SpudFiles

I was planning on building a cloud bbmg for airsoft. I was going to do a design like this, but in PVC and with a better barrel:

[youtube][/youtube]

But then I saw that every other cloud bbmg had a vortex block. What does the vortex block do? Does it help cycle the BB"s better into the barrel?

I'm sure this was brought up in another post, so excuse my ignorance.

Correct, a vortex block decreases the likelihood of a jam by agitating the the BBs in a more controlled manner than a "cloud" type BBMG.

This is a good thread to look through: http://www.spudfiles.com/airsoft-pellet ... 18159.html

This is the chaos that happens inside a cloud BBMG in slow motion

[youtube][/youtube]

What a vortex block does is introduce some order to this mess. It increases reliability but nothing else.

Thanks JSR. I'll look at that thread.

How long do you think I could shoot a cloud gun off of a 5 gal air tank at 100 psi regged down to 70 psi? About 15 seconds?

1nxtmonster wrote:How long do you think I could shoot a cloud gun off of a 5 gal air tank at 100 psi regged down to 70 psi? About 15 seconds?

With a 0.5 gallon air tank at 115 psi I got around 3-4 seconds worth shooting through a blowgun:

[youtube][/youtube]

Extrapolating that to your case, you should get at least 40 seconds worth of firing.

Thanks. 40 seconds worth of strafing sounds good for a skirmish.

Would a wood vortex block work? I don't think wood will deform under pressure,and the pressure in the chamber is less than the input pressure.

For airsoft, a vortex block made of wood will work just fine. The pressure inside the BBMG never gets high enough to deform anything.

Okay sounds good. Would this stuff work for a barrel?

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wt ... LXBJWZ&P=7

It has an ID of 6.1mm, but is only 12 inches long.

Even better barrel, 6.07 mm ID aluminum tubing in 3 foot lengths.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wt ... LXR863&P=7

1nxtmonster wrote:Even better barrel, 6.07 mm ID aluminum tubing in 3 foot lengths.

Go for it, an average good quality BB has a diameter of 5.95mm.

Deforming under pressure isn't what you need to worry about. It's the BB's wearing away at the wood that could cause trouble over time. I'd put a piece of PVC inside the wood block to help with that.

You should be able to find a good 6.03 mm airsoft barrel for less than 20$ on EBAY or something.
Don't get suckered into getting a 6.01 mm. They advertise that the tighter barrel is more accurate. This is true, but the barrel is so tight that the least amount of dirt or other foreign objects can jam the projectile.

After watching the videos, especially the first one, I think my minigun project might be back on. :bounce: