33 replies to this topic

[Carrtoon]

Before the war last Saturday, I had started a small pistol, but never really had the motivation to build it. The body and plunger were done, but I lost interest. After the war, after seeing Carbon's amazing SNAPs, I got into build mode again. This works off of the exact same principle as the Tec 9 with the clothespin trigger and shaped pvc. The body is milled PVC and the handle was heated and pressed into shape. So, without further ado, I give you the Minimizer:





Maverick comparison:





That is all...

[Rambo]

Kind of confused - where is the primer/cocking handle? It looks very good though.

Ranges?

Edited by RAMBO, 13 July 2007 - 12:02 AM.

[Carrtoon]

You cock the gun by pulling the barrel forward.

The way to shoot the gun is to load the dart in the back of the barrel (the back of the gun), pull the barrel forward to cock it, plug the back with an endcap (not shown), and shoot. It eliminates the use for removable barrels with couplers. The dart is put in the back of the barrel every time, maximizing range.

[Rambo]

Alright, I guess I'm still confused. You pull forward on the PETG or the PVC? What exactly gives the dart force? I mean, there's no plunger, right?

[Carrtoon]

It's a spring pistol that uses an industrial nitefinder spring. It contains a reverse plunger. You pull forward on the petg, which acts as the barrel and the plunger at the same time. The dart is loaded into the back, the gun is cocked, the back is plugged with an endcap to create the air chamber, and then the gun is fired. If you're still confused, I can post internal pics.

[Rambo]

I guess that makes sense. I'm usually not really interested in the latest innovations in mods since I can't do them, but the size of this intrigued me a lot.

/off to research reverse plungers...

Edited by RAMBO, 13 July 2007 - 12:18 AM.

[Carrtoon]

Sorry, I'm not explaining it very well. Maybe internals will help:



^ This is what the internals look like outside of the gun. They are situated inside the gun just like that.

Back of the gun and plunger/barrel:



Starting to put the internals back in:



^ The ring on the left side slides over the petg easily and is used to stabilize the plunger/barrel.

Hope this clears up some questions. If you have any more, don't refrain from asking.

[Rambo]

Hmm, that helps, but I guess I don't get how/where the spring catches.

That is so un-godly simple though...I mean, compared to the GNS.

[WratH]

It's like a crossfire, but the barrel moves instead of the plunger tube. Right?

[Carrtoon]

If you look where the black o-ring is on the far right of the barrel/plunger, you'll see a gap just to the left of the o-ring, and then it rounds off down to the spring. That gap is what catches on the pin. The pin is attached to the underside of the clothespin. When you pull the trigger, the pin is pulled down, releasing the tension from the gap in the plunger head. Helping at all?

Wrath, you're exactly right. The plunger tube is the gun shell itself.

Edited by Carrtoon, 13 July 2007 - 12:42 AM.

[DTReaper]

The only thing I would suggest for next time or if you can do it to this one is to add metal to the catch part on the plunger because that will wear out extremely fast. I can already see the chips in the catch so if you want it to ast thats my only suggestion. Other than that it is a sleek well built gun.

-DTR

[Rambo]

Ah, now it makes sense. Have you made a GNS? If so, how do the ranges compare, roughly? I might scrap my GNS' which aren't going as well as I had hoped .

[AssassinNF]

I actually understood it the moment you talked about pulling the barrel forward. It's so incredibly simple and it looks very good.

Very nice job, Carrtoon.

[Carrtoon]

Yep, DT, you are right. I've never really had a plunger head fail on me, but reinforcement is always needed. On the tec 9, I added an aluminum ring, but it didn't seem to do much.

I haven't made a GNS or tested the ranges of this thing yet, but I'll let you know. If I were you, I'd look at Carbon's SNAPs. They are incredibly simple and he was hitting over 100' with it in the Minnesota war. The SNAP 1 is amazing.

The Minimizer is sweet. It's extremely small and it has some amazing punch. I hope to get close to 100' out of it, but that's just speculation as of now. The problem with it is that it would be a 10 in building. Almost every piece is machined on either the mill or metal lathe. It isn't that hard to build, but not many people have the tools I do. But like I said above, try a SNAP. They aren't the smallest, but aren't big either. They're simple, and the clothespin trigger is brilliantly easy, unlike the GNS.

Thanks Assassin.

Edited by Carrtoon, 13 July 2007 - 12:55 AM.

[keef]

Now THAT, is the coolest homemade pistol I've ever seen, forward cocking?
Remarkable. I have to make that before tomorrow's war.

[foamforce123]

Now THAT is awesome! What kind of ranges are you getting?

[Flaming Hilt]

Ah, oui. Very nice. Like the size. No holster needed, just a pocket.

One question I should have thought of when you had the Tek-9 at the war is, how are the plunger and barrel attached? I mean... okay, so they are the same thing, but what I mean is, how is the PETG attached to the PVC catch face/O-ring container? Ideally, one would use a screw, but then you'd be cutting into the barrel. Your next alternative is probably gluing it, but glue tends to come undone when it's used in vitally important parts like plungers... so yea, there's a question in there.

Edited by Flaming Hilt, 13 July 2007 - 10:41 AM.

[nerfturtle]

I think that there is a lip of pvc attached to the barrel, and that lip has a hole drilled into it, and so does the outer case. I would guess that there is a small nail or something holding them together, correct me if I'm wrong. I really like the loading system, reminds me of one of 3DBBQ's guns, except his used a m&m's cap instead of an endcap.

[nerfsharpie6]

Nice gun. If you painted it black then it would really closely resemble a Glock 9mm handgun. Very nice indeed. If I get some money I may just build one of these. Oh and on a side note couldn't you cut a breech into the end of the gun and use a clip? Or is the handle to small to utilize a clip system like that.

[Carbon]

You and your goddamn lathe *laugh* Beautiful work.

I was wondering if this one is behaving better with ease of cocking and the tendancy to shoot down than the Tec 9. I would think that a single spring would help for part of it, and a shorter, lighter barrel would also help. Lookng forward to hearing more about this.

I've been out of town since SPANO, and it was just as inspiring for me (still gone, and posting from 33.6 dialup..ugh)...can't wait to get back to building.

[baseballnolan5]

When you tell me I will most likely feel incredibly stupid but how does the spring actually propel the dart? In the pictures it looks like the spring is just over the barrel doing nothing.

[Carbon]

When you tell me I will most likely feel incredibly stupid but how does the spring actually propel the dart? In the pictures it looks like the spring is just over the barrel doing nothing.

Think of it this way: the barrel is actually the plunger rod. When you fire, the barrel moves backwards, compressing the air. The compressed air then moves into the plunger rod...which is actually the barrel...firing the dart.

[bjack]

It still makes no sense to me.

[baseballnolan5]

ohhhhhhh I get it now carbon and just as predicted I feel stupid for not realizing that. Also the fact I forgot about the endcap.

[Quilan Fett]

It still makes no sense to me.

Think of the nitefinder. instead of the air being pushed into the barrel, the barrel is replace with an endcap and the plunger rod is hollow. when the plunger shoots forward, the air can't go through the endcap, thus, it is forced into the hole in the plunger rod.
Now, if you have a wider plunger rod, you can make this hole large enough to it a dart in (the PETG barrel). Now the dart is propelled out backwards through the plunger tube.