Home Of Foam

This isn't 100% homemade, this is kinda borderline mod/homemade territory, so move this if necessary.

Basically, I had a barricade which sucked, and I wanted to take its little flywheel system and turn it into a machine gun. Shoving darts down a funnel into it didn't work, so I decided that a shotgun would have to do. Its name comes from the fact that there is only one sound that is naturally produced which is more irritating than the buzzing of a barricade. That sound is made by a cicada.

Like all of my other guns I've made so far, this thing was put together using scraps of PVC I had lying around, plus other nerf gun parts. (In fact, I haven't bought any PVC at all- the PVC I've been using for the past three months was bought by my cousin when he visited. He bought like 6' of PVC.) I used a few inches of 3/4" PVC, a couple feet of 1/2" PVC, an inch of 1" PVC, some bolts, a spring, the cardboard rod from a coat hanger, the barricade front assembly, and some other random crap. It took me like five minutes to slap together. The dart chamber and bolt sleeve are 1/2" PVC, and all the external parts are 3/4" PVC. The 1" PVC is used for a coupling for the motor assembly.

How does it work? A trigger, in the form of a momentary switch, turns on the noise generators. Cocking the gun is very similar to with any bolt action gun, except you don't push the bolt forwards after primed; rather, you rotate the bolt into a slot in the sleeve. Then, load the gun by rotating the front 3/4" cover and exposing the loading slot. You can fit 3 stock darts inside or 4-6 slugs/dome tops. Then close the cover. Just before firing, lift the safety with your thumb, then flick the bolt out of the notch to fire. Unconventional, yes, but very effective. If you want to only dispense of one or two darts, slide the bolt blocker into position (the rear 3/4" clip). This is a work in progress and I have yet to determine the exact locations you can set it at.

I already gave an overview of the assembly, but it's pretty simple and easy to figure out for yourself when you see it. Pics:

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6071/6095439362_59f7d477ae.jpg)
Rear bolt assembly and bolt sleeve, safe; shotgun setting.

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6070/6095439256_90865c7e57.jpg)
Same shot, but with the dart control slide shut.

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6069/6095438972_946cdb3cb6.jpg)
Close-up of the external spring and dart cover. The 3/4" PVC you see in the middle was just a coupler, because I didn't have any intact 2' sections of 1/2" PVC  :D

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6067/6094897883_f011a47eda.jpg)
Left-handed grip. The bent nail is a safety to prevent the darts from vibrating into the motors prematurely. Lift it with your thumb. Right-handed grip is pretty much the same.

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6072/6095438174_1001efbf42.jpg)
Grip from right side

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6082/6094897073_d9bdb2b99a.jpg)
Front view. Notice that the gearbox has been reversed from its orientation in the barricade.

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6199/6095437344_8fcbf889f1.jpg)
Bottom view.

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6193/6095437154_a32b6c2acb.jpg)
Darts kept on getting caught in this edge, causing massive jams, so I sanded it down.

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6090/6095436872_8c97ac02f5.jpg)
Dart door, removed.

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6185/6095436620_f39d64e66b.jpg)
Dart door, removed, showing spring and bolt.

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6184/6094895719_fed30694a7.jpg)
Dart door open, loading slot.

Explanations
For the 3/4" PVC sliding/rotating parts, I cut a quarter of the pipe off so the 3 quarters left can snap easily over the 1/2" PVC.
The external spring serves to push the darts into the motors. It does not launch the darts, although without the gearbox attached, the spring can shoot the darts 10-20 ft.

Ranges:
With stock (streamline) darts, this gets about 60 ft. If you shoot three darts, they typically have a horizontal spread and land about 2-3' apart.
With my own domed slugs, I got 50'. Other slugs would probably work better because mine use 3/8" tips and wider ones catch the gears more. 1/2" domes don't work because they can't compress to fit through the gears, and they end up going through at an angle which makes them fishtail automatically.
1/2" PVC doesn't support whistler dart use, although I would expect 70' ranges with those if I had made the chamber out of something a little wider. The wider tips tend to really catch the flywheels and they go flying.
All ranges for PTG firing.

Future additions:
If anyone wants to replicate this, there are a few things that I would do.
 First, use a wider chamber material, because the 1/2" PVC does not fit whistler darts.
Second, use a longer chamber/bolt sleeve because you can fit more darts in it.
Third, use a compression spring and cap the bolt sleeve, so no external springs can get caught on anything or make the gun "stutter".
Fourth, use a wooden dowel for the dart rod, instead of cardboard. Cardboard should not be used for nerf guns. It falls apart.
Fifth, use a barrel. I didn't feel like inhaling all the extra PVC dust from sanding a barrel down, but I would use Sch. 80 PVC and then sand out the inside so the darts are funneled into it.

That is all. Flames/comments/questions?

This is interesting. I would have never thought of something along these lines. I like the fact that you used scrap parts from a broken blaster. I like recycling blasters that way (like the BigFinder). So this is full auto?

Nice job redfish... All the mods I have seen you done are pretty original. Your like Nerfgyver or something. XD

lol thanks. I have to improvise with my stuff because I don't have the ability to get all the materials that I would need to do things the "normal" way.


I don't know what exactly I would call this, because it doesn't really have a magazine to store darts. I'll see if I can get a firing video to show how it works.

not much into homemeades but this is cool.  PS- can we have the shout out box and not read things again?

What do you mean Lein?... I'm a poet, and I didn't even know it, and I don't like to show it! *Cough* Sorry, anyway what are you talking about?

(http://i.imgur.com/qqzRn.gif)

I'm also confused as to what you mean...

Nice GIF, KiDD.  xD

Just a few comments.
2nd: This is one of very few guns that ammo load ammount isn't going to affect ranges because of deadspace.
4th: I've heard varying opinions about wood, and while it's not the strongest material, it'll work for a non-stress-receiving part.
5th: Barrels aren't going to do anything to the gun. Think of the wheels as the barrel. They come in contact with the dart, and accelerate it. Barrels come in contact with the dart and ensure that all the air in the PT gets to the dart, not around it. This gun is a kinetic gun, not an air gun. Putting anything that would be considered a standard barrel (like CPVC on stefans, 1/2" on stockdarts) on there would not be a good idea, because it would cause friction, and stop the dart. If you wanted an aesthetic barrel on there, I'm not stopping you. I tried to put 3/4" PVC on my barricade, and the darts got lodged. And if you're going for a dart guiding barrel (to increase accuracy by guiding the darts slightly) then I think that would negate the purpose of this being a shot gun.

And when everyone gets started, they reuse all their parts. I've been doing this for a year and a half now, and I still try to salvage stuff that doesn't work.

Good point- I didn't even think about that. I was referring to a dart guiding barrel, but what you said makes perfect sense. Besides, it's got a pretty good spread already so I don't really need to modify it.

I guess someone messed around with my account so it wouldn't show the shout out box and recent replies...... weird.  Anyway, it's back now so no harm done.

I put a fresh battery in it yesterday and did some range testing. I edited the updated ranges into the OP.