened for losing and shortened for close combat.

Edited by NJNerfer, 22 April 2005 - 06:04 PM.

[Davis]

I'm interested, has anyone finished this yet by following the plans?
I strongly doubt the first, or any for that matter, of the clones will be as good as Bolt's.

[NJNerfer]

From what I have read, not that many people are making "clones". But yes, I am not sure any could outmatch Bolt's.

[whatiam]

I have finally created it. I tweaked the design a little bit to my comfort but I did it. The magazine is on the side, but the range gets 10 ft. shorter. Price to pay for comfortable grip.

[boltsniper]

I have finally created it. I tweaked the design a little bit to my comfort but I did it. The magazine is on the side, but the range gets 10 ft. shorter. Price to pay for comfortable grip.

Great!





So............where are the pictures?

[boltsniper]

What happened to everyone....

The novelty wore off I suppose

Anyway, I recently bought a digital video camera and was thinkinf about making video of the FAR takedown and description. Basically me just playing with the rifle, taking it apart, putting it back together, shooting it, and talking about it while doing so. This would be too big to host, as it would probably be a few hundred MB's, but I would be willing to burn it and mail it to people that were interested.

let me know. If there is any interest I`ll go ahead and do it.

[benjyheins]

The novelty has not died off, but times are getting busy. I have the barrel almost completely done, pretty close on the bolt, and planning to start the receivers today. Bolt, if you were able to zip those video files, you might be able to send them via e-mail through MSN. You can have 10MB attachments for free. If the segments were short enough, it would be possible. I know I would be interested. I need to get to work now, if I intend on getting anything done today.

[grunty]

how much did it cost to make?

[kickass jb]

Depending on your bandwith, it'd probably be cheaper to just upload it as a torrent.

[boltsniper]

My bandwidth isn`t an issue. It would be the likely brutal download times for members on dialup or slow DSL/Cable. If it were to be hosted I would reduce the resolution and quality drastically to bring it down to a reasonable size (< 100 MB). Unless CX wanted to host the full size vid thehn I don`t have the webspace to host it anyway. A VCD of the full video in conjunction with a smaller downloadable version seems to make the most sense.

Have`nt gotten much feedback on this idea anyway, so I don`t know if its worth the trouble.

[merlinski]

The stiffness or a standard AR spring is about 13-14 lb/in. The XP srping is probably around 15-16 lb/in. When cocked the spring is fully compressed from a free length of 13" to 4.5". That translates into an intial force on the plunger of around 120 lbs.

I find it hard to believe that cocking the FAR requires 120 lbs of force, judging from the videos it doesn't seem to require that much effort on your part. Are you sure about the stiffness? If that's accurate, I'm guessing that the spring is constructed in such a way that it doesn't follow the formula F=kx.

Could anyone with one of these springs test the force exerted by the spring when compressed to 4.5 inches? All you need to do is compress it against a scale.

[flamebo388]

I went and tried it and after many tries managed to fully compress the spring against the scale but it only said 35 pounds about so I'm just gonna assume they measure the strength differently.

[MysticNinja]

8.5*13=110.5

13 inches (minus 4.5) of spring at 13 to 14 lb per inch.

[merlinski]

Thanks flamebo, that's really helpful.

Mystic, while that would follow the equation, I'm guessing that because that is such a large compression distance, and because compressing a spring changes the stiffness, especially if it has relatively steep coils, the actual force is significantly less. Also, I doubt that many of the people on this board could apply 110-120 pounds of force with their right bicep.

[MysticNinja]

I think that’s how it would be expressed. Not to say that every inch is actually 13lbs of pressure but that the first may be half a pound the second one and a half on ward it’s average is 13lb. Obviously 120lbs of dead force is needed to compress it; though saying the total amount of force exerted over the range of motion of the spring is the equivalency of 120lbs may not be so far off.

Keep in mind math is not my strong suit.

Edited by MysticNinja, 30 May 2005 - 02:36 PM.