btrettel's Nerf blog

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SSCBen
Posts: 6449
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btrettel's Nerf blog

Post by SSCBen » Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:05 pm

http://btrettel.nerfers.com/

I've done a few Nerf projects in the past, and as my current only personal project is FANG4, I thought blogging through the design and construction process might be interesting. I also have entertained the idea of running a Nerf website in the past, but time restrictions prevent me from doing so. A small blog seems to be plenty for personal projects.

I'm hoping to find enough free time this semester to finish FANG4. To put some perspective on this, I made a final design last summer but did not have enough time to begin construction. This may or may not have been a good thing as I've revised the design a bit since then.

For those who are wondering what FANG4 is, I hopefully will have a blog post in the next few days about my plans. :-)

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C-A_99
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Re: btrettel's Nerf blog

Post by C-A_99 » Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:29 pm

What are your thoughts on the hopper and RSCB loading mechanisms? Do you prefer the older fashioned bolt/breech methods? They do allow darts of many and longer lengths (instead of being restricted to whateve fits in the wye) and allow virtually unlimited magazine/hopper capacity since there are no dead space concerns. Of course they are also much more difficult and expensive to build, but many good designs have been laid out step by step.

I think Nerf ought to try their hand at this. They've had turreted and "clip" ran air powered blasters before, but never bolt/magazine. However, they've got an automatic magazine fed blaster to work with batteries and a gearbox and plunger, very similar to an airsoft electric gun, so I don't see much stopping them from building an open bolt, CPS air powered blaster.

I'llhave to check out FANG4 when info is released on it.

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SSCBen
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Re: btrettel's Nerf blog

Post by SSCBen » Thu Feb 03, 2011 1:28 am

I was going to make some posts about hoppers, RSCBs, inline clips, etc., later after trying them all out with different blasters to test which configurations work with them and which don't. From what I understand, however, their main advantage is that they are easy to construct. In terms of performance, everything else beats them. But that is the trade-off.

Smaller volume air guns apparently will not work with hoppers, but I'm not sure what effect the improvement BritNerf thought of would have here.

From a capacity, performance, and aesthetics perspective I prefer some sort of bolt or breech mechanism. FANG4 will be a significantly improved version of FANG1. The basic mechanism will be the same, but the implementation will be substantially revised. See here for FANG1: http://trettel.org/nerf/fang1.html

Now, of course, the problem with these mechanisms is that they are hard to build. I have systematically detailed all of the problems I had with FANG1's mechanism and thought of as many solutions as possible. I will implement as many of these solutions as is feasible.

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