Flake-42, Semi-Auto Airsoft Gun

[PaperNinja]

I finally finished my first (note-worthy project). I started it over the summer, and when school hit it was slow going, but it's done. I named it Flake, because compared to the quality stuff on these forums, it's flakey (unreliable) and as powerful as a snowflake . 42 refers to my name-number system. (4 classifies it as small caliber pneumatic, 2 says it's my second one---I also built a cloud a while ago)

This is very similar to Poland_Spud's semi, though not as good.
I at one point considered making a suppressor, but it's actually very quiet when fired.

It fires at 150 psi from a paintball tank with an 1/8" qev, 3-way pilot, regulator, and ball valve safety switch. The barrel is a 6.03 madbull tightbore

Here are pictures:



You can see I love that black stuff... It's Apoxie Sculpt, and works very well as a sealer/glue/fastener. It has the consistency of play-dough until it hardens (2-3 hr working time, 24 hr cure).


The duct tape is just a laser pointer I slapped on.


Magazine:


It doesn't hold many bbs, unfortunately I had 5 springs in there, but when I ran out of bbs the air cylinder tried to feed a spring up because the springs were longer than the mag, then a spring broke, I have more but they'll keep breaking if I put in more than 4.


And here's the link to two videos... the power is kind of weak, but oh well...

[youtube][/youtube]


You can hear the last two shots are blank, but the first two were good (no misfires, I just ran out of ammo)
[youtube][/youtube]

I of course have to thank JSR for having the patience to answer my private noobish questions, and other peoples' public noobish questions that I can read. Before this gun, I had only made a (COMPLETELY failed large piston spudgun, an extremely simple cloud, and little pill-bottle combustions) Also other people and stuff too 8)

I'm next making a .22 burst disk hybrid, firing at mixes on the order of 40x

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Sounds a bit anemic but good effort for a second build. The low power is probably due to the relatively low pressure as well as the dead space of the reloading system.

[PaperNinja]

It's probably the reload system, when I tested it without it was much more powerful (I think)

[Zeus]

To solve your magazine problems, make a follower (the thing that pushes rounds in a normal magazine), you can make one out of a bolt and washers, then attach a thin cord to the folower, and connect the cord to the end cap, so it's just the right length.

[PaperNinja]

Hm, that's a pretty good idea, I could just melt some 550 paracord around a BB and pass it inside the springs to the endcap.

[pneumaticcannons]

Could the low power be caused by the piston retracting as the gun shoots? I know thats the point of the design but you could install a pneumatic restriction so the piston retracts slower