265 replies to this topic

[CaptainSlug]

1. I haven't decided on a tank so everyone can stop spazzing over that.
2. The tank pressure will be decided by which tank I end up using, but I will use a high pressure regulator so that the ouput of the tank will be 50PSI.
3. The air tool will be running at 50PSI, it's maximum operating pressure is 90PSI
4. On a secondary line I will be regulating the 50PSI output down to 10 or 15PSI for firing the darts.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 27 September 2006 - 04:56 AM.

[SG Pilot]

From the way I see it, you are making the gun rotate via the power of air pressure? Reminds me of the old Air Hogs planes that you pump up.


Vivez les pneumatics!
I still have yet to understand the mechanics of the CSHG though.

Edited by SG Pilot, 27 September 2006 - 06:56 AM.

[Deja Vu]

Yet another incomplete project by captain slug.....

[elf avec gun]

...and your one to talk!
What, of any significance, have you accomplished?

And the following might help explain the slow going.

CaptainSlug, on Sep 24 2006, 02:07 PM, said:

I have something similar to, but more complicated than rheumatoid arthritis. I get very stiff and painful joints (pretty much all of them), but no swelling/inflammation. I also have ligament and muscle pain.
It's been getting worse since January and it's now to the point that I'm too stiff and uncomfortable to do anything. I had to drop all of my classes this semester, I had to take off from work indefinitely, and all of my time is now occupied with medical appointments, blood work, testing, and being stuck on the couch.
I have had this all my life, but up until this point it was just a mild hinderance that did little more than prevent me from playing sports (or exercising, not that I ever needed to) and made me develop a disdain of barometric pressure changes.

OR he has done stuff and just hasn't posted it.

Unlike some people (most of whom you will find have been suspended), CS doesn't post something everytime he farts.

[Deja Vu]

Even with arthritis I would assume 3 months worth of time would be adequate enough to make even the smallest bit of progress. Captain Slug's track record isn't too high. And for your information I have made several home mades but do not have a camera at my disposal to make an adequate post.

[elf avec gun]

Deja Vu, on Dec 17 2006, 05:10 PM, said:

but do not have a camera at my disposal to make an adequate post.

Oh what an original, ungeneric excuse. [/sarcasm]

[Deja Vu]

elf_avec_gun, on Dec 17 2006, 03:18 PM, said:

Deja Vu, on Dec 17 2006, 05:10 PM, said:

but do not have a camera at my disposal to make an adequate post.

Oh what an original, ungeneric excuse. [/sarcasm]

If you want I will post a thorough description of what I've made. I just said previously that Captain Slug needs to start finishing his projects, if not why bother posting, all of his ideas, has he ever actually finished something? Oh, besides the Longshot cocking arm I think not.

[six-five-two]

Quote

I just said previously that Captain Slug needs to start finishing his projects, if not why bother posting, all of his ideas, has he ever actually finished something? Oh, besides the Longshot cocking arm I think not.

Good point. I hope he finishes his C.S.H.G soon... And his longshot shotgun kits were a success. So he did finish atleast 1 homemade. Oh, and he made those washer darts.

[elf avec gun]

Quote

I just said previously that Captain Slug needs to start finishing his projects, if not why bother posting, all of his ideas, has he ever actually finished something? Oh, besides the Longshot cocking arm I think not.

What about his Magstrike modification.

And there is a huge difference between the amount of precision cutting that is required to make his C.S.H.G. and that of the mass producing of the longshot forgrips. (which I am not saying are easy to make)

six-five-two, on Dec 17 2006, 05:49 PM, said:

And his longshot shotgun kits were a success. So he did finish atleast 1 homemade.

Those fall under the catagory of modification bud.

six-five-two, on Dec 17 2006, 05:49 PM, said:

Oh, and he made those washer darts.

Which he has been doing for quite awhile.

six-five-two, on Dec 17 2006, 05:49 PM, said:

I hope he finishes his C.S.H.G soon...

I think we all want to see this completed, but there is this thing called "Real Life" I don't know if you have heard of it or not, but it tends to take up large amounts of time.

[SHADOW HUNTER ALPHA]

elf_avec_gun, on Dec 17 2006, 08:06 PM, said:

I think we all want to see this completed, but there is this thing called "Real Life" I don't know if you have heard of it or not, but it tends to take up large amounts of time.

I guess the same can be said for my shotty. Piney's been on my ass for taking 3 months to plan it out, but this is different... I hope that CS makes some kind of progress with slowing down that arthritis-like diagnosis soon.

A note to elf_avec_gun in his next post:
No need to be an ass. I was only trying to express sympathy for his position. Nowhere in this post did I ask him to hurry up with this project, nor even try to work on it now.

Edited by SHADOW HUNTER ALPHA, 23 December 2006 - 01:43 PM.

[elf avec gun]

Most forms of arthritus are not something that you "recover from" it doesnt get better over time, it gets worse.
Rheumitoid For instance, is genetic.
If you want to see this thing completed quickly, either come up with some miracle cure or do it yourself.

[Lancaster]

Deja Vu, on Dec 17 2006, 06:38 PM, said:

elf_avec_gun, on Dec 17 2006, 03:18 PM, said:

Deja Vu, on Dec 17 2006, 05:10 PM, said:

but do not have a camera at my disposal to make an adequate post.

Oh what an original, ungeneric excuse. [/sarcasm]

If you want I will post a thorough description of what I've made. I just said previously that Captain Slug needs to start finishing his projects, if not why bother posting, all of his ideas, has he ever actually finished something? Oh, besides the Longshot cocking arm I think not.

What have you done? Once you have actually done something for the community then you can criticize a member who has offered significant contributions to the NIC. CaptainSlug has personally helped me fix my LS, along with may others.

He has no responsibility to you to finish anything, and you have no right to complain. Hopefully once Tailio goes on the warpath he will crush you beneath his mighty size 20 boots.

[CaptainSlug]

Ugh, drama.

Um, technically my other "incomplete" projects never actually got started because either
1) the design goals of the project could be met more easily by simply modifying a stock nerf gun
or
2) I came up with a better idea

CSHG was on hiatus because my health was extremely poor. It declined far enough that I also had to drop all of my classes for the past semester, which is setting me further away from completing my Bachelor's degree. I'm going to have to take summer classes again this year in order to fulfill my Language requirement in a reasonable amount of time.

It is also not the only thing I work on in my spare time. This past month has been the only month during the past year where I actually felt more like a normal human being than an incapable cripple. And seeing as how all of the other projects I'm working on have been in-progress longer than this one those are taking priority.
If you're under the impression I never finish anything then you know nothing about me. Simply poke through
here: http://nerfhaven.com...?showtopic=7250
here: http://nerfhaven.com...?showtopic=7433
or
here: http://www.captainslug.com/mod.html

Currently this project below is taking up most of my free time because I've been working on it for more than a year. It's also hogging most of my work areas that I would otherwise need to work on CSHG.

http://www.ocforums....ad.php?t=394139

I'm hoping to make significant progress on it so that the case itself will be mostly done before the end of January. Until then CSHG will be on the back burner and will stay there until I have significant reason to work on it. I would like to have it finished before the next DCNO, but we'll have to see.

Oh, and I do also work part-time at a machine shop. But thankfully I get to set my own hours.
As for my health right now I'm on antibiotics to see if it curbs my symptoms because there's lingering thoughts that my symptoms could be the result of Lyme disease. But the prognosis is unclear and I went through all possible noninvasive arthritis medications with little or no effect on my well-being. If it ever again gets as bad as it had been between August and November the outlook on the rest of my life would be extremely bleak.

This is my "easy" and relatively stress free hobby...

So there you have it. My general schedule when I was healthy tended to include (in the following order of priority)
1. College part-time (9-12 credits a semester)
2. Working part-time (20 hours a week)
3. Computer Projects
4. Nerf Projects
5. Sick days watching mst3k episodes or playing video games


Now there should be no further need to respond to Deja Vu. Respond to me or the project from now on otherwise this thread will become a burden on the moderators.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 17 December 2006 - 09:23 PM.

[Pineapple]

Captain Slug, don't try to defend yourself, or make excuses.


I'm behind you on this one. At least you MAKE PROGRESS on your projects and you freely share information. I appreciate your contributions to the site and forums.



Deja Vu, I hope your next post will be a build-up, modification, or project of some sort. Digital cameras are so cheap nowadays, and most of those damn gadget-phones have one built-in, I can see no reason why you cannot post pictures of your work. Captain Slug does, I do, c'mon, join the fun!

Generally, if you are going to bring back an old post, it's best to contribute something significant to the thread. An insult about not finishing something isn't considered significant. All of us are aware of Slug's challenges with his health, and the other things that take up his time. We're patient.

If it bothers you that he cannot finish the CSHG on your timeline then maybe it's time to mosey on back to the potato gun forums. Or try Nerf HQ. They have lots of projects there too.


The next post WILL be from Captain Slug when he finishes another step of his daunting project.



-Piney-

[Deja Vu]

Pineapple, on Dec 18 2006, 10:19 AM, said:

Captain Slug, don't try to defend yourself, or make excuses.


I'm behind you on this one. At least you MAKE PROGRESS on your projects and you freely share information. I appreciate your contributions to the site and forums.



Deja Vu, I hope your next post will be a build-up, modification, or project of some sort. Digital cameras are so cheap nowadays, and most of those damn gadget-phones have one built-in, I can see no reason why you cannot post pictures of your work. Captain Slug does, I do, c'mon, join the fun!

Generally, if you are going to bring back an old post, it's best to contribute something significant to the thread. An insult about not finishing something isn't considered significant. All of us are aware of Slug's challenges with his health, and the other things that take up his time. We're patient.

If it bothers you that he cannot finish the CSHG on your timeline then maybe it's time to mosey on back to the potato gun forums. Or try Nerf HQ. They have lots of projects there too.


The next post WILL be from Captain Slug when he finishes another step of his daunting project.



-Piney-

I apologize for my ignorance, I was looking forward to seeing this complete and was rather disapointed at the lack of progress. I didn't mean to be so hostile but I was watching this thread for several months, seeing nothing but the airhogs post I got impatient. I didn't mean to offend everybody so much, my apologies.

Deja Vu
(I actually don't have a camera or a cameraphone)

[CaptainSlug]

I hit a mental brick wall on this project and was largely waiting for an epiphany to hit me on how to revise the design. I decided to start with functional tests with stefans to see how they act in groups by simply rolling them around in different shape canals. I discovered that they don't like to roll and will bunch up easily, so a gravity feed system involving more than 5 darts would be problematic. I wasn't happy with any of the traditional ammo feed systems that wouldn't have worked so well with foam ammunition. I finally came to the realization that I may need to start over completely on the design.
Tonight, thanks to some insomnia, I may have come up with some extremely simple but effective solutions to solve many of the technical problems of the original design, but I will need some time to get them onto paper and then into CAD. I'm hoping to make this gun a little bit smaller (or atleast lighter to carry), have a higher ammunition capacity, and generally be a more mechanically graceful unit.

I have a ton of designing and tinkering to do in the next few months so that I can prove my individual ideas practically enough to integrate them into a single working system.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 29 January 2007 - 06:16 AM.

[CaptainSlug]

Starting from scratch can be kind of freeing. The new design isn't as bulky and will be much easier to put together and service thanks to the exterior panels being 1/16th" styrene sheet rather than heavy 4" PVC pipe. Also, the only cam operated mechanism in this version is a breech ram-rod. The primary building material is 1/4" thickness PVC sheets. The HPA paintball tank can be seen mounted on the gun, and the electric drive motor underneath the gun. The trigger grip will be on the top of the frame.

This I will need to explain in depth more later. This mechanism functions similar to the previous one, but operates much simpler. The dart enters forward through the dark blue tube (how will be explained later) and comes to rest on the shelf of the red parts. It gets picked up by the flat feed teeth (green) and is pushed into position during the rotation by the red parts. At the top of the cycle the breech ramrod rams the dart into the barrel. At the bottom of the cycle the dart fire, and then the breech ram-rod opens by spring action before another dart gets picked up from the shelf.


The battery for the drive motor will be located on the backpack ammo tank.
The backpack ammo tank and ammunition feed system were partly inspired by the pneumatic tube carriage systems at drive-thru banks, and the shotgun thread where end-to-end tube magazines have been discussed quite a bit.
This feed system will be powered by positive pressure, supplied by a 12volt air-mattress inflater fan. It will be blowing air into a large cylindrical tank with a funnel at the bottom which will feed into 5/8" ID semi-rigid polyethylene tubing that will feed the darts to the gun. The darts will be loaded weight-down in through a spring-loaded door on the tank that will maintain positive pressure in the ammo tank. This setup should solve all of my ammo feeding issues and may even increase the maximum capacity of darts I can use with this setup.

There. 7 straight hours of CAD work and I have a more concrete plan. The first thing to tackle is the ammo-tank so I can figure out what tubing size works best for conveying darts.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 29 January 2007 - 11:36 AM.

[Commonly Hunted]

Very nice. I especially like how you are going to shape the red discs so that the dart slides into the green teeth. But since the dart has to make almost a full rotation on the green teeth, wouldn't the rate of fire be a little low?

You said a piston will push the dart into the barrel. Won't that slow the rotation of the green teeth?

How are you going to get the darts to feed from stacked-in-the-backpack to weight-first-in-the-tube?

I have suggestions. Why not make the dark blue tube so that it pushes the dart into the barrel? The barrel could have tightening rings like Angel's LS mod so that the dart stays inside of it. This would eliminate the need for the extra piston and the red discs and would probably speed up the ROF. This could also make the gun smaller since the green teeth and red discs would be taken out. The only pieces left would be the barrels, the dark blue tube (I guess it could be the bolt), and the actual propulsion system. The only thing I can think of that would be affected by this is the seal. I'm sure that the barrels are attached to the green teeth to keep seal and to keep in uniform rotation so if the teeth are gone, how would you make a seal? Don't know that one. Maybe you'll figure that one out.

Do you think you could send me the design you have now? Then I could change it to better explain what I mean if someone doesn't understand.

Nice job again.

Edited by Commonly Hunted, 29 January 2007 - 05:45 PM.

[CaptainSlug]

Commonly Hunted, on Jan 29 2007, 05:44 PM, said:

1. Very nice. I especially like how you are going to shape the red discs so that the dart slides into the green teeth. But since the dart has to make almost a full rotation on the green teeth, wouldn't the rate of fire be a little low?

2. You said a piston will push the dart into the barrel. Won't that slow the rotation of the green teeth?

3. How are you going to get the darts to feed from stacked-in-the-backpack to weight-first-in-the-tube?

4. I have suggestions. Why not make the dark blue tube so that it pushes the dart into the barrel?

5. I'm sure that the barrels are attached to the green teeth to keep seal and to keep in uniform rotation so if the teeth are gone, how would you make a seal? Don't know that one. Maybe you'll figure that one out.

6. Do you think you could send me the design you have now? Then I could change it to better explain what I mean if someone doesn't understand.

1. The rate of fire will be variable between 1 and 2 darts per second.
2. The piston is rotating along with the barrels and the green teeth. The ramrods are actuated forward by a cam track and slide through the green teeth and into the back of the barrels to make a dimensionally tight seal while pushing the dart all the way into the barrel.

3. That was explained a bit in the last post. I have to draw up a diagram of how the ammo tank is supposed to work. The darts will be fed end-to-end through a hose by airflow from a blower fan in the ammo tank.
4. The dark blue tube is static and has to have tubing attached to it. As each dart is lifted by the rotating green teeth it makes room for the next dart to be loaded onto the shelf on the red parts.
5. The barrels are attached to the green teeth only by way of the center axle and some bolts The dart does not enter the barrel until it first is moved into position and then rammed into the barrel by the breech ram-rods.
6. I don't want to send the CAD files to anyone until I have it constructed and working.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 29 January 2007 - 06:17 PM.

[CaptainSlug]

The ammo tank CAD work is finished.

Dark Blue: Backpack frame
Red: Air Mattress centrifugal blower
Green: 12v 7ah battery
Yellow: Spring-loaded Trap lid (locks closed or open)
Orange: Funnel-to-tubing coupler

You dump stefans weight-side-down into the top, close the door, and turn on the blower for a second with the secondary trigger and it should push the darts through the tubing end-to-end and then into the gun. The gun will have a small window so you can make sure.
The blower will be toggled by the secondary button on the trigger, and together with the drive motor on the main trigger.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 30 January 2007 - 01:15 AM.

[Meaker VI]

CSlug, your designs amaze me

I'm glad to see you figured it out, and used a method I never would've even known existed. I hope you can get it working, it'd definately be one of the most awesome weapons ever.

[CaptainSlug]

Thanks. I'm currently working on designing the tripping valves that fire the darts at a specific point in the cycle. Found a sneaky way to integrated them into the same actuation as ramrods without much complication.

Edit: Done. Will elaborate more later. You can't see it, but the trigger valve is actually inside of the breech ram-rods in the form of a 1/4" OD aluminum tube and o-ring.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 30 January 2007 - 06:04 AM.

[CaptainSlug]

Here's detail on the trigger valve system and the slide mechanism for the ram-rods. This is the forward profile of the center axle Hex. The ram-rods will have screws heads that slide in those channels.

As the ram-rods reach their most forward position the o-rings inside them will cover the reward holes in the exchange pipette. The trapped pressure will then reach the forward holes in the exchange pipette and the air will exhaust.

The middle o-ring is there to prevent the barrel in the fired position from continually venting the tank even when the trigger is released.
So If the volume of that trapped area is not great enough to fire a dart effective then I will remove the middle o-ring and place a solenoid valve right after the tank regulator and link it to the main trigger.
I was originally going to use a blue joystick grip I scalped, but decided that I wanted something nostalgic. So I will be using the grip from a Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro. It's much more comfortable and isn't a fruity color. Will also be easier to mount alternative switches on.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 30 January 2007 - 10:14 PM.

[CaptainSlug]

Now that the whole design is fleshed out a good deal I can go back and try to find ways to make it easier to machine. The first thing I revised was the ram-rod assembly. The previous design would have required the use of outside services, which I don't want to use because they would add unwanted expense. So it took a while but I figured out an alternative slide mechanism.


I think the only thing I will be completely unable to do myself is cutting a hex pattern out of the exact center of the chain sprocket that will have to slide over the center hex bar axle. And potentially I may have to have the center hub of the bushing block made unless we get a rotary vice for the mill.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 04 February 2007 - 09:30 PM.

[PvtMcFlurry]

First off I'd like to say it looks amazing. Secondly I would like to ask did you start constructing it yet or are you just in the design stage?