41 replies to this topic

[six-five-two]

What are ways to shoot a dart out of a barrel? I want to make a homemade gun but I can't think of much ways.

So far:

CO2 Powered
Blowing
Air Compression (Plunger)
Air Pump
Spring Powered (Direct)

Edit:

Gas Combustion


Any other ideas?

Edited by six-five-two, 17 February 2006 - 01:30 AM.

[davidbowie]

(1) Combustion.

Let's say propane.

Actually you can use propane for pneumatics too, but I'm not too comfy spewing flammable gas out of my gun.

(2) Spinning Wheels

You know, like a pitching machine

(3) Manual, like those el-cheapo foam missile launchers where you pump to fire.

(4) There's two kinds of spring powered: direct spring powered and plunger powered, so number 4 is whatever you didn't mean.

[GeneralPrimevil]

Combustion, or chemical reaction? What kind of chemical reaction, then? Gas to a more expanded gas, or solid to gas, perhaps liquid to gas? Does it involve heat like combustion? Is it a cold reaction instead, where heat is take in? I think I made a point. I did not mean anything offensive though, so no one take this the wrong way.

[malekith]

what about like dry ice and hot air or alka seltzer and water maybe even baking soda and vinegar

all of these incredibly diffucult but still possible

[nerfer34]

I would try to build a homeade by taking the "airzooka" idea. By making a huge bag like thing and have it pulled back to capture all of the air and to launch the dart.

[davidbowie]

Nerfer34, you completely lost me on that one. A vortex cannon such as an airzooka shoots a ring of air. How would that propel a dart? Do you mean to basically make a plunger gun except with a bag instead of a plunger?

I guess it would work, but...why?

[nerfer34]

Vortex makes a gun called an airzooka? O well I never knew that and I am not talking about vortex. Sorry if I confused you. Well anyways it is a pretty popular thing and basically like a canon with no spring or anything. you just pull back the little knob and then th air capturing device(almost like a strong bag) is pulled back and when it is released a lot of air come out and it could blow your hair from about 15 feet away.

[davidbowie]

No... A vortex gun is a gun that shoots a vortex of air, such as an airzooka.

So, the question still stands: how would a vortex gun shoot a dart?

Airzookas are powered by some elastic behind the bag.

I suppose there might be some way to hook one up to shoot darts, but again... why?

It's big and bulky, and it wouldn't really have any advantages over a big spring plunger gun.

[VeggieBoy 3000]

Obviously the most effective method would be a nuclear explosion propelling the dart. The trick here is to find PVC with a high enough rating. I'd check your local Home Depot for that. After that all you need is some uranium or plutonium, which is easily accessible.

I gotta warn you first though, that your gun may explode, killing you and your whole town, and most importantly melting your stefan, but if the dart survives, just think of the RANGE that baby can get!

[The Infinite Shindig]

what about like dry ice and hot air or alka seltzer and water maybe even baking soda and vinegar

all of these incredibly diffucult but still possible

Twenty posts and you still can't use proper capitalization or grammar? I would cut back on the mistakes very shortly, otherwise you will get hit by the suspension train.

[Spider-Waffle]

Looks like you forgot elastic band powered.

I'm sure there's many other unsual/unpractical ways such as compressed liquid, electric/magnetic/nuclear forces.

[PissBacon]

electric/magnetic

I'm willing to bet at least one person here has heard of a gauss gun, where there is an inductor fed a high voltage pulse of electricity, causing a projectile to rapidly accelerate. With the right sort of (iron, cobalt, nickel) weight in the stefan, it could be projected at high speeds. It would require much more energy to fire a foam covered piece with high wind resistance than a dense solid slug, so making one you can easily move from place to place might not be realistic.

I've seen a lot of people posting ideas like alka-seltzer, but this and many others are just different ways of producing air pressure; there really aren't that many ways to propel a chunk of foam when all of the available methods are considered.

[Spider-Waffle]

I guess you could generalize it down to: elastic, mechanical, pressure, electrical, magnetic, nuclear I don't think that's the most helpful answer though.

Edited by Spider-Waffle, 16 February 2006 - 02:28 AM.

[DTReaper]

electric/magnetic

I'm willing to bet at least one person here has heard of a gauss gun, where there is an inductor fed a high voltage pulse of electricity, causing a projectile to rapidly accelerate. With the right sort of (iron, cobalt, nickel) weight in the stefan, it could be projected at high speeds. It would require much more energy to fire a foam covered piece with high wind resistance than a dense solid slug, so making one you can easily move from place to place might not be realistic.

I've seen a lot of people posting ideas like alka-seltzer, but this and many others are just different ways of producing air pressure; there really aren't that many ways to propel a chunk of foam when all of the available methods are considered.

Isn't that also known as a rail gun?

-DTR

[Death]

Isn't that also known as a rail gun?

A rail gun is a specific application of the Gauss Gun principles.

That said, I once began concept work on a Gauss Gun for Nerf application, back in my I-have-free-reign-of-the-Physics-lab days. I quickly realized how impractical it was, however, and gave up on it.

[Denaeron 12]

Gauss guns themselves are impractical... even firing a 4.5mm BB, they would require an insane amount of energy. Probably enough to power my computer for a good while, in fact.

Anyone who knows about gauss guns... could you give an estimate of the power required to fire a stock nerf dart with a metal slug in the tip? aluminum, if that would work in a gauss gun...

Edited by Denaeron_12, 16 February 2006 - 05:23 PM.

[Nerforbust]

Why not black magic powered? That would be more practical then nuclear..

[FromAbove]

I thought this thread wasn't going to get retarded but of course give it a day or two and an influx of crap come out of the woodwork. Why the fuck would someone even suggest a nuclear powered, but a black magic gun? That gave me a seizure. This thread is to propose ideas that would work, not some shit ass theories that Talio already said he doesn't want to hear about. Viking law mean anything?

Gauss guns and Rail guns are I'm mistaken aren’t even the same. Go to google and look up some information on it, you'll realise quite quickly that to achieve the same velocities out of your foam you'll need about 500+ volts going through capacitors and needing a knowledge in circuitry far beyond my own.

I have yet to see the regular community make homemades that impress, other than a few special members who are recognised over and over (FAR, GNS, BAMF, SNAP, etc)
I bet people reading this are going to think “hey they’re all acronyms, that means if I make a cool homemade it needs a name in acronyms so people think I’m cool.”

But seriously people, the ideas of how to throw a dart have all been spoken for earlier in this thread, so unless someone has a GOOD idea why not just sit back and read up on some old posts, and stop wasting the admins time and patience.

[VeggieBoy 3000]

You know what's worse than a nuclear powered nerf gun?

People who take themselves way too seriously.

Just my opinion, though.

[six-five-two]

all suicidal ideas... any ideas that are possible?

how does a rubber band plunger work? does the rubber band act as the spring or the o-rings?

Edited by six-five-two, 17 February 2006 - 01:34 AM.

[Spider-Waffle]

the spring, it's another way to store and release elastic energy.

[six-five-two]

does anyone have a drawing?

[davidbowie]

...you're kidding, right?

Think of all the millions of banded spring guns out there. That's what he means, just without the spring.

[z80]

A small railgun using some compasitors and a charging unit, like a cluster of camera flashes could work.

[Carbon]

A small railgun using some compasitors and a charging unit, like a cluster of camera flashes could work.

Unlikely. Check http://www.railgun.org to read about some guy's attempts at a homebrew railgun. Chief limitations are that it is not portable, sucks juice like a crazed wino, and would still only get 200 m/s. Based on how long it has been since the page was updated, it seems unlikely they were successful, anyway.

Even if such a scenario was possible, the recharge time for the flash capacitors would get you owned four times by a guy with a modded AT2k.

Edited by Carbon, 18 February 2006 - 11:14 AM.