GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Threads about water gun modifications.
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DLVR8R
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Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:44 am

GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by DLVR8R » Sun Aug 07, 2011 8:45 am

This is my first water gun mod! Originally, I only planned to remove the reservoir tank from the Gorgon, and then attach a backpack hose directly to the pump inlet. Once I opened the gun up, I realized that its body has a lot of empty space. Also, the body shape is too fancy, making it awkward to hold. Last, the pump feels flimsy and if it's rotated the wrong way, it hits the gun's body while it's being pushed in.

The Gorgon does have some good qualities - it pumps up pretty quickly, and the range is decent. The multiple nozzles give you a lot of control, and it's possible to squirt continuously as long as you keep pumping. I want to take the Gorgon's good qualities, and repackage them in a new, compact body. It will be made of PVC pipe to make it very rugged. It will also have a shoulder stock to make the gun more stable while pumping and shooting.

By the way, if you're wondering why I gutted a brand-new gun instead of making from scratch - this is my first mod, so it's a lot easier for me to have most of the functional parts ready-made. Also, I got this gun on sale for $19 - I'd never find all these valves, pumps, nozzles, etc at the hardware store for that little.

Tools used:
DREMEL <-- for almost everything
Power Drill
Jigsaw
Hand Saws
Palm Sander (good for planing pieces flat)
Sandpaper
Misc. General tools


So, let's start!

By the way, I might seem to jump around a lot.. sometimes I need to complete one piece before another so that I can be sure they'll fit right... other times, I just get bored of working on the same part for too long! Well, I'll try to be as clear as possible. Also, I don't measure anything, so sorry for not providing any measurements! If you really need a measurement for something, I'll try to help.

Here is the full image gallery. I left some pics out of this thread. http://risbia.imgur.com/grgnc

Here is the gun apart. You can see there is a lot of empty space.
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This is the mechanism which the nozzles rotate on. The two nubs at the top have springs behind them to lock the nozzle in place.
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First thing I'm going to do is make the PCs the same height. I need to cut down the rear PC's inlet, and then glue it back together (gluing will come much later).
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Top part of the PC inlet, cut off and temporarily attached to the PC.
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Sanding the elbow of the inlet tube so that it will be flush with the part shown in the previous image.
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Firing valve / nozzle selector assembly. I'm going to detach the valve so that I can rotate it upside down (making it take up less space).
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Something like this.
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Cutting apart a T intersection to make the rear grip top, and the nozzle selector mount.
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Rear grip top (left) and nozzle selector mount (right).
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Oh yeah, here's a rough layout of the parts.
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Test fitting rear grip and stock mount
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This is the piece which was cut off the T above (nozzle selector mount). Sand flat and smooth.
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How the nozzle selector will fit. Note black marks - selector is a little too big; the mount needs to be Dremeled out.
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Bits used:
Rough:
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Finish:
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First notch.
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Oh, cut these tabs off.
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Tabs removed.
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How it fits inside. The nozzle selector (tan Y-shaped part) needs to be able to slide below-flush into the mount (white ring). This way, the nozzles (orange part) can rest flush against the mount.
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...More coming in a little while.
Last edited by DLVR8R on Sun Aug 07, 2011 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

DLVR8R
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:44 am

Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by DLVR8R » Sun Aug 07, 2011 9:14 am

Another shot of the nozzle selector, note the larger notch to allow for the water tube which will be added later.
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Nice and flush.
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Now I'm going to rough out the stock. Most of the pump mechanism will actually be inside the stock. The pump's piston will extend inside the gun's body when it is pulled out (more on this later). The backpack water supply hose will go into the bottom of the stock butt. It will go through a ball valve (used to cut off the water supply while pre-pressurizing), then directly into the pump's inlet, which is inside the 90 degree elbow.
Image

As you can see, part of the pump sticks out and won't fit inside the stock tube. The part that sticks out is the return which sends pressurized water into the PCs. I'm going to make a notch for this to go into, and I'll run this water tube on the outside of the stock tube.
You can kinda see two black lines I made for the notch; it turned out I needed to make it much wider, but that's the idea. Always start your cuts on the small side if you aren't sure!
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Cutting disk used for this type of stuff.
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Much cutting and sanding later.
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Note piston extending out the right end of the stock tube. Stock tube will be cut shorter later.
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Notch in the elbow joint is not required, I just wanted it to look cool.
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Water supply cutoff valve goes like this sorta
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Same basic idea as the notch for the pump.
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It may be hard to see, but the bottom of the ball valve is flat and squared off (it is a cylinder). I made a square channel on the inside of the stock butt, which the valve slots into.
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This was really tricky; the pipe got very thin in places, but it's still strong enough.
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Ugh finally
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Stock dry-fit.
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Another rough parts layout. The front grip will be connected to the piston, and will slide from its location as shown, all the way back until it contacts the rear grip mount. It will be attached to the gun body by 'tracks' to make it slide solidly and smoothly. (how do you like the sawdust on my bed?)
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Size comparison to the Gorgon's empty shell. The Commando is actually a little longer than the stock Gorgon, but it's more ergonomic, and more compact overall.
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M16 stock size comparison.
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Last edited by DLVR8R on Sun Aug 07, 2011 9:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

DLVR8R
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:44 am

Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by DLVR8R » Sun Aug 07, 2011 9:26 am

This is the endcap which will function as the stock mount.
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Roughing out the hole by drilling it a bunch of times with power drill; then clean up with Dremel.
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The stock hole is offset to one side, I'll explain this later when we get to the internals.
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Rough stock / rear grip assembly. The piece between the endcap and the rear grip mount is 3" PVC pipe which these connectors fit over. The main body of the gun will be made of the same pipe.
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PVC pipe segment being fitted into the rear grip mount. I had to Dremel away some material from about a 1/2" ring inside of the T to make the pipe fit this way. Normally, the pipe doesn't go in that far.
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Problem with the pipe segment: since the stock is offset, the stock tube hits the pipe segment.
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Cut notch in pipe segment, so that the stock tube can lay flush against the inside of the endcap / T.
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Back to internals. This is the inlet pipe for the PCs. Normally, pressurized water goes into the inlet on the bottom. The PCs are attached to the left and top connectors, and water goes out the right connector to the firing valve. I've already cut some stuff away, but you get the idea. I need this pipe to rest flat on the inside of the gun's body, so it's time to make some big changes.
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I cut away the bottom inlet, and will seal it over later. The new T intersection at right will attach to the rightmost PC pipe outlet (the only PC pipe outlet). Pressurized water from the pump will now enter from the top of the T intersection. Water will go out of the right side of the T intersection to the firing valve.
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Next update: fabricating a mount for all the internal parts.
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DLVR8R
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Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:44 am

Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by DLVR8R » Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:27 pm

Update - I finally got this thing all put together, but it had a lot of leaks. Protip: hot glue is useless for sealing pressurized joints! I'm going to rip it all apart and reseal with epoxy, and possibly replace some of the Gorgon parts with new plumbing pieces. It turns out that some of the Gorgon parts just don't lend themselves very well to being re-used in this manner. It will probably be a while before I finish it, but I definitely want to make this thing work!

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wetmonkey442
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Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by wetmonkey442 » Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:57 pm

How did I miss this? Fantastic work so far, and I hope you're able to get the finished product working. I find that Loctite 2 part epoxy works very well for sealing plastic. Just make sure to wash the pieces with warm soapy water beforehand (to remove oils) and roughen the mating surfaces with sandpaper.
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DLVR8R
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Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by DLVR8R » Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:30 pm

Does the 2 part epoxy work well for connecting vinyl hose to pvc fittings? That's where my failure points were. Strangely, I had a barb connector with no glue at all which was fine, but another barb connector with hot glue which failed. I think the heat from the hot glue might have weakened or melted the vinyl tube a little bit.

atvan
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Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by atvan » Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:31 pm

Use tubing clamps. I saw this before, but refrained from posting because the writeup was unfinished. How are you going to manage the trigger? Without it, this is less ergonomic.
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DLVR8R
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Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by DLVR8R » Wed Aug 24, 2011 12:24 am

Good call on the tubing clamps. Part of the problem is that some of the stock Gorgon parts simply didn't have a lot of room for the vinyl tube to overlap, therefore not a lot of surface area for glue adhesion (some of these joints wouldn't even have room for a hose clamp, so I'm going to have to do away with some of the stock parts altogether in favor of standard plumbing pieces). I have a temporary trigger for testing which works, but is a little awkward, so I'll probably work out something better when I revise the other parts. In the end this thing probably will have very few of the stock parts remaining, but whatever..!

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wetmonkey442
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Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by wetmonkey442 » Wed Aug 24, 2011 2:07 am

^In my experience, if you apply epoxy in the right way and wait the correct amount of time, it will seal together almost any two pieces, virtually forever.
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cantab
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Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by cantab » Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:10 am

This looks like it's coming along really well. But it does look like it's going to be more of a homemade using parts from a commercial blaster, as opposed to a modification in the usual sense.
I work on Windows. My toolbox is Linux.
Arsenal:
Super Soaker: XP215, 2xXP220, Liquidator, Aquashock Secret Strike M(odded), Arctic Blast M, CPS1200, CPS2100, SC Power Pak, 3l aquapack, 1.5l aquapack
Water Warriors: Jet, Sting Ray M, Shark, Argon M, Tiger Shark, PulseMaster
Others: Waterbolt, The Blaster, Storm 500, Shield Blaster 2000, generic PR gun, generic backpack piston pumper (broken), 3l garden sprayer M, 10l water carrier:

DLVR8R
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Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by DLVR8R » Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:40 am

Pretty much. It started out with a few simple ideas, and then quickly got out of hand :)

atvan
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Re: GRGN-C: Water Warriors Gorgon "Commando" Minimization Mod

Post by atvan » Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:24 am

It is still cool though.
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