Gym

I remember seeing paintball barrel inserts and it occurred to me that they could be useful for nerf. They come in multiple inner diameters as the linked page suggests: .679-.695 caliber. Has anyone tried fitting any fbr or other nerf darts into these? I doubt we could use these for nerf like they are used for paintball, but they may fit some darts well. I'm not really sure since I don't have any and I'm not willing to buy any without knowing if they'll work, but if anyone has a paintball barrel insert kit you should try it and report what you find. On the other hand brass tubing and petg are probably sufficient and definitely cheaper.

I searched the Modifications, Homemades, and General Nerf forums and couldn't find anything on the topic. If this topic exists in another thread please disregard this one.

Nintendo Zapper Integration

This write-up will detail how to integrate the Nerf Secret Strike AS-1 into a Nintendo Zapper. This modification is not intended to maintain complete functionality of the Zapper.

The credit due:
The only other Nintendo Zapper topics I have found are one by Lion here, and another by Jangadance here and here. There is rumor that OMC made one to shoot darts, but I did not find anything beyond the rumor. The blaster created by Lion, while incredibly innovative, is not based on an authentic Nintendo Zapper or readily available blaster, "only gets about 5 feet," and although I will not post ranges mine gets significantly more than that. Additionally, Lion mentions that his Zapper is cocked by pulling the cord on the bottom (which makes it pretty cool looking), while mine functions differently as you will see.

You will need:
Nintendo Zapper (I’m not sure if newer imitation models are constructed the same way)
Secret Strike AS-1
1/4” Vinyl Tubing – 12” should be enough
17/32” Brass Tubing – 3 3/16” or 3 1/8” in length
Electrical Tape
Welder Glue or Plumber’s Goop (they seem to be nearly identical in application):
Dremel. I used the disk cutter primarily.
X-Acto saw (optional)
Thin plastic sheeting. I used white styrene, but polycarbonate should work too (less than 1/16” thickness) – 6”x6” should be enough.
Light gray spray paint
Drill and bits
Hot glue gun and glue

Phase 1: Open and clean out the Nintendo Zapper

Here is the Zapper:


Remove everything inside except the trigger and this is what you will have left:


Using a Dremel or similar tool, cut away all of the internal plastic parts except the parts shown in blue. Be careful how deep you cut away the plastic as the handle is particularly thin plastic. I would also discourage using pliers to twist off the pegs, since this can crack the case; just use the Dremel:



Phase 2: Trim down the gray pieces.

You should do this by placing each gray shell in its corresponding orange shell and marking a line on the gray pegs as close to the inside of the orange shell as possible. Now simply cut the gray pegs at the line so that the remaining nubs are flush with the inside of the orange shell:


Now get your sheet of plastic and draw 6 circles of about 3/8” diameter on it. I recommend using a stencil as is seen in the picture:


Cut the circles out and paint them:


Welder glue the circles to the nubs as shown:


Phase 3: Modify Zapper Trigger

If you remove the plate you will see that the trigger looks like this:


Trim the trigger above the blue line and remove the screw mount indicated by the arrow:


See this picture for a better idea of how far to cut:


While you have the trigger assembly open, You need to create a wedge that will activate the trigger more effectively. I cut one wedge from the thin sheet plastic and used it as a template for several others:




I glued them together with Welder glue, let set over night, and trimmed to fit with X-acto knives and my Dremel. The number of sheets to be glued together will vary based on the thickness of the sheet you use, but make sure the final product is about the width of the existing white trigger piece. Place the wedge in the trigger as in the picture. There is no need to glue it in place:

I searched "rifled barrels" before writing this and found no ideas along the lines of this topic so I hope this is more than another opportunity to discuss how awful it is to rifle barrels for Nerf purposes. My idea is not to rifle barrels, but to create the spin effect by rotating the barrel itself. If the barrel is rotating with a dart inside it makes sense that the dart, when exiting the barrel, would be rotating (similar to the effect of rifling on a bullet).

Now the main opposition to the application of rifling to Nerf that I have found consists of a few criticisms:
1. Forward energy is partially converted into spinning energy, resulting in a loss of range.
2. Nerf darts experience stability and balance based on weight distribution.
3. Nerf blasters do not create enough pressure compared to a firearm.

In response based on the rotating barrel idea:
1. The projectile fired from a rifled barrel is probably slowed down by friction from the grooves and the torque. With a groove-less barrel that rotates the friction from rifling is no longer an issue. Also, doesn't the spin actually result in less air resistance? (think of throwing a football)

2. In the case of spinning objects, don't they become balanced around the central axis of motion (that whole centripetal force thing), making the weight distribution of a foam dart irrelevant?

3. Based on the above, potentially flawed, logic how much of a spin is necessary to create an accurate and long-distance Nerf dart?

It has been a few years since high school physics, but if I am wrong I'm sure someone will point it out.

My hypothesis is that rotational energy, when produced by a rotating barrel rather than friction from a rifled barrel, will not detract from forward energy; and that at some speed of rotation the dart becomes balanced.

I write this because I don't have the means or the time to pursue it, but some of you do. There are any number of ways to spin a barrel and I'm sure if anyone is interested in this idea the best method could be perfected. So throw out any prejudices against rifled barrels and consider the physics and the mechanics of this new idea and suggest why it could or could not work.

I wanted to design a missile for indoor wars that when fired at a ceiling or possibly a wall would essentially release pieces of shrapnel that would fall onto enemies below. After consideration of a few different methods I went with what I believe is the simplest. This write-up will walk through how to modify a Buzz Bee Big Blast missile into a RPG (rocket propelled grenade) without the actual rocket part. So APG? With enough testing, this RPG can be used to detonate on impact with a solid surface, or in mid-air. Let’s get started:

Necessary Materials:
- Foam Missile
- 4” of ½” CPVC (or similar outer diameter pipe)
- Plumber’s Goop or similar adhesive
- X-acto knives
- Drill and drill bits
- 1 Rubber Band
- 1 Dart Tag Dart
- 6 Darts

- Start cutting from the tip of the missile down. About an inch in you will hit a black rubber disc; stop here (trying not to damage the disc). Now cut around the missile to remove the entire tip (it may be beneficial to cut the tip in quarters before cutting the whole tip off). You should now see a flat tipped missile with a black disc in the middle.



- Remove the disc and drill out the middle to accommodate your pipe. I ended up drilling ¼” and cutting the rest to size with my xacto knife. Keep in mind that the pipe needs to be around ½” diameter, light, and strong enough to handle repeated impact. I mention this because although brass may be lighter than cpvc, it will not handle the impact like cpvc. And obviously brass is too heavy.


- Make sure the pipe and disc fit snugly, and glue them together with the plumber’s goop.


- Now liberally squeeze glue around the area in the missile where the disc was originally. Place the disc assembly into the missile and glue around the top of the disc and over parts of the missile, encasing the disc section in glue.


- Let the whole thing dry overnight or for a day or so. Stick the Dart Tag dart into the tip of the cpvc (this creates a shock-absorber for the impact of the dart with the floor/ceiling/wall/skull). You can use regular fbr if you want, but the tagger dart was more convenient for me and doesn’t get knocked all the way into the cpvc after a few impacts.


- Take 6 darts, arrange them around the cpvc, and apply the rubber band to the tips of the darts. It takes a
little experimentation to figure out how far up to place the rubber band on the tips of the darts.



I tested this several times in a gym with a 25’-30’ ceiling and found that the stock LBB could not handle the weight of the new RPG and though there was occasional impact on the ceiling, it was not adequate to release the rubber band and darts. So basic modification to the LBB would be necessary depending on the height of the room you are in. Also, there is potential for a degree of pain when the missile falls. I suspect that this is negligible compared to being shot with a high-powered blaster. Ranges are heavily dependant on the height of the ceiling and the timing of the release, among other factors.

I have been looking around to see if this has been suggested yet and to my knowledge it hasn't. It is nothing complex, but I think it is significant enough to post. The idea is a variation of the film canister grenade that allows one to use full-size nerf micro darts or other larger materials. Essentially just replace the film canisters with plastic cups. I have found that the SOLO brand cups are good enough and really cheap. They are significantly larger than a typical film canister grenade, but ultimately function the same way and are pretty effective.

For an example of the SOLO brand cups, go to www.solocup.com.

I hope that this helps people out. It's nothing remarkable and probably not terribly original, but I thought it was pretty cool.