shmmee

I'm the only person, to my knowledge, who is designing and printing rings.  I wasn't going to release the design until I was happy with the performance, though.  Stock rings are quite floppy.  I've tried about fifteen different iterations, so far.  I can get original range, but the magnus effect causes them to always hook to the right.  By the time they hit the ground, it is up to about ten feet from the straight line.

You've got a heck of a head start on me then. I'll still be trying to design my own but if you need a beta tester I'd be happy to help. I've got a couple of vortex blasters lined up for purchase from a local collector - a tornado bow and a tornado x2 (pistol). Maybe they'll behave differently on a different blaster. 

Have you ever tried printing in TPU? That should check that floppy requirement. I've been looking for an excuse to buy some for a while. I think my printer will need a minor mod or two before it'll accept it though. Do the rings hook consistently? It'd take a little more practice but that could be a helpful trait if you're trying to tag someone hiding behind partial cover. 

 

I have a few of both sizes, but I'm more interested in finding a blaster to fire them than selling the rings. I'm sure I'm not the only one here with rings.

 

 

The Power Strike can fire both sizes of ring, and I've heard the rings on Amazon are the same size as the small vortex rings. I cannot personally confirm that though.

I'm lacking both rings and a blaster, but I'd like to try designing my own 3d printable rings. I'll share the file once I have them made. Snakerbot, would you mind grabbing some dimensions for me? I'll need ID, OD, length and weight. It would also help to know where the airfoil peaks on the length so I can try to capture the same aerodynamics. How rigid are the rings? are they rubbery or stiff? Blasters that fire the larger diameter ring seem to be slightly more common, but the print will easily scale to make the smaller rings if you can give me their ID as well. 

3d printing a ring was mentioned and I was intriuged. I gave thingiverse a quick check but it didn't come up with any .stl's for a vortex ring. Has anyone seen a file for them? I might try to track down a classic vortex blaster if I could print my own ammo for it. 

I did find this though:

https://www.thingive...om/thing:514335

it's a throwable air foil ring. While not specific to koosh It should be possible to scale it down to fit a vortex blaster. 

Its called the Flatline Barrel System. Ive seen it used at a paintball game and he was outranging everything and its shorter than my 22" barrel. I know rivals have a velocity cap due to low mass but Id assume they'd accept some of the same characteristics. I want to see what I can make with heated pvc to mimick the flatline barrel. It gives a weird flight pattern where it curves down and essentially magnus effects back upward. Its not a pop shot but its consistent enough to shoot around trees so its fairly useful. 140-2__59317.1444332281.500.659.jpg

I've heard of an old pipe fitters trick i've been meaning to try someday. If you pack a tube full of sand you can heat and bend it without collapsing the tube I.D. I've been meaning to try it with cpvc to make a choppered feed tube but it might work with your DIY flatline barrel as well. Though, to be honest, I really don't understand how the droopy barrel is supposed to help with range.

I've been into almost every nerf blaster I've owned and with more than 20 years of nerf modding experience - the slingfire claims the title as the only blaster I've been unable to get put back together. I don't know what kind of witchcraft Hasbro puts into these things on the assembly line but once opened they refuse to be re-closed and function properly. Good luck. I gave mine to the 3 year old in a ceremony of disgraceful banishment.