Lanard/Air Zone Triple Shot Mod!

Background:
I don't own too many blasters that aren't made by Nerf, but there are a few that stand out from all the others. One of these is the Air Zone Triple Shot, an interesting spring-powered gun that shoots 3 darts per shot for a shotgun-type dart spread. As it turns out, the Triple Shot's plunger tube is absolutely massive, which is why I decided to pick it up and turn it into something fearsome. In its stock form, the Triple Shot is terrible and the quality of its plastic is shit, but with some simple mods and heavy reinforcements it can rival even the most powerful springers out there. This write-up was based on a couple of write-ups on Nerfhaven, namely Zorn's Overhaul for all the mods and makeitgo's post for all the shell reinforcements. I will be removing the auto-rotation, since the plastic rotation piece and track it rides in are too weak and flimsy to handle the weight of my turret and the strength of my plunger to turret seal.

A sneak preview

That's 1/2'' ID and 3/4'' OD PETG from Mcmaster--extremely durable and a bit heavy. I'm glad that I can be a little rough with this one, unlike the AT3K, which has very thin polyethylene tubing. The tips of those barrels are prone to breaking or bending, but this guy can easily withstand a drop onto concrete (though the Lanard plastic might not). I hope to unleash this beast shortly.

Merry Christmas from T da B!

Happy holidays everyone!

I hope you're all having a great end of the year, relaxing with your family and friends, getting drunk, and sharing the gift of giving. I was fortunate enough this year to have Santa hear my request and commission some elves to fulfill my order! I was absolutely ecstatic to receive this under the tree this year:

Expect even higher-quality mods in the future! No more lopsided turret holes and I can now make my own barrel spacers. Hell yeah!

The future looks enticing...

Check out what I just found amidst the chaos that is Nerfhaven--an oasis standing alone. My AT3K tank is fast fading into nothingness--a leaky ship without much time to spare. 60 psi proved to be too tough of a pill to swallow. All the other air tanks share the same common defect--they are made from only the shittiest quality of plastic available. Roboman offers the solution to my air blaster problems, with aluminum AT2K tanks! At last, you can finally rest in peace running your setup up to (and possibly beyond) 125psi. $20. Hot damn.

Fixing the Stampede's gearbox

Hi readers,

In case you were wondering, my Stampede has not seen battle nor been show to a single soul, mainly out of shame. What was initially an amazing project kept getting progressively worse as my gearbox kept failing. It was the only weak point in my incredible Stampede setup, and made my uber-blaster unworthy to be carried into battle. See the gear that keeps getting its hole stripped?

I recently found a guy named ptR in the Oznerf community who just might have the solution to all my woes! Behold, something that can easily handle the torque of 4 Trustfires (with a good amount of grease). The gears are machined out of bronze and go for $35 for the set pictured (not including shipping). I'm pretty stoked if they are indeed real--I have 2 Stampede/Trustfire combos that really need to be beefed up before they see battle.

Update (2/28/2013): ptR is AWOL--I have tried contacting him numerous times to no avail. I have finally given up on Australia. Luckily, Singapore is always innovating! A company called PAK D sells replacement gears and a kit called the "Stampede Stress Kit." I will be receiving one soon--check out their website here. I would not recommend buying from them unless you are doing a bulk order with other people--shipping is around $50 for a medium-sized package.

PowerClip DX1000 added to the sales page

This strange-looking beast is none other than the Nerf PowerClip DX1000. It came out in 2000 and was the predecessor to the Magstrike AS-10. It shares many similarities with the Magstrike--most notably the absolutely bonkers rate of fire. It fires faster than my voltage-modded Stampede, which is saying a lot. Another major difference is that the air bladder is in the center of the blaster rather than in a stock-like attachment. This allows for a shorter length and slightly taller profile. The PowerClip's clip is not removable, but with some simple mods you can not only make the clip removable, but also allow the gun to accept Magstrike clips! Pretty nifty, eh?

Minimized and brass-breeched Stampede mod!

Background:
There is a special place in my heart for the Stampede. It is the only battery-powered direct plunger blaster ever made by Nerf, and the plunger tube is almost as big as the Longshot's! However, let's not get all hot an bothered just yet...The Stampede is one of the most expensive Nerf guns of all time, but it's for a good reason--you get the blaster plus a shield, foregrip/bipod, one 6-round clip, and three 18-round clips. The Stampede is terrible out of the box--it fires quite slowly and has terrible range (~10 feet). Combine that with the crappyness that is the pink streamline dart and the weight of the 6 D-batteries and you have a blaster that is guaranteed to get you killed in a Nerf war. Luckily, we're about to do a few mods to the Stampede that will make it one of the most feared fighting weapons on the battlefield! Once again, this mod was inspired by my hero and friend SgNerf--check out the two write-ups I followed here and here.

Update

Hey guys,

I know I've been MIA for the past week or so, but I assure you I'm not dead. I'm quite alive, actually, and I'm cooking up something really amazing for my next big project! I had to outdo the Airtech 3000 somehow, and I think I've managed to do so. It should only be a day or two more before my newest creation sees the light of day. Here's a little teaser before I finish the project:

Ring any bells?

Ambidextrous brass slide breech

Hi folks!

I have finally grown weary of taking barrels in and out of my coupler-ed blasters to reload them. It's time to speed up that reloading process in a sexy way--through the creation of a brass slide breech! This one was inspired (like many of my projects) by the illustrious SgNerf. Check out his original writeup here. This project is a relatively simple one, but will test your dremeling skills to the max. Without further ado, let's make a slide breech!

Big thank you to DJ Casper!

If you guys have noticed, my blog has a sweet new header! It's all thanks to my buddy DJ Casper. We've known each other for many years and have had many jam sessions together. I would come by with my guitar and/or bass and he would rock the turntables. I haven't been playing too much these days since the modding has kind of taken over, by Casper is still doing his thing on the regular. He also does graphic design and film-making in his free time, so if you want your own cool logos/flyers/movies/whatever, be sure to hit him up! Check out his page here.

New additions to T da B's arsenal

I'm always adding to my collection--it's one of the joys of having a full-time job! At the top left is a Supermaxx 500, one of the most powerful Nerf pistols ever made. It was made by Larami in 1994 and was re-released a couple of times as the SuperTech 500 (super rare) and Small Soldiers 500. Mine has some glitterry shit on the handle that almost makes it look like a girl took a crack at modding it lol. I will be removing it. The SM500 will probably just get a plugged pump and universal coupler mod. In the top right is the king of the Airtech line, the AT4K! It has the biggest air tank of all the Airtech blasters and has a 12-barreled turret that auto-rotates. I got mine off ebay with a broken rotation mech so it wasn't too costly. I don't really care because I'm going to lose that functionality anyways when I replace the pump--rotating by hand is only a second slower anyways. Finally, at the bottom is the Air Zone Triple Shot, a beastly spring-powered blaster with an auto-rotating 4-barreled turret. I will most likely be slapping an Ace #49 on top of the stock spring to achieve +bow ranges. The plunger is enormous so the potential is pretty high with this one--rare for a blaster that isn't made by Nerf! I welcome the newest additions to my Nerf family--may you all leave many welts in your futures :)

1000 views!

Woohoo! People are actually reading my blog--it feels good to have an audience. The more views I get, the more motivated I feel to keep getting out new material. I enjoy modding very much, and I hold myself to the highest of standards. Thanks again for coming along for the ride!

~T da B

Airtech 3000 Bling Internals!

Background:
I have now blogged about all the mods I've done so far, so everything from now and on is fresh and will receive a proper write-up. Let me start out by saying this mod is not for those on a tight budget. Should you choose to accept this quest, your components are going to run you $100+. You might think this is a little over-the-top, but you'll put those feelings aside when you see how well it performs. This will be the powerful thing that I have ever created, and it's all thanks to getting inspired by this writeup from SGNerf! I got the components from SGNerf, but I followed Ryan Mc#'s writeup for the modding. Without further adieu, let's create a monster!

Rifling Nerf barrels and darts

I have seen a number of posts surrounding the practice of rifling Nerf barrels and darts. "Rifling" refers to cutting grooves in a spiral pattern either inside a barrel or on the outside of a dart. What this does is impart spin to the projectile, improving stability. You may have noticed that the new Elite series blasters have rifled barrels, and you may be wondering: does this actually do anything? I know for a fact that it does not help at all!

Big thanks to iModify!

I popped onto my pal iModify's blog the other day to see what he was up to, and I noticed a shoutout to my blog! Just wanted to thank iMod and promote his amazingly voluminous and mod-filled blog as well--thanks for helping out a wee nub. Hopefully some day I'll be as good you are, buddy!

A friendly reminder

Hey guys,

If you like my blog please "follow" me using the "Join this site" button in the top right corner! The more followers I have, the more motivated I will be in getting new material out to you guys. I really do try my best when modding, and I strive to be as concise and coherent as possible in explaining my techniques. I hope that everyone can get something out of this blog--it's here for people trying to get an in-depth understanding of how and why Nerf blasters work! Nerds FTW :)

Cheers,
~T da B

Time to play: name that blaster!

Can you guess which blasters these go with? Get your own at Venom213's Nerfhaven sales thread!

The Controversy Over Gluing the Firing Pin Spring

There has been much argument and name-calling in the forums over the effectiveness, if any, of gluing the firing pin spring on air blasters. I have read a great many mod write-ups in my day and almost everybody does what you see above. For a long time, I went with the masses and followed suit. It felt good doing things that my heroes did. But then one day I stumbled upon a thread on Nerfhaven--it was the usual mod write-up, but a special guest made an appearance.

Look What T da B Just Got!

This is the LEGO Atlantis Harpoon Blaster--released in 2010 with the Atlantis LEGO series. It is essentially a reshelled Buzz Bee Big Blast. I have been looking for a BBBB for a long time now, and I'm really happy to have found one in good condition. I'm also a big fan of the black and red color scheme--much cooler than the old green and blue patterning. It's rare to find a blaster that isn't made by Nerf that exceeds all expectations for performance, but the BBBB (or 4B) certainly does. Just take a look at the air tank--it's enormous! Like all powerful air blasters, you can see water vapor come out of the barrel with each shot.

The previous owner already plugged the pump and removed the air restrictor, so I won't have to worry about those mods. A popular mod for these blasters is to cut down the front of the shell, since it's mainly just a hollow space to fit the rocket ammo. I will not be minimizing mine, since I think it looks really good as it is! What I will probably do for this blaster is integrate a hopper and barrel. I don't usually attach my barrels and hoppers permanently, but this blaster seems like it was made for a hopper and at least an 18'' barrel. I will drill a hole through the top for the hopper to go through and attach the wye to the front of the air tank. I can't wait to bust out the chronograph after this one is done :)

Amazing Stuff Coming

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while--here's a sneak peek of what's coming next!

T da B's Guide to Online Traffic School

Hi guys! I drive a Honda S2000, so it's quite hard for me to keep my driving habits under control. Recently, I had the pleasure of acquiring two tickets in the span of one week. That's two points on my record which will take three years to get me back to square one. Anyways, you can take traffic school once ever year-and-a-half, so this guide will serve as a reference to making your traffic school as painless as possible.

1. Register with your information and pour yourself a strong drink.
2. Click on your next section.
3. DO NOT READ ANYTHING! Scroll all the way to the bottom and click on "Take the Test"
4. Answer the questions to the best of your ability. You will have to guess on some of them.
5. Your incorrect responses will be displayed. Take note of them.
6. If you failed the test, repeat #3. If you passed, repeat #2.
7. Eventually, you will reach the final exam. Bullshit your way through and treat it like the other quizzes. It will use mostly questions that you already answered, and you have as many tries as you want. I got it first try with an 82%.

So there you have it--online traffic school completed successfully without reading a single thing!

My completion time: 50 minutes

Longshot Mod!

Background:
The Longshot really needs no introduction. Many consider it to be one of the best Nerf blasters ever made, and I would wholeheartedly agree. Just pop it open and take a look at the size of the plunger tube--it's massive! When it came out in 2006, the box deemed it the "longest Nerf blaster," at over 3 feet long. This was because you get two blasters in the box. The smaller, pathetic gun attaches to the front of the Longshot as a "barrel extension." The only problem with the front gun is that it only hurts ranges. The faux barrel has a larger diameter than a dart and only serves to slow the dart down with friction. There is a slight gain in accuracy as well, but the innate inaccuracy of the streamline dart negates this almost completely. The blaster comes with a collapsible stock, which I modded to be in-collapsible for reasons explained below.

Mods:

1. Popatachi Breech! This breech is based off the Sodizzle breech, which was one of the first CPVC Longshot breeches. I completely replaced the Longshot's barrel and breech with 1/2'' CPVC that joins together inside a sanded out CPVC coupler. The front of the breech and the rear of the barrel are tapered and coned out, so they meet together perfectly inside the coupler for that perfect air seal. The barrel is 10'' long, which provides dart speeds up to 185 feet per second! As you can see, I took the orange piece off the old breech so I could attach the new one to the bolt sled. The black piece from the rear of the old breech is hot glued to the back of the new CPVC breech and filled with hot glue to reduce deadspace. Popatachi also had the genius idea of using the rear barrel guide as a chamber to guide the dart into the coupler! See his write-up for exact details.
2. K26 spring replacement. Max load comes out to ~14kg (done using my Python program!). The prime is a little difficult with one hand, but not very hard at all with two. If you want to prime the blaster with one hand, then you absolutely need the next mod.
3. Steel sheet metal reinforcement epoxied to the bolt sled. The K26 spring has destroyed many blasters in its lifetime, and yours will be next if you don't take the necessary precautions. I cut two pieces of sheet metal in a L-shape so they conform to the bolt sled. They were epoxied on the inside of the sides of the bolt sled. You can still have some flex in between the two sides of the bolt sled, but at least the bend of the L is never going to break.
4. Reinforced folding stock with 1/2'' PVC. I used three pieces of PVC cut to the perfect length and stacked in a triangle to prevent the stock from being able to fold up. Why is this necessary? When you put a powerful spring in the Longshot you must usually prime it back with two hands. This usually means resting the stock up against your body, so if the spring is very strong the stock can collapse without warning and possibly injure you.
5. Filled in the spaces in the back of the plunger head with epoxy.
6. Reinforced trigger with epoxy. I filled in both sides of the long extension part with J.B. Weld.
7. Removed priming indicator. This was to make extra room for the plunger rod to occupy and allowing the breech to retract slightly further.
8. Teflon tape under the O-ring for an improved plunger seal.
9. 1/4'' craft foam hot glued to plunger head for impact deadening. This prolongs the life of your blaster and assures that your plunger rod doesn't snap in half!

Clip loading failure:
This mod has one major failure--it cannot chamber darts from a clip! I followed Popatachi's write-up to the tee, but for some reason I cannot prime far back enough to chamber even a 1.5'' stefan. I have a couple of theories for this, assuming I measured everything correctly, which I did :). My first theory is my spring. Popatachi powers his Longshot with a K18 nested over a BBB spring. Neither of those springs have as many coils per inch as the K26. This means that they will compress more than the K26, meaning you will be able to prime back further. My other theory is that Popatachi's mess-up in his write-up actually helps him get a little extra room to chamber the dart. His bolt sled is seated closer to the front of the blaster with the breech closed. This gives the bolt sled slightly more travel. This is why I think my clip loading is not functioning.

Summary:
This was a fun and time-consuming mod. It took careful measurement to get the breech measured properly and the coning of the breech and barrel meeting point took a while to get perfect as well. Remember, measure twice and cut once! Even though I got a single-loading Longshot in the end, it still hits hard enough to leave a raised welt with slugs!

To see how I've improved my modding, check out my second Longshot mod.

Hasbro vs. Pocket of Urbantaggers.com

I can't believe this! I just read an article about how Hasbro scammed an Australian blogger (Pocket) into giving out his address so their idiot lawyers could send a couple of goons to harass him and demand answers to their questions. Nice job shooting yourself in the foot and losing one of your biggest promoters, Hasbro. Read the full article below:
http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/04/24/nerf-guns-at-10-paces-hasbro-faces-boycott-after-siccing-lawyers-onto-fan-site/

Here is the original Urban Taggers post and Pocket's perspective:

http://urbantaggers.blogspot.com/2012/04/free-stuff-from-hasbro-story-of-uts.html 

By now the issue with Hasbro and the lawyers has been resolved--Hasbro finally got their shit together and cleared up the matter. Pocket did end up getting his Pinpoint Sights, and life is back to normal. Anyways, here is Pocket's post on Urbantaggers about the eventual resolution of the Hasbro fiasco:

http://urbantaggers.blogspot.com/2012/05/pinpoint-sights-arrived-resolution.html
This whole situation accentuates a bigger problem that manifests itself in larger companies--different organizations failing to communicate. I have worked at a large corporation, and there is definitely a feeling of isolation that is not present in smaller startups. Pocket got his Pinpoint Sights, but will this happen again?

~T

Why so many words, T da B?

Some of you may be wondering why this blog has so many damn words and not so many pictures. There are a few reasons for this:

1. My camera's LCD screen is broken and I need to get a new one before I can take any close-ups. For all my pictures so far, I've been using the built-in viewfinder to center my shots and praying that the flash doesn't completely white out my photos. I'm currently waiting on several promising ebay postings.
2. I'm covering my completed mods first and I'm not taking them apart again just to photograph my internals. In the future, I will be doing much more picture-heavy write-ups from start to finish, so don't worry! After my next post on the Longshot, I will have covered all of my completed mods.
3. I like to explain stuff in great detail, and sometimes pictures can't reveal everything.

In summation, give me a week or so and I'll have some beautiful close-ups for you all. I know many of you hate reading or thinking in general, so I'll try to balance photos and writing as best as I can in the future.

Peace!
~T

Nerf Rampage Mod!

Background:
This is the Nerf Rampage, one of the new Elite Series blasters. It is a "re-shelling" of the old N-Strike Raider, with one big difference--it has a direct plunger! This is why Hasbro claims "ranges up to 75 feet" on the box. With the new blue streamline darts and an angled shot, I think that claim is actually valid. I love the feel of this blaster--it is perfectly sized with extremely comfortable grips. It comes with the new Elite 25-round drum clip, which is a little lighter and more manageable than the old 35-round Raider drum. And of course, you get the new blue streamline darts, which have a slightly better weight distribution than the old pink ones.

List of mods:

1. Removed the air restrictors. I didn't do the best job with this--maybe I was drinking that night or something. I hacked and slashed my way to victory with a hammer and slotted screwdriver, and almost punctured the side of my breech! In the end I prevailed but it was a messy job--I should have cleaned it up with a hand file at least.
2. Removed the locks. There is a bolt lock on the half of the shell that the screws go through and a couple of locks under an orange square on the breech mechanism. Unscrew a couple of screws to get the orange square off and expose the locks inside.
3. Cut off the nub on the bolt sled that allows the blaster to be half-primed. This nub was on the Raider as well, and serves no purpose but to mess up your priming. It is in the middle of one side of the bolt sled.
4. 8kg spring replacement from SGNerf. This direct plunger requires a pretty precise spring fit, so I decided to go with someone else's that I knew would fit perfectly. Amazingly, this blaster does not require plunger padding! The sides of the plunger tube taper inwards very slightly, which gradually cushions the impact. The plunger head never even touches the end of the plunger tube. 
5. If you replace your mainspring, you will need to put in some work to get the Rampage to prime. Just like in the Alpha Trooper, the priming rod flexes under the increased spring tension, and it may flex just enough to prevent the plunger rod from catching. I would recommend epoxying the priming bar on both ends (front handle and bolt sled), or do as I did and add a piece of foam on top of your plunger head. There is a nice little "cup" in the plunger head that allows a round piece of foam to fit in nicely.

Summary:
All in all, this blaster is very nice! It now breaks 100 feet per second velocities with streamlines and still has its slam-fire capabilities. In the future, I might want to create a new breech for it that accepts stefans, since stock darts blow. For $30, this blaster is worth the money, especially if you liked the ergonomics of the Raider. I give it my seal of approval!

Cheers,
T da B

Elite Series Pinpoint Sight!

I have to say, when I saw this picture I got all fuzzy inside. The Pinpoint Sight is a cheap red-dot sight that runs on AAA batteries and attaches to any N-Strike tactical rail. I've been looking for a Pinpoint Sight on craigslist and ebay for a while now, and I'm glad that I won't have to shell out a small fortune for one any more. The old Pinpoint Sight retailed for $8. The ones on ebay and in the forums sell for at least $40, which is outrageous considering the simplicity of the design. I'm waiting patiently in earnest--I'm going to get one for all my guns with a tactical rail!

Direct vs. Reverse Plunger Design

Science:
Spring-powered blasters use one of two designs to transfer the spring power to the back of the dart--direct or reverse plungers. Direct plungers empirically yield better ranges than their counterpart. Why are direct plunger blasters better? The #1 reason is dead space. Dead space refers to space that air occupies in the plunger system that is unused. Essentially, this air and space has little to no effect on power generation and is a waste. If you look at the direct plunger, you will notice that all of the air gets pushed into the dart by the green plunger. The reverse plunger setup, on the other hand, wastes half of its usable air volume. When the reverse plunger is all the way forward, you can see that there is still a LOT of air that could have been pushed out!

In addition to having minimal dead space, direct plungers are usually bigger. With a reverse plunger, you have to make room for the reverse plunger as well as the plunger tube. Some reverse plunger blasters have a "bulge" in the back of them (like the Recon) that is just extra space for the reverse plunger to occupy when you prime the blaster. Direct plungers can have the plunger tube hog all the space inside the shell while the plunger rod sticks however far out the back. A couple of examples would be the Nite Finder and the Crossbow.

Another minor  reason the power is a little better with a direct plunger setup is that the airflow isn't disrupted by flowing from a bigger tube to a smaller one. Direct plungers provide a nice straight path for the air to travel down, while air at the edges of the reverse plunger is turbulent because it hits the "lip" of the smaller plunger tube.

History:
Before the Elite series, Nerf decided that it would be a good idea to switch to reverse-plunger blasters. This included the Alpha Trooper, Recon, Raider, Longstrike, and Spectre. This meant a minor drop in power for stock blasters and a major drop for modded ones. Before this, pretty much everything was direct plunger. The very first dart-shooter, the Sharpshooter I, had a direct plunger! Fast forward to today, and the Elite Series is finally back to the old ways. Woohoo! Hasbro listened to the cries of anguish from the modding community. The power gains are minor since the plunger tube sizes remain nearly the same, but the Elite 75-foot ranges are achieved through the elimination of dead space and a great seal with the O-ring plunger head.

Hopefully this shines some light on the the differences between two fundamentally different springer designs. Thanks for reading!

~T da B

Nite Finder Mod!

Background:
Ah, the Nite Finder--possibly the most recommended blaster for noobie modders. Simplicity is the name of the game, and the direct plunger allows for some pretty good power. This is another one of my early mods that turned out great. The Nite Finder pictured above is probably the third one I've completed, the other two being completed by friends of mine (with my help, of course).

Mods:

1. Spring replaced with an Ace Hardware #49 (OSH #49 in my case). This spring is VERY strong--even stronger than the Orange Mod Works 6kg spring I also bought. It fits very nicely into the blaster and doesn't sit compressed like the OMW 6kg spring. Let me tell you, getting the plunger tube screwed down with that OMW spring is a PAIN IN THE ASS. It is almost a two-man job, since you have to compress the spring at the same time you align the screw holes of the plunger tube with the pegs in the shell. Just get an Ace #49--it's cheaper and stronger. You can even nest another spring inside it if you want to get really crazy.
2. Catch spring replaced with one of my random Ace springs. I have purchased the following, in order of small diameter to large: Ace #1, #71XAU, #24U, #150U. All of these are great replacement springs. I would recommend picking them all up, since they are all cheap and highly useful as catch springs and return springs. They are necessary if you replace your mainspring. Mcmaster.com has a bunch of springs, but usually you are stuck buying a huge pack that you don't need (plus shipping).
3. Plunger seal improved. Nothing new here, just the usual Teflon tape under the O-ring. I believe I added an extra O-ring as well for an even better seal.
4. Glued a half of a CPVC coupler to the end of the plunger tube. Some people like to keep the "cap" on the end of the plunger tube, like for Gengar's Clean Nite Finder Mod (great first mod!). I chose to ditch everything except the plunger tube itself. A CPVC coupler fit perfectly inside the end of the plunger tube. I just made sure it was clear of the front of the blaster's shell then epoxied it into place. As usual, MAKE SURE YOUR COUPLER IS PERFECTLY CENTERED!
5. Reinforced the blaster with hot glue. This is probably the most important mod of them all, especially considering the power of my spring. If you look closely, you'll notice that the plunger is held in place by screws that go through two flimsy "tabs" on the sides of the plunger tube into two thin threaded posts attached to the body of the blaster. These posts are a point of failure, so you must hot glue the shit out of them after you get your plunger situated. Another point of failure is right behind the mainspring. You'll notice a small gap between the spring's rest and the trigger catch--fill it up with hot glue just like I filled up your mother last night. If you want everything to be rock solid, you can hot glue all the space around the plunger so that NOTHING can move.
6. Whipped together a simple speedloader so you can reload every two shots instead of one. I opted for 5-inch barrel, but I should have gone longer with such a powerful spring inside. As a general principle, your barrel length should increase as your blaster gets more powerful. I could lecture on for days about barrel length and dart fit, but that's a topic for another day :)
7. Minimized the shell. I still have to cover the holes with Styrene, but right now it's not high on my priority list. I knew I just had to get rid of that worthless light.

So there you have it--that's how I did my Nite Finder. I have another grey one in my "to do" pile, and I think I'll max out the power in that one and do a proper write-up. One thing I should mention about this blaster that I've noticed in all the Nite Finders I've worked on is that the barrel naturally tends to point upwards a little. Keep this in mind when putting on your new barrel or aligning your coupler. Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
~T da B

Orange Mod Works Alpha Trooper Massacre Kit

Orange Mod Works polycarbonate breech. Notice hole drilled in plunger tube

Early in my modding days I decided that it would be a good idea to get an Orange Mod Works kit. I thought it would be a nice lead-in to real modding, since I didn't have many tools at my disposal and I wanted to take baby steps. Little did I know that I would be I for one hell of a troubleshooting journey!

Installing an OMW kit is supposed to be easy--all you need is a screwdriver and some skill and you get a 90-feet-per second dart-slinging monster, or so they say. My kit was an absolute nightmare. Everything that could have possibly went wrong, went wrong. It was a Murphy's Law kind of blaster. So here's how it went:

1. I installed the OMW parts, removed all the annoying locks, and even epoxied my priming rod to the bolt sled and the priming handle to make sure it had absolutely no wiggle. The priming rod is the metal rod running from the handle on the front of the gun to the bolt sled inside. Some people have problems priming their Alpha Troopers after a spring upgrade because the priming rod flexes under the increased force against the spring. This flexing can cause the plunger to not go back far enough to be caught by the trigger catch. I made sure this would never happen with a healthy dose of 5-minute clear epoxy.
2. It turned out that my plunger had been badly molded, and it slid into the plunger tube with a LOT of friction. I repeatedly sanded down the end of the plunger and tested its fit in the plunger tube. Eventually this scraped up my plunger tube pretty badly, but it was sliding decently well. I requested a replacement plunger tube from OMW and they sent me one free of charge.
3. I then attempted to prime my blaster, and noticed that it would not prime all the way forward! At this point in my career, I didn't know too much about modding so I embarked on a long journey through many forums and eventually found a post in the OMW forums that detailed my exact problem! It turned out that my breech was molded badly. Sigh. I had to file down one side of the front of my breech to keep it from slamming into the dart tooth door. Basically, one part of the breech would slam into the dart tooth door before another part (farther back) could push down the dart tooth. The breech was being stopped by the dart tooth door before the dart tooth could be pushed down to let the door open--if that makes any sense at all. I sanded the breech down with a hand file. Eventually, this breech would break and I had to get a new one from OMW, once again free of charge. Now my blaster could prime all the way forward! Woohoo!
4. I proudly primed my blaster, thinking "Haha! There's no way anything else could go wrong!" I fired the shot and a dart slid out the front of my barrel like a slug and plopped down by my feet. I fired another and it didn't even make it out of the barrel. My darts were getting vacuum loaded so well that no air was able to enter the plunger tube! No air means no power. I had to remedy this problem by drilling a small hole through the OMW logo on the plunger tube to equalize the pressure with each prime. Finally I took a dart in my trembling hand and loaded it, cocked the blaster, and fired a shot successfully!

All in all, my Alpha Trooper was one hell of a learning experience. I had to take the damn thing apart three or four times to get it working, but in the end I prevailed. I wouldn't recommend this kit to anyone unless they are prepared to put in a LOT of work. Anyways, T da B signing off!

Spectre REV-5--my first mod ever!

The Spectre--a very cool and overpriced blaster

Background:
At one point or another, every Nerfer comes to own a Maverick. It's cheap, cool-looking, and fires 6 shots before you need to reload. Occasionally it jammed or shot a dart less than five feet, but it was still pretty cool. Then one day Nerf decided to fix most of the problems that the Maverick had. Enter the Spectre, my first mod ever!

The Spectre came out on 2010 as a Walmart exclusive blaster. It carried a whopping $20 price tag! It is essentially a glorified Maverick with one less barrel and a couple of accessories, including a folding stock and "silencer" barrel attachment. One of the main differences and improvements is the new barrel rotation mechanism. Instead of rotating the barrels with each trigger press like the Maverick, the Spectre does so with each prime. This allows the barrel assembly to be nice and stable while the shot is fired. However, the Spectre still suffers from the same air seal problem that the Maverick does. Also, the folding stock is quite flimsy and I personally would not rely on it. The "silencer" hurts ranges but also makes the blaster slightly more accurate. I say slightly because usually you use stock ammo in this thing, which flies about as predictably as a drunk man in a fighter jet. Anyways, here is the
List of mods for this blaster:

1. Air restrictors removed. This mod doesn't do too much, since the air seal between the plunger tube and barrels is atrocious. This can be remedied by putting a spring under the orange spacer that sits on the front end of the metal rod running through the turret assembly. This pushes the whole barrel assembly back a little and flush with the plunger tube opening. In addition, you can use a rubber or foam ring glued to the mouth of the plunger tube to get a perfect air seal.
2. Spring replacement. I bought an Orange Mod Works 6 kilogram spring to replace the stock one. It's hard to find replacement springs for reverse-plunger blasters, since the tolerance is so tight. With direct plunger blasters, you have any where from the diameter of the plunger rod to the diameter of the plunger tube to fit a spring (or multiple springs) in. I decided to go the easy route and get a spring that I knew would fit. Make a satisfying ring after each shot.
3. Plunger seal improvement. Just the usual--Teflon tape under the O-ring to expand it out for a perfect air seal. To check your seal, place one finger over the small opening of the plunger tube. Take the other piece and pretend that it's a penis. Thrust it in and out of the other half while moaning. If there's resistance felt as you penetrate inwards, your seal is good. Remember, use lots of lube!

Future Mods:
Yes, I may come back and revisit this blaster. I figure that people have already done the Nite-Mav (Maverick with Nite Finder plunger tube), so I think it's time to step it up a level and create the Nite-Spectre! It even sounds cool as shit.

Supermaxx 750 Mod!

The SM750 in all its purple glory

Here you can see the universal coupler and dart stop (unnecessary)

This is the Supermaxx 750--one of the most powerful pistols ever to be produced by Nerf. The internals are dead simple, and the modding turned out to be very easy for this one. In fact, the hardest part of this mod was getting the blaster apart! You have to remove the orange muzzle on the front and the orange ring on the back by the pump handle. To do this, I dipped the muzzle in boiling hot water for a few seconds then used a mallet and slotted screwdriver to "chisel" the orange muzzle off. For the orange ring on the back, I first used an xacto knife to cut the dividing line between the purple and orange. Then I used the mallet and screwdriver technique to finish her off. Once the hard part was done, it was super easy to do the mods. Here is what I did:

1. Epoxied a universal coupler to the air outlet of the air tank. Turns out the air outlet has the perfect diameter to fit right into a PVC coupler! If you cut the CPVC coupler down to the perfect length, you'll leave a little room in the PVC coupler for slipping over the air tank's outlet. Glue it up and MAKE SURE IT'S STRAIGHT! I can't tell you how many people have ruined their mods with a crooked coupler or barrel (myself included).
2. Use a dremel to widen the hole in the orange muzzle and the two halves of the blaster. If you shave a few millimeters off the air tank outlet, you won't need to do this, since the universal coupler will be far back enough in the shell. I glued mine straight on so I had to dremel the shell. On the plus side, if you dremel a perfect hole, then the internals sit perfectly in the shell with no movement. I should mention that the internals are all one piece in this blaster. 
3. Hot glue the spring on the end of the firing rod to the rod itself. Whether this actually does anything has been debated on the forums, but I think it helps the air release faster even though you have to jerk the trigger a little.
4. Plug the pump. The end of the pump has a small hole in it. The purpose of this hole is to relieve excess air pressure so you don't blow up your air tank. By plugging this, you are now able to pump as many times as you want. Beware--I have already ruined one SM750 with excess pumping!

Congratulations, you now have a fearsome sidearm! Limit your pumps to 4 or 5 if you plugged the pump. As far as barrel length, I have had success with anything from 6-12'' depending on how many pumps you use. I ended up damaging my air tank and now it doesn't hold air as well. I can still pump it up and quickly fire for a laser blast. I've clocked it on the Chrony at 220 feet per second with a 12'' barrel and 8 pumps. Hot damn! Do not pump yours up 8 times--remember mine is already damaged so no harm, no foul. And finally, remember that a dart stop is not necessary on air blasters, since there is no plunger or plunger tube!

Universal Couplers

Left to right: CPVC coupler, PVC coupler

Universal coupler (CPVC coupler not cut in half)

A universal coupler is certainly not universal--this would imply that it couples with anything. A more accurate description would be "double coupler," since it is nothing more than a CPVC coupler nested inside a PVC coupler. The nest perfectly together without even requiring the use of a dremel. Just chop the CPVC coupler in half, epoxy it into the PVC coupler, and you're done! For all those times you wondered whether you wanted a CPVC or PVC coupler, now you can have the best of both worlds. I use these on every blaster I own that isn't turreted or doesn't have a slide breech--there's no reason not to!

Hell yes.

I love it when people don't know how valuable their blasters are!

Big Bad Bow Mod!

Background: 
I started this blog after I started modding, so I've already finished a number of blasters. I suppose a good start to this blog would be to go over what I've already accomplished, so here it goes. The Big Bad Bow originally came out in 1998 with the Hyper Sight line of blasters. It was essentially the Bow 'N Arrow with a trigger, which improved accuracy quite a bit. The earliest versions were purple and had a very strong stock spring inside. The Big Bad Bow (also called the BBB or 3B) has a very large plunger tube and is a direct plunger system, which is why I decided to buy it in the first place. This blaster has some of the most interesting and unique internals of any Nerf blaster. For one thing, it has two different catch mechanisms--one for releasing the plunger rod and another for keeping the blaster primed. Although the looks are a bit weird, it feels very comfortable and shoots like a champ!

Here are the mods I did for this bad boy:

1. Replaced stock spring with a K26 off mcmaster.com
2. Removed bow arms and arrow holders
3. Reinforced trigger catch with J.B. Weld
4. Shaved down the corners of the plunger rod to allow 9/16'' washer to slide over it
5. Hot glued a paper clip ring around the plunger head to flare it out
6. Reinforced the plunger rod with various washers. This is what my plunger rod looks like from back to front: 9/16'' washer, K26 spring, 3/8'' washer, orange spring rest, 3/8'' washer, plunger head.
7. Universal coupler connected to front of plunger assembly that accepts CPVC or PVC connections. I will go over universal couplers in a separate post.

I have not busted out my chronograph yet to measure feet per second since I just sent my Chrony F1 back to be fixed, but velocity is definitely at least 150 fps for some shots by my estimations.

Some things I would do differently if I got another BBB to mod:

1. Don't forget the dart stop! I forgot to add the piece of wire that prevents the dart from getting sucked backwards into the plunger tube. I usually epoxy a piece of paper clip to the back of my couplers. Now I have to make sure I prime the blaster before I attach a barrel, or use a barrel that already has a dart stop.
2. Build my own plunger head. The BBB uses an old style of plunger head that kind of sucks. Nowadays, Nerf uses O-rings which can produce great seals. The old skirt-style plunger heads are rather flimsy and usually aren't stretched wide enough for a good seal. I would probably make the "washer sandwich," which is a rubber neoprene washer sandwiched between two metal washers. You can attach this to the plunger rod by epoxying a female hex standoff to the end of the plunger rod, or by drilling a hole and using a hand tap.
3. The gun has trouble catching the hook on the end of the plunger rod with the trigger catch. There is something I might try to solve this problem; I could sand down the back side of the plunger rod hook to make it catch sooner. If that doesn't work or it seriously starts compromising the structural integrity of the end of the plunger rod then I might cut it off and epoxy in an "extender" piece.
4. The plunger tube recently broke free of its hot glue binding and now freely rotates in the shell. This is very annoying when you are constantly switching out barrels. I might solve this by epoxying a piece of metal to the plunger tube and something to the shell the nests the piece of metal to keep things rigid.

Note about hopper clips:
I have not had success with hopper clips in this blaster. I have read online that many people have problems getting the BBB to work with hoppers. Apparently RSCB clips work a lot better, and you can integrate them right into the shell! Maybe if I get another one I'll try it out.

To be continued...
This mod is part one of a three-part trilogy. Here are the links to Parts 2 and 3:
Big Bad Bow Mod: Part 2
Big Bad Bow Mod: Part 3

My first blog

Well, I never thought I'd be doing this is my entire life--blogging about Nerf. I suppose it's more about creating things and breaking barriers than "being a kid again." Now that I have an older mind, I've learned things that I never would have known as a young child. Seeing as this hobby is cheaper than most, I plan on taking it to the max. Here is what I intend to accomplish with this blog:

1. Have a record of all my accomplishments and an archive I can look back to as "sweet nostalgia"
2. Post lots of pictures of my mods, and include all details about how I made them
3. Answer questions to the best of my ability. Keep in mind that I have only been Nerfing for about 4 months now--by no means am I a master modder. I would like to help assist others in their learning.
4. Keep my writing skills intact
5. Bring something new to the NIC (Nerf internet community)

If I can come up with one really good idea that gets replicated by many others, then I will have done my job. Hopefully we can all learn a thing or two from this blog, from troubleshooting to proper tool selection to breaking the 200 feet per second barrier. I'll be updating this blog as I damn  well please, but I'll try to get some meat on these bones as quick as I can. Enjoy!

~T da B