I actually made that cannon I mentioned in my last post

In the end I used 2" pvc and a 1/4" ball valve, using the lathe at my summer job I machined the piston out of aluminum and gave it an o-ring seal

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/at4-style-pneumatic-t24557.html

back to air cannons

I've wanted to get back to air cannons for a while, when I eventually am at home and have the resources there are two things I want to do.
First I have some 6" pvc that I've wanted make a cannon out of and a 1.5" dust collector valve I just want to build a big ass cannon maybe with a piston valve piloted by the dust collector valve. Why haven't I done this before? what will make me actually build it this time? well this time I plan to build it out of DWV fittings, for those of you who don't know that means is I'm going to use fitting not rated for air pressure. For a long time I was amoung the spudfiles.com forum members trying to spread awarness of DWV, many ametuer builders use DWV local hardware stores generally don't sell pressure rated fitting for pipes larger than 2". That's because there's no common use for such fittings. However ordering pressure rated fitting is really expensive so I've never bought the necessary fittings to use my 6" pvc pipe. I'm aware of the danger I'm just sick of not owing a giant cannon because being safe is too expensive.

next while I was on spudfiles I saw Jackssmirkingrevenge or JSR post this design:

from this thread I like the design a lot and I want to build something similar like a disposable AT-4 launcher tube that shoots a swarm of nerf darts, I'm split between two barrel types a single large barrel with hand full of darts between nerf balls or vortex disks like this, or a more common cluster of barrels which may yield a more narrow longer range spread

will mod for money

here's the deal I've been modding nerf blasters for over 3 years, I'm a competent college student with a major in engineering. I'll be honest and say that I regularly mod blasters for friends for free, so it's only fair if I give you a really low price, without shipping I'll provide most basic modifications for under $10. I am very experienced in modding nerf blasters I've modded the entire N-strike line and most blasters more than once. I've seen what will make blasters break and the effects of certain mods. I can assure you that your blasters are in good hands and I stand by the quality of my work.

since it's kinda sketchy for you to just go by my word here's a picture of some modded blasters to prove that I do modify blasters.I will preform basic mods that include but are not limited to: AR removal, lock removal, jam door removal, spring compression and padding installation. basically I'll make it more powerful and less "idiot proof" if you want. Other blasters can my have other mods, that I can let you know about if I am willing to do them.

generally I stay away from mods that will require me to acquire new parts such as barrel replacements or spring replacements
I also don't do paint jobs

mods will be very cheap, you can even subsidize your payment with trades or nerf darts in good condition, but you must provide for any shipping and handling with cash, or you can even arrange local pickups if you live in the Maryland area.

leave a comment in the description if your interested and I can provide you with contact info

OPINION: I hate the Nerf Stampede

Don't get me wrong I love the 18round stick clips, and with a voltage mods the stampede can be kinda cool. What I hate is the raw out-of-the-box stampede with standard D-cell batteries. First off just watch this stampede test fire, (skip to 1:30)

skip to 1:30

Notice how there is a delay from when the motors kick in to the dart actually shooting, that delay is the reason why I hate the nerf stampede. It may not seem like much but it makes a world of difference. Imagine if you had announce that you were shooting right by yelling a word right before you pulled the trigger on a nerf raider, that's a pretty serious disadvantage. It would provide your targets with time to react and try to evade your shots. In general the slow stochastic shooting of the stampede is a very inefficient way of shooting zombie, I've seen it in thunderdome games where players with stampedes always preform worse than players with raiders, alpha troopers, recons and quick16s not including blaster malfunctions.

Anyone who has played HvZ for a while knows that many tags are "close calls" where the human will shoot the zombie almost at the same time as the zombie tags them. So clearly if being able to shoot first is pretty dam important, why would you tolerate a blaster that delays your shots. I've even witnessed people with stampedes get tagged this way in games. I don't see why anyone would still see the stampede as effective after that. Just calculate it, a person runs at over 10mph which is about 15feet per second, the stampede delay is about a third of a second, the attacking zombie will move 5 feet before your blaster even shoots, and remember many tags are close calls, but when your using a stampede the zombie will have a five foot advantage.

mod idea

In the world of ridiculous mods some times people will do a mod just because they can. Today during class I thought about the internals of a powerstrike 48 and I realized that with some careful cutting and gluing it could be possible to create a powerstrike 96, I don't have the money to risk 2 powerstrike 48s in a freak operation to make freak mod with limited usefulness but just thought I might throw it out there

original image from NMR

My next HvZ primary?

I'm pretty excited for the Nerf Rayven, if it's all I'm hoping it to be, I plan on integrating a nerf Recon onto a Nerf barrel extension to compensate for the shortcomings of flywheels.

the basic idea

In HvZ games running around with only a flywheel blaster at hand is a bad idea since you need a second to turn on the blaster. When I'm using my poor man's barricade (modified buzz bee ultimate rapid blast) I remedy this by duel wielding with a tetrastrike in the other hand, which is effective but can be awkward. For example: I'll put the tetra strike in my right hand when just walking about because If I run into any surprises I naturally respond with my right hand first and the tetrastrike can shoot multiple dart upon trigger pull with no delay, but if I'm anticipating an attack/charge of many zombies I'll put the poor man's barricade (the flywheel blaster) in my right hand since I can shoot with more accuracy and control. However trying to switch the blasters between hands is a very awkward process. A blaster integration like the one I've displayed will allow me to switch hands easily. I hope you can see some of the many benefits of this setup let me know what you think.

arming cargo vessels to defend against pirates (this still annoys me)

This issue is really old but for years I can't get over the fact that cargo ships in dangerous waters do not have guns to protect themselves. Normally I can relate to both sides on an issue in politics (to some degree) and it wont bother me as much when things don't go the way I believe it should but I haven't seen a single reason that I find at all legitimate. Pirates target cargo ships because they are unarmed. I is undeniable that a presence of armed personal on cargo ships would correlate to a decrees in pirating incidents. I squirm every time I see diarrheal statements saying violence is not the solution to this problem. I can't even say that it's bullshit because bullshit is more solid and firm, this is weak spineless pacifist weak sauce. Arming ships isn't about killing pirates it the same way arming police officers with guns isn't about killing criminals. It's one thing to say that Somalia needs help to stop the cause of pirating but that still doesn't make arming ships bad. It's like saying the presence of law enforcement is bad because it doesn't fix the economic a social motives of crime. There are other reasons I heard like ports don't allow ships that are armed, or there are arms embargoes. I think the safety of the sailors and the multi-million dollar cargo clearly more important than any of that.

Here's an idea why don't they arrange a legitimate Somoli escort service, it'll a lot to make it work but it'll help Somalians make a decent living while giving ships the protection they deserve.