New Sabot Idea

[Dgealy]

I made a mini coaxial piston launcher with a 1" inch barrel like PVC Arsenal's old mini m203. Because the barrel is so small, I'm limited to only a few projectiles, while this thing still is extremely powerful. The barrel is only about ten inches long.

My idea: Basically take a small dowel and glue two sealing rings around it that would fit the inner barrel. The smaller dowel would stick out the end so I could stick a projectile onto it. It would have folding drag wings folded up inside the barrel, above the two rings.

I'm wondering if anyone thinks this could work, and if so, what could I make the folding drag wings out of? (The drag wings slow the sabot down so it can be collected and reused, while forcing it to detach from the launched projectile.)

[Hubb]

It sounds like it may be overly complicated. A picture would be nice, because I may be misinterpretating your intentions.

[Demon]

I have aprox. the same gun then you Dgealy and i just put 3 wads of paper, bbs, 3 wads of paper and its work very great.

[Carlman]

way too overcomplicated, old rags work a treat

[Dgealy]

No. The point of this is to launch large projectiles than the barrel allows for. The wood sticks out the end, and something like a nerf football is stuck on that. I'll get a pic up soon.

[psycix]

But what would be the use of that?
You wont get much penetration power or high velocities out of it.

[jimmy101]

It should work and it is something I considered a long time ago for a parachute round. The light gray rectangle in the image is the gun's barrel.

http://www.inpharmix.com/jps/ParachuteRound.html

Should work though you don't have much barrel area and the "sabot" is going to be a pretty considerable high velocity moving object all by itself.

In my para round the sabot is just a thick disk that the tail of the round sits on. I was just going to make it out of thick plastic with a couple layers of mouse pad as gasket.

[mrbadexample]

while having multiple barrels, i find different items will fit in them. the most interesting and destructive item was a chuck assembly from an electric drill. for a sabot, i used a slice of a potato. it went AWOL on the first shot (after completely penetrating a 14" CRT monitor)

[raptorforce]

usually when you make a sabot they beak apart and fall away.
i used a wooden sabot and it didnt work because it never fell away my guess to that would be wind resistance pushed it down

right now im working ona foam sabot but just havent gotten around to finishing it

[inonickname]

usually when you make a sabot they beak apart and fall away.
i used a wooden sabot and it didnt work because it never fell away my guess to that would be wind resistance pushed it down

right now im working ona foam sabot but just havent gotten around to finishing it

A foam sabot is easy. Just put the projectile you want to shoot, centered in a piece of scrap the same size as the barrel (suspend it with fishing line), plug the bottom and get some of the spray foam that comes in cans (insulation like stuff, not bondo) and fill it up. When it's cured, pull it out and use a utility knife to slice along so the two halves can fall away when fired.

[scavies]

Ohh I get it. Yea, that would work to some extent, but the aerodynamics are going to ruin most potential. Try your best to keep the center of gravity near the middle.

Oh yea, also watch out for for the projectile. It's going to be getting a lot of concentrated energy where the dowel is connected to the projectile. The dowel might go right through it if it's a potato or a nerf.

I tried it once without sealing rings and got a ton of blowby, but with them it might work.

[jeepkahn]

Not tryingto kick an old topic, BUT, Me and my brother have figured a good way to make sabots and darts similar to KE rounds...

the dart is a 10"x .5" steel rod sharpened to a point and then I tack weld sheet metal fins(4 to be exact) onto the back of the shaft. the sabot is made by taking a 6"x1.5" wooden dowel, chucking it into a lathe and boring a .5" hole 5" deep, then we take that and quarter it lengthwise. we then will take the dart and fit the dowel pieces around it( the fins will fit between the quarters), and near the top of the dowel we'll use pieces of rubber band that will compress between sabot and dart upon loading, and at the base of the assembled round we'll use a single wrap of masking tape. Upon loading the base will slide right in but toward the top of the sabot (where the rubber pieces are) it will squeeze in.. Upon firing as the load exits the barrel, the rubber pieces will force the sabot sections outwards so that they will catch air and seperate, leaving the dart to travel it's merry way unencumbered by the sabot...

I REALLY want a Hi Speed camera handy when we test these....

[Jared Haehnel]

Its an interesting idea but complex. It allows Murphy's law to work really well. What you might look at it is the extending the barrel just a little so you can put on a threaded adapter and use a larger barrel for the projectiles...