Stark

So Beaver, Paul and I were hella bored on the drive to the Rainbow Clan build party at Ryan's, and we tossed this together in Inventor on the way. The +bow catch is a fantastic catch, but it requires bulky sideplates to contain it. The goal was to create a catch mechanism that was completely contained within the plunger tube. This would dramatically reduce the amount of polycarbonate required as well as the machining time involved. It has the added benefit of a streamlined appearance and a blaster that would be very easy to convert to pump-action.



The overall appearance is quite reminiscent of Carbon's SNAP, but what sets it apart is the Catch.



It's template time! I purposely did NOT include the templates for the handle for a couple of reasons: it requires mad sanding via sanding belt and I don't want to add that to the tools list, my hands are different than yours so there'd be no guarantee that it would fit your hand, and lastly it's a fucking snap-on handle. I'm sure you can figure out something comfy.
Catch Templates
Catch Templates hosted by Beaver
(Same template in both downloads, just different hosts)

Well, here's a parts list. The quantities I have listed after each part are not the quantities they are sold in, they are the amount of the material you need
49035K26 Clear 1.25 inch Schedule 40 PVC: 16 inches
9562K46 Ring Shaft Seal (skirt seal): 1 (it's a skirt plunger head, you know the drill)
8541K18 Nylon Rod .5 inch diameter: 1.5 feet
8574K28 .25 inch thick polycarbonate: like, 5 square inches. Honestly, it's crazy.
90272A151 3/4 inch long 6-32 machine screw: 3
90272A148 1/2 inch long 6-32 machine screw: 4
90272A155 1 1/4 inch long 6-32 machine screw: 2
91375A148 1/2 inch long 6-32 machine set screw: 2
A short length of ruinously strong catch spring, 96565K36 would probably do the trick: .5 inches
9637K26 or 9637K25 Continuous length compression spring: 1
1 inch to 1/2 inch PVC reducing bushing: 1
Packing tape
Plumber's goop

Tools required:
scroll saw
screw driver
#6-32 tapping bit
drill press or power drill
handsaw, chop saw, or table saw, just be able to make square cuts
7/64", 1/2", and 1/8" drill bits
utility knife
safety glasses


If you feel ambitions, you can print the templates and cut them out with a scroll saw. But circles suck, so here's how to do it with a hole saw! Use a 1.5 inch hole saw to cut out the two polycarb discs and a 1 inch hole saw to cut out the polycarb for the catch. The discs that the 1.5 inch hole saw cuts out are just a bit smaller than the ID of 1.25 inch PVC so they fit real nice. These will be the catch supports. Take the catch supports and use a .5 inch drill bit to widen the center hole in each support to fit the nylon plunger rod. (If you are a masochist, you could adapt the catch design to use a square plunger rod, which would eliminate any problems with your plunger rod rotating.) The reason we cut out the supports before drilling the hole in the center is that it is nearly impossible to keep the hole saw centered if you drill out the center before cutting it out. Just use a vice grip to hold it steady in the drill press. Drill and tap the two 6-32 holes on each support. You then cut down the edges of the smaller disc to ride between the screws in the assembly. Shape the inside of the catch to catch all nice and lastly, drill and tap a 6-32 hole in the bottom of the catch. Here is a shot of all the components laid out.



So just use two of the screws to hold the catch supports in place, making sure there is enough room between them for the catch to slide freely. Wait to put the screw into the bottom of the catch until the assembly is inside the plunger tube. The screw is the bit of the catch that extends out the bottom of the plunger tube for the trigger to push on. If you just have a polycarb nub instead of a screw, you will not be able to assemble the rainbow because your catch will not slide into the gun. Anyhow, here's a shot of the final catch assembly outside of the gun.



Note that you really don't need more than the two screws to hold the assembly together because there isn't any force being put on the rear support.

We'll be using clear pvc from mcmaster for our plunger tube because blindly drilling into your catch through normal pvc would be ruinous and polycarbonate is literally 10 times more expensive. So grab your front bushing, wrap it in packing tape and goop it in. Seriously, packing tape is awesome. You get super tight fit, it doesn't crinkle like aluminum tape, and it keeps the bushing way straighter than e-tape.



Next, cut your plunger rod out of nylon rod and tap the ends for the handle and plunger head. Make your plunger head and pullback handle out of whatever you want, we used skirt seals and nylon rod handles.



Cut your catch(s) in however far back you want, attach your plunger head, put the spring on, and slide it into your plunger tube. You can now simply drop your catch assembly into the plunger tube. Drill a hole for the catch screw to go through, make sure it is loose enough that it won't bind on the threads. Now that you know where your catch is going to be, take the plunger assembly out of the gun. Drop the catch assembly back in and screw in the catch screw. This will keep the catch supports in place while you drill and tap them. So drill and tap at least 4 holes into the support that will be in contact with the spring.



Now pull the catch assembly out, it's time for a handle. Pretty sure we spent half the time building the gun, and half the time farting around with the handle.



We used snap-on handles similar to the way Carbon does them because you can really use just about anything as a handle. Paul and I both used handles similar to those on the pacbow while beaver used a handle from a paintball gun.



The only requirement is that pulling the trigger pushes up on the screw that sticks down from the catch.



Don't stick you handle on quite yet, but get it drilled and ready. Stick the plunger assembly back in the rainbow and drop in the finished catch. Because of the placement of the bottom two holes (they will be covered up by the snap on handle) you'll have to use set screws for at least two of the holes in the catch support. We made set screws by cutting the head off a normal 6-32 screw and cutting a notch into it. If you want to sleeve a pump grip over this thing, just use set screws for all four holes. Anyway, screw in the catch assembly. Now put a washer on your catch screw and slide your catch spring on it. Screw this into the bottom of the catch itself through the hole we drilled earlier.



Now all that's left is to snap your handle onto the plunger tube, screw it on, and attach your priming handle to the plunger rod.

supasub-optimal firing video


Congratulations, you now have a super-fabulous RainBow! Give it sparkles!

I like the Snapbow, and I like pump action, so I built a PumpSnap. This design is essentially Fome's Supa Snap (http://nerfhaven.com...showtopic=19880) with a pump grip sleeved over it. Granted, a few slight design modifications need to be made to accommodate the grip.

Here's the full gun.



The issue with making the SNAP pump action is the catch placement. Because the catch on a +bow is on the plunger rod, the catch plate, and thus the handle and trigger, are farther back. This leaves enough room for the pump grip to slide back and forth. The clothespin trigger on a snap catches on the plunger head, which puts the trigger too close to the gun. To solve this, I simply made the pump grip extend beyond the front of the plunger tube.



The pump grip is 1.5 inch thinwall PVC that I snagged from Zach (Venom). The coupler is there because his pieces weren't long enough, so I stuck two together. I'm looking into other ways to make the pump grip, because I would like to use something that people have easier access to. Because the grip has to extend past the barrel coupler, we need to shave the edge of the coupler down to fit inside the pipe.



I then wrapped the coupler in clear packing tape and gooped it in. I used packing tape instead of e-tape because e-tape is really narrow, which means there's a good chance that the coupler would be crooked, and packing tape has an extremely consistent thickness of 0.003 inches. Just to be on the safe side, I drilled a 1/8 hole through the coupler and chopped off a hunk of 1/8 inch steel rod and made a retaining pin. This also serves as a dart stop.




Remember, the grip has to slide over this, so don't use a screw or a bolt, or anything that will protrude from the side of the plunger tube. Now you're going to want to make your plunger head.



I used the preeminent plunger head, but I swapped out the narrow bolt and wing nut for a 1/4 inch bolt and nylon locknut. I used a 1/4 inch bolt because the ID of all the washers I used for the head were 1/4 inches, so everything is automatically perfectly centered. I also used a retaining pin to hold the plunger head together instead of a screw because I didn't want anything mucking with the catch pin. Let's take a look at all the internals laid out.



There you can see the similarities in the plunger head and wire priming mechanism between the PumpSnap and the Supa Snap. I didn't have a u-bolt that was small enough to fit inside the spring so I had to put it at the end. This puts a LOT of stress on the bolt, so I just covered it in locktite epoxy putty. There is simply a bolt that goes through the back of the pump grip, through the wire priming mechanism, and is fastened with a nylon locknut. This pulls the wire back, and is able to slide forward while the blaster is primed. The stock is simply a pvc T shoved onto the 1.25 inch pvc body. Next, we have the endcap. Normally on the back of the blaster and secured with screws, ours must be in the middle of the blaster and cannot be held in with anything that protrudes out from the 1.25 pvc. Thus, we use another retaining pin.



This does not go through the endcap, rather, it sits behind it and simply keeps it from shooting out the back of the gun. All that's left is to construct your clothespin trigger and handle. Keep in mind, it needs to be fairly narrow, and you must have space for it in whatever you use for the pump grip/sleeve. I went with a fairly janky looking handle so that I could have it done in time for ILFF. I must say, it worked beautifully. I used this gun in every round that day, except for the cqb round.

Ranges are average snapbow ranges.