Super Soaker Central

This week I added a writeup about my first homemade which I am just going to call DR-3 from this point. The page is here. This was really the first attempt at a truly ergonomic and aesthetically-pleasing water gun. I outlined what I did to design it (and redesign it) as well as the successes and failures of the gun as a whole. In all, I think it would be an informative read. I wrote a good portion of this back in 2006 and 2007; I just decided to finish it today.

On a side note, I'll add more pictures to it later.

The article did sum up the thread well while adding some information about the earlier designs. And thanks for setting a precedent for complete parts lists. And finally, it inspired me to go back and re-read your water balloon launcher/Nerf gun article.

Perhaps this thread should be in the News forum. Many websites update their news page with content updates, and we might as well do the same.

Thanks! I moved it to News.

I tried to be as thorough as possible in the writeup, excluding building instructions of course. The parts list was just one of the things that I had ready for a serious "how-to" kind of guide, but since the gun wasn't finished, that guide never got finished too. I wanted to write something a lot like Ben's SuperCAP article--listing what went well and what didn't. I'm just really surprised that no one else ever tried something like this in the two years that passed since I started it. Now maybe someone will.

I added more pictures, including three of the gun shooting.

Several annoying limitations, such as using 3/4" for the pipe that goes before the nozzle (partly because I was an idiot and thought LRT was more powerful than it is) on my CPH, have prevented me from building a trigger system. Perhaps I could create a better handle than the torque arm I'm currently using, but doubt that'll ever happen.

I'd recommend just doing more calculations beforehand. I got the valve to open but never was able to get it to close because I didn't do any calculations for the trigger system. With the right force and moment calculations, there's no reason why you can't get the valve to open. But you have to do them; it's the only way to really get it to work.