Tech Target Overhaul!

Sup guys,

It has been a while--I've been busy as a B working on Zero's goods. All I have to say is that it's going to hurt sending this one off. I believe this is one of my finest mods to date--no joke! A lot of time, thought, and experimentation went into this bad boy, and the results are better than I could have ever imagined. Not to toot my own horn, but I've really outdone myself with this one. Here's some of the fabulous features of this fine feisty firearm:

• 1'' polycarbonate plunger tube
• 6 1/4'' K26 spring at damn near full compression (over 4'' of draw)
• Custom paint job and other cosmetics (ammo holders)
• Delrin plunger rod
• Dual coupler setup (PVC/CPVC)
• No bolt through the shell! Plunger tube is secured via pixie dust and magic incantations

Let's get into the nitty gritty, shall we?
Required Materials:

• 1'' O.D./7/8'' I.D. polycarbonate tubing
• 1 1/8'' O.D./1'' I.D. polycarbonate tubing
• K26 spring
• Plastic solvent, like PVC cement
• Vinyl dye
• Hand paints
• Clear coat
• Paint brushes
• Masking tape
• 1/2'' PVC coupler
• 1/2'' CPVC coupler
• Paper clip 
• 1/8'' natural gum foam 
• 1/8'' polycarbonate
• 1'' long 6-32 pan-head screw
• 6-32 nut
• 6-32 washer
• 3/4'' fender washer
• #8 washer
• 1'' neoprene washer
• 3/8'' Delrin square rod
• 5/8'' O.D./1/2'' I.D. polycarbonate tubing
• 1/4'' long 6-32 set screw
• 1/2'' long 6-32 set screw x2
• 3/4'' long 3/8'' thick 6-32 nylon spacer x2
• 6-32 nylon acorn nut x2
• 3'' long 6-32 threaded rod
• Replacement catch spring

Required Tools:

• Dremel
• Scroll saw
• Drill press or hand drill with skillz
• Belt sander

Write-up:
Open her up and witness a timeless piece of Nerf history! Also witness the shittiest plunger head in history:

The first phase of the mod is preparing the shell. This requires the plunger tube to be cut in order to check the fit. I ended up going with 7 1/4'' inches of the 1'' OD polycarbonate tubing for my plunger tube.

When I looked at the front of the blaster, I noticed ridges right where I normally put a bolt through the shell to secure the plunger tube. I decided that I liked the ridges (for her pleasure), so I devised a way to keep all the plunger tube securing internal! Behold my simple solution:

Pretty slick, eh? We'll see how it holds up. Now on to the shitty part of the mod--getting the plunger tube to fit. Just keep testing the fit until you can snap the shell together around the plunger tube. Unfortunately, the two screw ports at the front of the blaster will have to be sacrificed. Also notice that I completely removed the orange side panels for a view of the internals. I'm always a fan of exposing my goods publicly:

Now that the plunger tube no longer rotates, we have taken care of one problem. Unfortunately, there's still another serious issue--the plunger tube can still be pulled out the front of the blaster! To solve this problem, I used some polycarbonate tubing one size up (1 1/8'' O.D./1'' I.D.) to trap the plunger tube behind the internal shell supports. Simply lay down the plunger tube in position and make your marks. The rings must be cut thin enough to avoid the screw ports near the plunger supports. Remember, when working with solvents, you must work quickly!

Now for the second shittiest part of the mod--preparing the shell for sanding. Here's 80+220 grit on the left and just 80 grit on the right:

Here's 320 grit:

400 grit:

600 grit:

Jesus that sucked! Now it's finally time to curb that anger with some relaxing painting. For my base coat, I went with Dupli-color matte black:

As you can see, I have started masking off areas that I don't want to contaminate with my hand paint. Here's the coupler that will serve as the muzzle of the blaster:

Once everything is all masked up, it's time to bust out the hand paint. I went with Coop's suggestion and picked up several Citadel Layer Paints, which are normally used for geeky tabletop games. They are water-based acrylic paints that are pretty high quality. Just remember to constantly mix the sparkly ones! Here are the exact colors I got:

• Runefang Steel
• Evil Sunz Scarlet
• Gehenna's Gold

Painting takes a lot of patience, and even then you can still royally fuck up. Luckily my girlfriend has painted many a nail in her time, so I recruited her expertise for this excursion.

After you're satisfied with the look of the hand paint, it's time to remove the tape. Once I removed the tape, I nearly shat a brick. Improperly mixed watery paint had leaked under the tape in certain sections and looked literally like diarrhea. I had to make an emergency run to pick up some black paint to clean up some of the doodies. All in all, I managed to fix things up good enough. At this point it's time to finish up the paint job with a couple of clear coats. I followed the directions on my Rust-oleum Crystal Clear Acrylic Lacquer, which said to put on one light coat followed by one thick coat. Here's the final product!

Now that the painting is done, it's time to move on to the internals. Carve out the back of the shell on both sides to fit the 3/8'' Delrin rod:

Expand the hole in the trigger catch to fit the plunger rod:

Now to prepare the muzzle--grab a CPVC coupler and glue on a paper clip to act as a dart stop:

Cut off a bit of the end of the CPVC coupler and solvent weld it into the 1/2'' PVC coupler. Leave a little lip on the CPVC coupler that can be solvent welded to the plunger tube. Make sure to scrape off any paint on the PVC coupler that would interfere with the weld!

Cut yourself a ring of plunger padding. I used my classic 1/8'' natural gum foam:

The plunger tube is done! Now on to the plunger rod. The tricky thing about a 1'' plunger tube is that a K26 is almost the same diameter, so it's very easy for the spring to try and hook over the plunger head. This was indeed the toughest challenge for this mod, and I decided to solve it with super precision machining after conversing with my DIY dad. Since there weren't any fender washers of suitable size for an upper spring stop, I decided to make my own out of 1/8'' polycarbonate sheet. Scroll out a circle about 1'' in diameter:

This is where the fatherly wisdom kicked into overdrive--I ended up turning my drill press into a lathe! Drill a 9/64'' hole through the approximate center of the disc:

Now insert a 6-32 bolt and tighten a nut onto it:

Now insert it into the chuck of the drill press:

I started with the file, then moved on to the Dremel for faster work. Keep checking the fit with the plunger tube until it fits with no friction. I did the same thing to my 1'' neoprene washer as well to get the seal perfect. Here the plunger head, from left to right: 1'' 6-32 pan-head screw, #6 washer, 3/4'' fender washer, #8 washer, 1'' neoprene washer, polycarbonate disc

Now to prepare the Delrin rod--insert it into the plunger into its approximate spot, taking into account the thickness of the plunger head:

Mark where you want your handle to be:

Mine ended up being 9 1/4'' inches (giggity):

But out the 9/64'' drill bit and penetrate the ass of the plunger rod. It's for that love handle:

Use the 7/64'' drill bit to drill and tap the head of the plunger rod:

Time to use a technique I came up with in my Firestrike mod to keep the spring centered. Start by lightly sanding the corners on the front 1'' of the plunger rod:

Cut a 1'' piece of 5/8'' O.D./1/2'' I.D. polycarbonate tubing and slip it over the front of the plunger rod:

Drill, tap, and secure with a 1/4'' set screw:

Time to figure out where to cut the catch notch. In my Firestrike write-up, my theoretical values for the K26 did not agree with my measure values, so I'm going to do things experimentally from now on. Put together the plunger rod, including the handle.

Pop it into the plunger tube and snap the shell together. Grab a friend with a pencil and have them hover nearby. Pull back the plunger rod all the way until the spring is completely compressed and have your friend make a mark on the plunger rod right next to the shell. Take the plunger rod apart and cut the catch notch about an inch above the mark:

Now reassemble the plunger rod:

Almost done! Cut two 1 1/2'' long pieces of the same polycarbonate tubing used as the spring spacer and sand down the end of each piece at an angle:

Drill and tap the flat end and insert a 1/2'' set screw:

Solvent weld them into place:

Cut a piece of 1/8'' polycarbonate to add to the trigger for a quicker trigger pull and solvent weld it into place:

At long last, the finish line is here! Lube it up, add a catch spring, and reassemble:

Beautiful.

Here is the draw:

Some shots of the shell cutaway showcasing spring compression:

Money shot:

Final Thoughts:
Well guys, I stayed true to my word. A lot of work for a little blaster, but a rewarding experience in itself. The prime is as smooth as butter and it shoots incredibly hard. Zero, you are a lucky guy! I might cry a little when I ship this one off.

It shoots about as hard as my Firestrike, which is insane. In addition to some of my patented techniques, there were some new techniques that I learned and used for this mod. After getting a taste of my first real paint job, I feel like I could really get into painting. It's nice to add a little right brain to a very left-brained hobby. Thanks to my girlfriend for helping out with the painting and my dad for coming up with way better solutions than me to problems!

Hope you guys enjoyed this write-up. Time to lay this boner to rest and get some sleep,
~T da B