Well guys..I'm back

[nadjatee1996]

After all the help I got from JSR and you people here, my airgun didn't work out, and it seems like I have a fear of compressed air inside any type of chamber now....However, I still want to make a hobby of a recreational activity that consists of using my brain to make a weapon sort of thing. By weapon, I don't mean anything to hurt/kill anyone, I mean something that interesting and can shoot something. I looked all over the net for something relatively cheap and easy to make, be able to reload quickly, and have decent accuracy.

-Airgun-original choice, but whenever I see a gas tank or a compressed air can, the beejeebies get scared outta me.
-Rubber band gun-Face it, although not intending to hurt anyone, nobody's afraid of rubber bands, its not cost effective either, unless I intend to pick it off of the floor every time, put it on the weapon, cock it, and fire it, besides, if I'm working with rubber bands and one snaps.....I think its gonna be airguns all over again..
-Firearms-no..just, no
-Throwing weapons-not cost effective, really dangerous, and I'm decent with a pen already(I can headshot someone with a pen 20 feet away), and did I mention that its pretty dangerous?(eyes)
-Crossbows/bows-can't get the flexible materials required, and they're slow.
-Rail gun-After seeing the picture on the wiki page, I decided not to do it, or go near one, or see one, for the remainder of my life
-Gauss gun-interesting designs, but good magnets ain't cheap, like $10 for 4?Not the mention the constant drawing back of the magnets.
-Lego guns-naaah

So, anyone got any ideas for me? I really need a hobby, summer's coming up!!!

I also have a feeling thats about all the projectile firing weapons out there...

[Gaderelguitarist]

All projectile "weapons" (devices) are dangerous by nature. The confidence comes from a reliable safety factor that is present by either virtue of the design, strength of the materials, or a combination thereof. If you're not confident in the things you build, consider why that is, and fix it.

[DYI]

Why not traditional, combustion-powered spudguns? Advanced combustions perform pretty nicely in larger bores, and you don't have to deal with the sealing issues of a chamber under static pressure. Running pure oxygen/fuel mixtures you can reach pressures upwards of 300psi as well.

Other choices:

Slingshots - limited to about 80m/s for practical cases, but rubber is relatively cheap, and you're not limited to using your own strength to draw.

Rockets - available commercially in pathetically small sizes, and much entertainment to be had in "rolling your own", as it were.

Electric/electromagnetic guns (ETGs, induction coilguns, several variants) - impressive when done properly and potentially very high performance, lots of interesting design and optimization work. Somewhat expensive at the outset.

Unfortunately, the criteria you give only fit very well with the combustion gun option, particularly the low-cost condition. "Relatively cheap and easy to make, quick reloading, decent accuracy" and, as you imply later, performance levels somewhere above pathetic, is essentially the holy grail of this hobby. Your inability to find such a thing is not particularly surprising

[nadjatee1996]

I'm 15 dude, my dad barely agreed to buy me the materials needed to make a AIRGUN, he's gonna flip if I make a combustion device, and I have the heart, usually just not the confidence, the last few projects I made were all failures..Also, electromagnetic guns are railguns...I have a feeling I'm gonna hit something tonight that will change my life.just waiting on what it is...

[saefroch]

I have nothing to offer other than this: Don't be ghetto, and compressed-air designs are pretty darn safe.

What did you even do to become scared of compressed air????

[Gaderelguitarist]

I agree with DYI about slingshots. There's an entire thread about them here.

[nadjatee1996]

Somewhere I read that some dude's air tank exploded, and I just got scared whenever I got near one.....and then my ghetto air bottle tank exploded...

[saefroch]

Ghetto is the operative word there. Never build anything ghetto, it's just not healthy.

Air tanks "explode" all the time because people handle them improperly. That certainly hasn't discouraged me from using sch40 metal parts at 1,000psi, since I know I have a large safety factor.

[nadjatee1996]

Another thing is that most airguns operate at a high PSi rating and high range, I live in NYC, literally in the middle of the city...

[saefroch]

Well then by that logic, you're kinda sunk trying to shoot anything. There is however always the option of doing testing outside the city, or of building a mini range indoors.

[nadjatee1996]

No to the first one and my dad is gonna flip if I even mention that..HOWEVER, anyone gimme more of this?

[Technician1002]

When working with air, knowing your materials is half the battle. One of the reasons I went with the steel tank on the competition shirt cannon was because of the many fine examples of the failure mode on youtube. There are huge numbers of BBQ tanks being shot and punching holes in the tanks. Very rarely does the tank fail explosively. Most of the time they just make a hole in the tank. The only tanks that fail explosively are overheated tanks (in a fire and shot) or the thin disposable tanks. Our maximum permitted pressure for the competition was well below the nominal pressure rating of the tank which further reduced the possibility of a tank blowing up.

Here is an example. The 50 cal shot simply made some big holes in the tank, but the tank did not explode.
[youtube][/youtube]

[DYI]

Also, electromagnetic guns are railguns

No, railguns are electromagnetic guns. The converse is not true.

I'm 15 dude, my dad barely agreed to buy me the materials needed to make a AIRGUN, he's gonna flip if I make a combustion device

So you want to build launchers, but they have to be powered by magic, right? Your irrational fear of airguns (which seems to be brought on by your own unwillingness to construct safe pressure vessels) combines with this arbitrary dislike of "combustion devices" and what appears to be an unfavourable attitude toward any project that requires effort to completely prevent your use of gas-dynamic guns in general. Also, for future reference, playing the age card is a terrible idea here. Several members here were tinkering with hybrids by fourteen and had synthesized high explosives by the time they reached your age.

Your location prevents the use of rockets, and you seem to be scared witless of anything that might be kind of dangerous in the hands of an idiot, thus totally removing any possibility of achieving reasonably high speeds (and I use the term very loosely here - you've now constricted yourself down to about 150m/s, at best).

anyone gimme more of this?

That's an automatic springer, likely the internals of an automatic airsoft gun. It's typically capable of about 400ft/s with 0.2g rounds. It could take your eye out if you're not careful though, so I wouldn't recommend it - your dad might "flip".

[nadjatee1996]

Yea, except, he doesn't know lots of English, and hey, I'm just innocently buying a few tubes and gears, and a battery, actually I got those lying around the house, and as long as I don't show him the insides, it might as well be"magic", and I might even be able to get one working by next week o.o

[cfb_rolley]

...and then my ghetto air bottle tank exploded...

well there's you're problem. I used to be a little scared of combustion cannons after blowing a couple of end caps off mine, and then I switched to pressure rated materials and now I feel very safe.

failing that, why not modify the #&% out of a Nerf gun? a well modded longshot hits 100ft ranges, and there are others that will go well beyond that. or just roll with the slingshot idea. they're pretty fun.