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Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 9:54 am
by mburkit
Hello everyone. For the past week, I have been working on getting my neutrona wand to have a spring loaded, extending mechanism for the clear tip of the wand. I'm posting this now because I want others to see how I am doing this and to get some help as well.

This first post will just highlight the inner workings of the trigger mechanism in the gun body. My issue now is attaching my "trigger" to the green lever, which is just a 1/8" brass rod coming in through the wall of the gun body.

So first up is the picture of it:
Image
This is it in the "set" position. It's basically just a pin that fits into a brass "arm" extending from inside the front barrel. When the string is pulled, the tip extends.

Here are 2 videos of it. Sorry the one is a little dark.

This one shows the trigger working and the tip extending.


This one shows the trigger working a little better. Sorry for it being a little dark.

So now the part where I need help! Any ideas on how to attach this to the green lever? When all the slack is taken out of the string, it only needs to be pulled like 1/8" for it to fire. Anyone better at physics and see a really simple solution to this? I've been working on it straight for 3 days and I need a second set of eyes to give me some ideas.

Once I have the green lever figured out, then I will take the front barrel apart and take pictures, with explanations of how it works. For now, no one gets my "secret" till I have it working correctly!

Thanks for looking and for giving some ideas!

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 10:45 am
by ThrowingChicken
Image

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 10:47 am
by ThrowingChicken
You could also put the lever in a higher-angled position at default, then wrap your line tightly around the rod, going over the top. By the time you have pushed the lever down to the bottom you should have pulled the line the required distance to fire the barrel.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 10:55 am
by jackdoud
I'm thinking something like this:

Image

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 11:00 am
by ThrowingChicken
But that puts the lever entering the gun in the wrong place, just about where the side knobs would be.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 11:04 am
by jackdoud
ThrowingChicken wrote:But that puts the lever entering the gun in the wrong place, just about where the side knobs would be.
I didn't realize the pic was to scale, just illustrating an option.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 11:05 am
by ThrowingChicken
ThrowingChicken wrote:Image
I drew it as a pully, but you could use your little hook eye screws.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 11:30 am
by xtrmn8r17
So as for resetting this thing, would u just push it back it and it and it locks?

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 12:43 pm
by mburkit
ThrowingChicken wrote:Image
Yeah, I was thinking something like this, and using an eye hook as the "pull". Sadly I won't be able to work on this again till next week, since I have finals Monday and Tuesday to study for.
xtrmn8r17 wrote:So as for resetting this thing, would u just push it back it and it and it locks?
Yup, just pull back on the green lever and push the clear tube back in at the same time. Once the clear tube is all the way back, you just let go of the green lever and it locks.

Thanks for the ideas so far, I'll keep you guys updated on how I do this.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 2:37 pm
by xtrmn8r17
Cool, i might do this if i ever make another gun.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 4:57 pm
by pchrisbosh1
Really awesome Burkit, glad to see you came up with something to get this working in Chases gunbox. Looks like ill have to take mine apart and do the same. Looking forward to the parts list and tutorial from you Burk to get started on this. Good stuff.






Chris

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 12th, 2009, 8:50 pm
by mburkit
A little update when I had the chance to take some pictures. This is how the inside of the front barrel works.

I made a slide out of a piece of square brass stock that I drilled 4 holes in. Two holes are to attach the brass to the clear tube.
Image

The long hole is for the guide screw, so everything stays inline and the clear tube doesn't twist around.
Image
Depending on your set up, you could hide this screw under your grip on the front handle.

Then I have a spring in there, behind the clear tube, with the brass running inside it:
Image
There are 2 ways you could stop the spring from moving around. You can either compress the spring then insert the set screw for the slide behind it (so the spring is wedged between the clear tube and the set screw) or you can install another screw farther back on the handle. By doing this, you don't have to compress the spring.

Lastly, I will leave you with a clearer picture of the "trigger" inside the gun box.
Image

I haven't had time to finish it yet, with studying for finals and what not. Hopefully I will have it all working in a closed gun box soon.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 12th, 2009, 9:04 pm
by gbrob
pretty slick. thanks for sharing the updates...

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 13th, 2009, 9:24 pm
by CPU64
If you can, solder brass pieces together instead of gluing them. Less chances of it breaking. :)

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 18th, 2009, 10:16 am
by mburkit
Hello everyone! I'm pretty much done. The only issue I have now is the cord to attach the lever to the "trigger" piece. I had this working with 2 strands of nylon out of 550 paracord (for comparison, in the pictures and video, I have 1 strand of the stuff in hand). I doubled them up but they eventually began to shred on one of the eye hooks where there was a lot of tension. The other issue with the stuff is that it stretches so its hard to get the slack out of it.

So I'm posting here to see if anyone else has a better idea of what to use as the "string" attaching the "trigger" to the green lever? It needs to be flexible enough for me to work with. I tried this with 20 gauge wire as well but it wasn't flexible enough. For that to work, I think I'd need a stronger spring to pull the "trigger" back towards the guild bar from inside the barrel.

Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 18th, 2009, 10:23 am
by bradboss12
wow, crazy good! I'm not very mechanical, so I don't know if I would try it, but it looks great! And, you are incorporating parts that are already "part" of the wand on the outside, which is a good choice.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 18th, 2009, 10:35 am
by jackdoud
I'd hunt around in a tackle shop Matt. Some leader line or a mid-range lb-test line should work.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 18th, 2009, 11:08 pm
by mburkit
Okay, I did as Jack told me and I found some fishing line. 50lb Teflon coated fishing line to be exact.

Image

Then I did this:
Image

And it looks like this:


I'll work on a diagram this weekend so people can see exactly what I did, if you can't figure it out by the pictures I've supplied so far.

Thanks for following along!

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 19th, 2009, 1:10 am
by Paco
nice to see your extending trigger. its great man. just wanted to know, but is it just as effective wit a toilet spring? you be the judge.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 19th, 2009, 8:00 am
by mburkit
Paco wrote:nice to see your extending trigger. its great man. just wanted to know, but is it just as effective wit a toilet spring? you be the judge.
Is it just as effective with a toilet spring? I'm assuming you mean the spring inside a toilet paper dispenser. And the answer is I have no idea. I'm sure it would work but I just went to the hardware store and bought a spring I felt would work for like a $1.50.

Everything I used can be found at an ACE Hardware, except the fishing line, which I got at Walmart. None of it is hard to find. It just takes time and a lot of drilling.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 19th, 2009, 3:27 pm
by gbrob
[Ray] Beautiful!! [/Ray]

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 19th, 2009, 9:17 pm
by xtrmn8r17
WHAT? NO SOUND?

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 19th, 2009, 9:43 pm
by mburkit
xtrmn8r17 wrote:WHAT? NO SOUND?
I do have sound. I didn't have it switched on because it was 1:30 am when I finished it up and didn't want to wake the whole house with the roars of my proton pack :D

I'll probably do a nice video then, doing a full demo of my pack, just for shits and giggles.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 19th, 2009, 9:53 pm
by CPU64
So you have to pull back the lever to both release, and arm the tube, right?

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 19th, 2009, 9:55 pm
by mburkit
Yeah, you can't just push the clear tube back in. You have to pull the green lever, push the clear tube in, then let the lever go to re-arm it.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 19th, 2009, 10:52 pm
by Krenzy
Looks awesome, Matt!! Good job!

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 20th, 2009, 4:32 am
by xtrmn8r17
Awesome! So in the next vid, show us u resetting it too :cool:

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 20th, 2009, 7:33 am
by mburkit
I have a "feeling" I'm getting a Sony HD camcorder for Christmas this year, so the next video will be higher quality and I'll borrow my mom's tripod as well. I'm going to do a full demo of my pack, with lights and sound, twisting barrels and extending tips! And I'll show myself resetting it too. It's just tough to do when your one hand is holding the camera.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 20th, 2009, 9:40 am
by trendkiller
it is really looking good, how about posting a parts list for everyone once you are done? Im sure we would all like to have this method cataloged.

Re: Extending Clear tip mechanism WIP

Posted: December 20th, 2009, 10:10 am
by mburkit
Yeah, I'll probably write up a tutorial like I did for the replica props sound set-up. It will be a list of parts and the basic idea of how to do it. Everyone's gun is different so people are going to have to figure out some of it for themselves.