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Solid Nylon Slugs

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:27 am
by nicholai
well, i work in a factory on machines that make plastic parts and pipe(Thermoplastic injection/extrusion molding to be a smartass :wink: ). Well i got bored the other day and while i was purging hot plastic from the machine i realized i could use this molten plastic to make ammo rather quickly by hand.

so while i was making some stuff out of grey nylon i decided to make some slugs, check it out they almost weigh 1/8 of a lb


i nailed a car in a junkyard the other day with one, it went straight through the windshield, AND the back window of an old f-150

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:47 am
by jrrdw
for some reason your picture did'nt turn out, i'd like to see the ammo your building, have you found any that you shot? if so was it heavly damaged? reuseable maybe? whats the bore of the barrel? you should think about mass produceing!

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:43 am
by nicholai
well, the pic is waaay oversized, ill resize it today. and yes after flying through an inch of plywood they were still rock hard and reusable. Its too bad bulk nylon resin is over $3 a pound and you can buy a minimum sized 55 lb bag for over $150... thats too much for me to just buy it oughtright and try selling it. ill think of something though and ill be sure to post it.

these ones i made by hand and are rather inconsistent in size and shape. its kinda hard to hand mold plastic at 450 degrees farenheit. However i did make a small hand operated molding machine and an aluminum mold to make perfect slugs for a 2" and a 1.5" barrel, the only problem is that i have no way to control my heater bands (i need a 10 amp variable power transformer, over $100).

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:16 pm
by jrrdw
10 amp variable power transformer, would a old model train transformer work, daaaa if it puts out 10 amp, daaaaa, take a look around on ebay, toys & hobbies catagory, is'nt there teflon bullets made for the police? keflar penatrating, thought i herd something on the news, keep us posted

Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 10:34 pm
by nicholai
oops, image broke, ill fix it tomorrow along with some pictures of the stuff im gonna use to make my hand operated molding machine. maybe ill post the whole process of making it, we'll see.

i havnt looked into the model train transformer, if it had a fuse rated for ten amps id look into it. A variable power transformer would be easier though because it has a typical wall plug receptacle built right into it, then i just wire up my heater bands to a plug and voila!

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 4:52 pm
by schmanman
couldent you just put a bottom on the molding machine you made,put the nylon stuff in it,then heat it with a propane torch,and let it cool.?just a spur of the moment idea.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 6:36 pm
by nicholai
no because you cant heat a piece of metal with a torch and regulate the temperature, the heat from a torch is way to high to efficently heat plastic without burning it.

the machine i made is almost done, its a simple hand press with a "barrel" to heat the plastic with the autotransformer & heater bands. I can make slugs like the picture seen above however they are inconsistant in density.

soon i will have a mold machined for rifled slugs to mate with the "molding machine" i built. then i can efficently control the tolerance of the bullets down to .05"

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 7:15 pm
by schmanman
ok,sorry,I couldent pull up the picture to see how the machine works or looks.it was just a idea. I 'm 14 this month .But wow,that is very amazing! :oops:

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 4:37 pm
by boilingleadbath
Maybe I'm spoiled, but .05" isn't really that good.
I mean, to make sure they'd fit in the barrel, you'd have to make them .05" undersize... so some of your projectiles would be .1" undersize!

I geuss you could redemy this to an extent by making your mold closer to the inner diameter of the pipe, and just remelting the ammo if it doesn't meet specs.

Now, if you ment .005", that's exceptional.

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 5:38 pm
by nicholai
well, thats because the mold i am making will accept many different types of plastics, the mold itself actually has to be oversized somewhere around .03 to .05 to to allow for plastic shrinkage. Hopefully this will make the slugs fit really tight and provide a good seal. If they don't shrink enough i can still resize the mold for it to fit

I know that
A: it will shrink at least .001 - and -
B: it wont shrink more than .05

Nylon itself can shrink anywhere from .001 to .06 which is a really wide margin for plastic. I made these slugs by simply extruding raw plastic into a piece of seamless brass pipe. The shrinkage rate of plastic is adversely effected by the rate of which it cools and since im going to be cooling it at room temperature (no auxillary mold temperature control) i have to assume the highest degree of shrinkage(instead of annealing it around 200 deg for a longer cooling time and less shrinkage).

Once i find a plastic that has a closer shrinkage tolerannce i can guarentee .003 to .005. i dont think i will be able to do this with a cheap plastic like nylon, maybe some 6/6 ballistic grade fiberglass reinforced nylon but thats like $4 to $5 a lb, and you have to buy it in 55 lb bags.... kinda expensive

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 6:21 pm
by jrrdw
I've seen molded thing shrink, but i never put the thought into it this far, no need to. My stepfather makes his own bullets for black powder muzzel loader, 50 caliber. The lead in the fill hole dry's with a dimple in it every time!
I bought him the mold for Chistmas, them bugger's are exspensive! Even had to have spiecal handles, Oak. Cost me like $60.00 after overknight shipping.

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:51 pm
by nicholai
ive put much thought and effort into mass producing reliable ammo that is cheaper and tougher than a potato
plastic ammo would be the most possible option that i can see, it could be produced cheaper and faster than potatos, if the bullets were rifled it could be a cheaper way to get better to accuracy than a rifled barrel with spuds.

im offering these slugs for free (well not really, you pay for shipping) to test the strength of different polymers. The only deal is that you gotta have some way of recording a video of the impact and tell me how they shot. I got a bunch here is a pic of some of the basic types of plastic ive tried.

some of the slugs came out kinda crappy, but if you notice i progressed each time from left to right on each plastic type.

from left to right:

the three white slugs are Polycarbonate, the one leaning up was shot at a tailgate of an early 90's full size Chevrolet over a dozen times (notice the red paint), also blasted every headlight/tailight out of a totaled 2002 Dodge neon along with another dozen shots to the door panels. No cracks or dents, just a little mushroom on the end. I honestly dont think you could break this material using plywood as a target... hmm.. reusable ammo maybe?


The clear one is also polycarbonate, except since its clear they call it lexan (lexan is simply a "brand name" polycarbonate plastic)

The three grey ones are rigid pvc (same kind in conduit pipe)

the three orange ones are nylon with a flourescent colorant added to it, those were the hardest to mold as you can tell from the quality but the color of them makes them easy to find.

The white one on the end is made from 4/6 fiberglass reinforced nylon for use in high strength applications.



Image

and the cannon used to fire it was this:
Image
Image

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:21 pm
by Daemonseed
powerful, dangerous, stupid? I love it!

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:37 pm
by fisherbmx7y
hey man ill test this out for you. I 've got a camera and lots of free time to shoot and im willing to pay shpping for all youll send me. pm me if you still want some testers.

Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:41 pm
by schmanman
I think you could sell these on the web or ebay.you should make one out of lead.that would do some damage!