Pneumatic Pen-gun Project

Miniature guns are novelty custom, unique, and sometime downright crude! Common construction materials often include pill bottles or pens. Show us your work!
clide
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Thu Apr 26, 2007 5:47 pm

Well, I guess that brings our debate over small launchers to a new level. Well played jack, well played. :lol:

I've been toying with the idea of making a pen sized minipump, but now that there is already a pen gun I'll have to complete my other mini idea before I can get around to a pen gun.

Nice work. Hope you don't get lead poisoning from having lead pellets all over your house.
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Hotwired
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Thu Apr 26, 2007 6:13 pm

jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:
Nice work, looks good. Have you considered using a presta valve instead of a schrader? You don't need a pin to depress a presta stem.
Thanks :) very logical suggestion... though can a presta handle the sort of pressures I'm likely to subject it to?
I'm using a presta in mine at 240psi and I'm likely to be using it at 300psi too when I get hold of the right kind of pump.

What are you using to get 400psi?
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Velocity
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Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:07 pm

Wow... this is truly a tiny cannon!

I build a cannon which fit inside of a pen tube once... but it was just a .177 tube that I blew into to fire spitballs :lol: ... nonetheless, it was accurate and looked EXACTLY like a regular pen (the internals of the pen were the ramrod!), and my english class never knew what hit them (well I guess they did after a while...)

I can't BELIEVE you were able to fiddle around with such small parts! I get annoyed having to fix my 1" porting piston valves 8)
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iPaintball
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Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:16 pm

That is truly a feat of microengineering! :D This thing must be so much fun to play with. I wish I could build a mini this small! Keep it up man...
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Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:44 pm

That is an incredible design.
Will it shoot through cardboard? plastic? kevlar? :)

The smallest gun I made was also the size of a pen, but it was a semi-auto bbg powered by a rubber band.(I think It was back around 01')
I took it on a 3-day class trip, where I shared a hotel room with three other people. There were soo many bbs in the carpet by the end of the trip, it took forever to find them all.

..But just wait till I make my next mini. It will use a single carbon nanotube with a graphite burstdisk as a chamber/barrel, along with a molecular valve to be injected with hydrogen atoms. I plan on shooting buckeyballs with it.

Ok, Im jk. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckeyball
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Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:49 pm

I might just make one of these myself...
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jackssmirkingrevenge
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Thu Apr 26, 2007 11:16 pm

Thank you all for the feedback :D
You've inspired me! Now I have no choice but to make one. Thanks a lot...
The parts are available from any hobby shop, and I didn't use any complicated tools - mostly a hacksaw, sandpaper, and an electric drill clamped in a vice as an improvised lathe :)
Hope you don't get lead poisoning from having lead pellets all over your house.
Thats mostly a risk from handling the pellets, I always wash my hands after :) Besides, the impact energies aren't sufficient to give off too much dust.
I'm using a presta in mine at 240psi and I'm likely to be using it at 300psi too when I get hold of the right kind of pump.

What are you using to get 400psi?
Good to know, though I think I'll stay with the schrader for this one, don't feel like hacking it up. This is the pump I have:

Image

the 400 psi figure is assumed, gauge only reads till 300 (for spartaaa!) but I keep on pumping until the needle hits the stop (see attachment)
I can't BELIEVE you were able to fiddle around with such small parts! I get annoyed having to fix my 1" porting piston valves
Don't try making a check valve out of lighter bits then :shock:
Will it shoot through cardboard? plastic? kevlar?
At 200 psi, it won't make it through a top of a pizza box. However, for such a small chamber, short barrel and tiny projectile, I wasn't expecting much better. Still waiting for the courage to take it to 400 psi again though hehe
Attachments
shock pump at 400 psi, thereabouts :)
shock pump at 400 psi, thereabouts :)
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
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Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:57 am

Lol I think its hilarious that we are complimenting a gun that won't shoot through cardboard at 200psi :lol:

This is a truly amazing gun though, I always wanted somone to make a mini coaxial, but I never imagined anyone would be able to make one THIS small. Have you tried a barrel load of water yet???

EDIT: Wooo 500th post!!!
Last edited by Insomniac on Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges.
Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before.

Add me on msn!!! insomniac-55@hotmail.com
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jackssmirkingrevenge
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Fri Apr 27, 2007 1:55 am

Insomniac wrote:Lol I think its hilarious that we are complimenting a gun that wont shoot through cardboard at 200psi :lol:
I know, I know, I'm almost ashamed, after all I routinely hit 1,000 fps with my 6mm coaxials. Now that I have the contest entry covered though I might be tempted to test it to destruction, as far as high pressure goes this is by far the easiest chamber to pump I've ever made :D
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
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skinner
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Fri Apr 27, 2007 3:28 am

Woah!

Now THAT is skill right there.
So minute, but so amazing.
Thats a competition winner right there.

Keep up the good work.

--Skinner
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thrasmussen
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Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:42 am

I like it, kinda has that James Bond\Q look! :D My only question is how is the guts held in?
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frankrede
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Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:51 am

That is briliant, I have been looking at this for a couple hours on and off and thinking, wow, this guy is just crazy.

Nice, job, you make something complicated and make ist so simple.
now, for me to do a less than mini coaxial, with1" chamber and .177 barrel.

Over sized barrel, but I can make pistons easily for that size.
Current project: Afghanistan deployment
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jackssmirkingrevenge
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Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:20 am

I like it, kinda has that James Bond\Q look!
Not just in the movies, the KGB have a pen gun that comes complete with a silencer for covert work... Also, Georgi Markov was assasinated using a similar compressed air device hidden in an umbrella that fired a 2mm pellet laced with poison.
My only question is how are the guts held in?
Image

Araldite, a close third after duct tape and rubber bands when it comes to keeping the world together ;) I normally use proper high-strength marine epoxy like this stuff in my projects but given the scale of this particular build, Araldite was enough - plus it takes much less time to cure meaning less anxious jumping around before I can test it :D
Nice, job, you make something complicated and make ist so simple.
now, for me to do a less than mini coaxial, with1" chamber and .177 barrel.
Thanks :) My suggestion if building on a small scale is make an overengineered small chamber and get yourself a high pressure pump, it's the only way to get good performance with small calibers.
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
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thrasmussen
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Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:48 pm

You should make a cane gun like this.
LGM
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Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:54 pm

Yesterday I found some tubing from an old car antenna, looks about 3mm wide.
I plan to make a lead ball mini like this one that runs off hydrogen, hope that ends well.
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