Vortex Questions

[Suppressive Fire]

Acrilic is prone to shattering but lexan (also refered to as polycarbonate)is easy to machine and will never shatter (bullet proof). Its is like a cross between machinable wax and aluminum when you work with it. Can the rectangle extend out past the edge so there is only one "tab" in contact with the bottom of the pipe the block is in? I'll post a diagram in a sec.

EDIT- Heres what it looks like (I love Autodesk Inventor)

[noname]

So you're going with the full hole block?
I have filed off the front, but that makes it extremely hard to mount, unless the block is very long.
I have used polycarbonate, but it is very hard to cut perfectly with a hacksaw. Also, after making dozens of vortex blocks, I shatter about 1 out of 15. Polycarbonate is also too expensive, and would make me bump up proces of vortex blocks to around $8, which would eliminate the extremely small "business" I get in the first place.

[Suppressive Fire]

There is only 3/4ths of a hole there. This gun is going to be a bullpup style so the plunger that pushes ammo to the block will have a hole in it for the barrel. I can get polycarb for free so even if I screw the first couple blocks up I'm set. I have a sheet of .5in thick that is a bit larger than a square foot. Is it best to have the hole in the block like the one I designed or should it be elevated if so how far?

[noname]

There is only 3/4ths of a hole there.

No, there's the full hole. How is that 3/4s of a hole?

[Suppressive Fire]

I guess I still don't understand exactly what you mean when you talk about a partial hole.

[noname]

The How-To article shows it better, you can look in there.

[Suppressive Fire]

Thanks for all the help, but I have one last question. Is it better to have the hole elevated or as low as possible?

[noname]

If you use a full hole, it is hard to get the elevation right. If it's too low, it will jam up. If it's too high, the last 50 or so BBs won't be shot out. Using a partial hole, it doesn't matter.

[Suppressive Fire]

So the block is drilled with the bottom of the hole about .25in up from the bottom then the rectangle is cut out or the block is just cut about 1/4 up into the hole all the way across.

[noname]

I was 100% unable to make anything from that sentence, can you paraphrase?

[Suppressive Fire]

this is the block I'm gonna biuld for testing. the barrel will be 1ft of 9/32 brass tubing with a 1/4in brass tubing insert to lower the caliber to .177 cause all I have right now is metal bbs

[noname]

Looks pretty good, but don't expect it to be that perfect on the first try. Also, drilling a longer barrel hole is harder, but holds the barrel in place better and keeps it from bending.

[Suppressive Fire]

I will try a longer barrel hole. I'm pretty skilled with hand tools but nothing beats a CNC Machine in terms of perfection. Once I work all the kinks out of the design I have a connection so I could get a block macined out of solid aluminum or another metal. Should I insert the barrel into the hole just far enough so the bottom edge doesn't protrude into the block hole? Or, should I push it all the way into the hole and file it down so the end of the barrel has the same curve as the block hole?

[noname]

I've done both, it doesn't seem to matter much.

[Suppressive Fire]

I just built a little prototype with a 12in barrel the other day when I was bored. I can only fire for about half a second before my air tank needs to be repressurized but HOLY CRAP IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll start work on the full size version soon. Thanks for all the help!