6 replies to this topic

[saxynerfer]

I saw a Secret Shot I in my friend's room, and he said he had more nerf guns but they were broken. He gave me a broken xbow. I got home and saw the plunger rod was broken near the "notch". At first I put coat hanger wire in the grooves with lots of Liquid Nails, but that did'nt work. This is my new method.

1. Use crazy glue to keep the two parts together.
2. Drill two holes on both sides of the break. (pic below)

3. *Tightly* thread wire through the holes 4-5 times.
4. Solder the wires together for maximum hold.

This design shows no signs of wear or tear, and requires no time for glue to dry or set. The ranges for my new xbow using this repair method is about 85' with a slight headwind. This was measured with my marching band skeelz. To anyone douting said skeelz, I can march a football field blindfolded, and be off by 4' max.



Woot!

Edited by saxynerfer, 05 May 2007 - 10:39 PM.

[NerfMonkey]

That's an excellent idea! Maybe this could be applied to my Big Blast trigger. I'll try it out and post results.

Thanks for the writeup!

[Master Yogurt]

That's an excellent writeup and a creative and solution (and those are always the best kind). However, it seems to me that the wire would bend over time and the piece would snap again. Do you think that adding a few loops of wire running vertically would help reinforce your setup?

Also, I played Alto Sax in marching band for four years in high school and yes, your feet do become that accurate, in case anyone doubted the range (which would be stupid anyhow because that's perfectly reasonable Xbox range).

Edited by Master Yogurt, 06 May 2007 - 02:46 PM.

[NerfMonkey]

Also, I played Alto Sax in marching band for four years in high school and yes, your feet do become that accurate, in case anyone doubted the range (which would be stupid anyhow because that's perfectly reasonable Xbox range).

But is it reasonable XBow range?

[Pineapple]

That's pretty creative!

But did the soldering affect the plastic on the plunger rod in any way? You must've used a relatively high temp soldering iron/ gun in order to get the wires hot enough to flow solder before the plastic gets affected.


Who cares about ranges, you got that X-Bow fixed, and in the relatively average modified ranges, too. That does deserve a "woot".

Finally, nice helmet.


-Piney-

[frost vectron]

That's great that it's working for you! In my experience, I found soldering wires to have a poor mechanical toughness--mainly because it's so brittle.

If it ever breaks on you, I'd suggest you look into something called Safety Wire.

It's used on motorcycles when you race on tracks. What you have to do is drill holes in certain bolts and then use safety wire to attach it to a hardpoint (so the bolt can't come loose). This is so motorcycles don't leak fluids (which can cause accidents and fatalities on a race course).

To use safety wire on a plunger head, you'd probably drill two holes, string the wire through, then use a special twisting tool to twist the wire tight. It is mechanically tough because it is a ductile material (it's not going to shatter like solder might do). Afterwards, I guess you could slap JB-Weld on there for support.

But it seems like your fix is working just fine the way it is. Good job! I've always hated plunger repair... usually pretty hard to work with (in terms of keeping the catch points clean and holding all that force with minimal surface area). Just one of those things that simple old glue can't fix...

EDIT: I hate my habit of interchanging "strength" for "toughness"...

Edited by frost vectron, 06 May 2007 - 06:50 PM.