*Casual use no longer provides the fun it once did.
*More time spent ramrodding than shooting friends and family.
*Abandoning turrets and clips to provide a more potent single shot. This dangerous habit is known as "single-barreling" by the slow-reload community.
If you can identify with any of the above, you may be a slow-reloader. Luckily, you can break the cycle. Attend a DB meeting today, and remember that the first step is admitting the problem!
Let me start off by saying that this really isn't anything new. Ompa, Renegade, Carbon, and a few others who I've doubtless forgotten to mention, have all done similar things, and many of their innovations show up in this writeup. This is just a combination of others' ideas, which is easy, simple, and reliable.
Dimensions and materials can be changed if you're not a goon who uses jumbos all the time.
Let's start off with materials:
*NOTE*
This is the list of parts I used. I'm pretty sure anyone who uses this will be adapting it for their own use, so read the whole writeup and decide what changes you need to do before getting materials.
3/4" copper barrel
3/4" SCH-40 PVC
1" SCH-40 PVC
1 1/4" SCH-40 PVC
1/2" PVC
1" coupling
Bushing to connect 1" to air output.
Gel Deodorant stick.
Now tools:
E-tape
Hacksaw
Dremel with cutting wheel and drum sanding bit
1) Decide which end of your barrel will be the breech. Wrap this end with e-tape until it fits snugly in the 1" PVC. By snugly, I mean that it should be able to move in and out with little to no effort, but have minimal side-to-side wiggle room.
2) Cut the barrel sleeve. It is a piece of 1" SCH-40 PVC. It should be about 4" shorter than your barrel.
3) Now you will make the sealing face. Cut a 2" long section of 1/2" SCH-40. It should be a little bit bigger than the ID of the 3/4" Copper. Use the dremel to taper the end of it to fit inside the barrel, and gradually slope outwards to its full diameter. Wrap the taper once or twice in e-tape and fit it to the barrel to check a comfortable seal. Then, wrap the untapered side in e-tape to fit tightly (MUST not move without much effort) in 1" PVC. Wedge this in the 1" barrel sleeve, with the sealing face pointing muzzle-wards.
4) Making the magazine:
This works best with gel deodorant sticks. Get the most rectangular one you can find. Also look out for the ones with lids that kind of click on and off instead of just sliding evenly. These are much better. You might want to get a few and see which kind works best.
First off, it's important to keep in mind that you will be left with about a half pint of gloop after this step, which, thanks to murphy's law, WILL end up all over whatever area you decide to do this in. NO CARPETS!
Now, you will want to pull off the bottom of the container, which contains the dial for moving up the gloop. You don't need this end. Get the goo out as best you can (I used a paint stirrer and numerous paper towels). Unfortunately, gel deodorant is not water soluble, so you can't just rinse it all out. It helps to use a spent deodorant stick rather than a new one.
Next, take off the lid and cut off the dispensing end just below the point where the perforation stops. Make sure there aren't any ridges to block the darts.
Make sure your magazine is a good size and fit before moving on.
5) Now you will prepare the mag well. This is pretty simple. Take the cap off and dremel the closed off end to match the curvature of the 1" barrel sleeve. This will also remove the closed end.
6) It's time to cut the breech hole. Insert the barrel in the sleeve, and push it down until it seals against the sealing face. Mark the barrel at the point where it exits the barrel sleeve. This should be near the muzzle. Pull out the barrel and place it next to the sleeve, with the mark lined up as it was when the barrel was inside. Make a mark about an inch muzzle-wards from the breech end of the barrel on the sleeve. This mark will be one side of the breech hole, so it must be ahead of the sealing face by a bit. If your sealing face is longer than an inch inside the barrel, make the mark farther up. You could put it a foot up if you wanted, but that would just make the pump stroke longer.
Place the dremeled side of the mag well on the sleeve, with one end at the mark you made. Trace around it with a pencil. Now cut out that line with your dremel.
7) Mid-Construction test!
Slide the barrel all the way down the sleeve to the sealing face. It should cover the breech hole. Pull it forwards to expose the hole, and drop a dart in. Now push the barrel back until it pushes against the sealing face. If all goes well, the dart will go into the barrel. If it doesn't, keep tweaking the setup until it does.
You also might want to check the seal by blocking off the barrel end and pushing it back against the sealing face as you blow into the input end.
8) Glue the mag well on over the breech hole.
9) Load a few darts into the magazine, then a weight. Pump the barrel forward, then back. Now, look down the barrel (don't do this when it's on the gun!). If the light is blocked, it means a dart has been loaded. Yay! Blow out the dart, or push it out with a dowel, and repeat a few times, to make sure it wasn't a fluke. If the gun is being stubborn, try taking off the magazine and watching it through the cycle with one dart, then two, using the mag well itself as a magazine. You will probably see the problem.
10) It's time to make a pump handle.
First, decide how much of the barrel you want exposed at the muzzle. It should be at least 3/4" less than the amount of barrel sticking out of the sleeve when the barrel is touching the sealing face. Make a mark at the point where you want the barrel to become visible. This will be referred to as the MARK to avoid confusion.
Second, decide how far back you want the pump handle to extend. Mine reaches most of the way back to the clip, but it could be much shorter. It DOES, however, have to go far enough back so that the barrel can fully clear the breech hole without the pump handle moving past the end of the barrel sleeve.
Move the barrel forward until it has completely cleared the breech hole. With the barrel in this position, measure the distance between the end of the barrel sleeve and the MARK, then add about an inch to this measurement to be safe. This is the minimum length your pump handle can be.
Now, push the barrel back down as far as it goes. Measure the distance from the MARK to the mag well, then take off about an inch to be safe. This is the maximum length your pump handle can be.
Using these limits, decide on a length for the handle, and cut a piece of 1 1/4" PVC to that length.
11) Connecting the pump handle to the barrel:
Given that the pump handle and barrel are different materials, a bushing isn't really a possibility. Instead, I add to the OD of the barrel end by snapping on semi-sections of pipe that would normally be a bit too narrow to fit around what's inside it.
To join a 3/4" copper barrel to a 1 1/4" pump handle, you will need a short section of 3/4" and 1" PVC. They should be about 1/2" long. Cut a piece out of each so that they are C shaped. This allows the PVC to expand more than normal, and fit around other pipes which were previously a bit too big.
Snap the 3/4" PVC over the barrel, and the 1" PVC over that. It should fit tightly inside 1 1/4" PVC. Pull out the barrel and put the breech end through the pump handle. Move the pump handle over the barrel until the end of the pump handle slides over the ring of 1" PVC. It should be a snug fit. Use hot glue to tighten it up if necessary.
Now re-insert the barrel with the pump handle attached. The handle should slide right over the barrel sleeve.
12) Connect a 1" coupling to the rear of the barrel sleeve, and insert a reducing bushing into that. The bushing should connect to your air output.
You're Done!
*NOTE*
I'll edit in some diagrams and pics soon.
