Maglite Mini mk.II (video + how-to guide)

Show us your pneumatic spud gun! Discuss pneumatic (compressed gas) powered potato guns and related accessories. Valve types, actuation, pipe, materials, fittings, compressors, safety, gas choices, and more.
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MrCrowley
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Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:19 am

As some of you are already aware, my Maglite Mini is back in service. Thought it deserved a new thread so here it is:

New how-to video:
[youtube][/youtube]

Video:
[youtube][/youtube]

How-To Guide (put together in a hurry, let me know if you spot errors):
http://www.instructables.com/id/700fps- ... lashlight/

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Not much has changed from the original version; I've gone through three different pistons before settling on the current one and I've made an adapter that threads on the schrader valve for ease of firing. I was reading back my previous posts about this gun and noticed that I hypothesised it could be possible to get 700fps out of this gun; which I have recently demonstrated without realising my previous predictions.
Last edited by MrCrowley on Sun May 06, 2012 6:08 am, edited 3 times in total.
warhead052
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Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:27 am

Nice. My only complaint is that your link doesn't work. Haha. Other than that its a nice looking build.
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jackssmirkingrevenge
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Wed Mar 21, 2012 11:55 am

Nice effort :) those chrony readings do look suspiciously high for such a stubby barrel though...

Also, small nitpick, the trigger could be a little more discreet.
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
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sharpshooter11000
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Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:55 pm

Haha you certainly know how to attract a lot of people on instructables, 700fps and bb gun in the title should get thousands of views :wink:

That's really cool, how is the CO2 inflator? Can you tell how much pressure you put in?
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MrCrowley
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Wed Mar 21, 2012 8:29 pm

warhead052 wrote:Nice. My only complaint is that your link doesn't work. Haha. Other than that its a nice looking build.
Which one? Both seem to work for me.
jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:Nice effort :) those chrony readings do look suspiciously high for such a stubby barrel though...
I thought so to at first but I think I did enough tests with similar enough results, I have like 30+ videos of it being chrony'd; I only put in the last dozen or so that I filmed with my brother's camera. Like I said in the video, I'm a lot further away from the chrony than it seems.

I wrote this post about 6 hours ago but had uni and decided to wait until I could come back and do more testing. I just went up to the garage and did three quick tests all from a distance of about 1m. I got three consistent results between 610-660fps. The high speed suggests the condensation shouldn't be interfering at 10" away and I think these tests from 3' make it conclusive enough for me. I got two or three readings above 800fps back last week when I did the bulk of the testing, I of course threw those results out as too optimistic.
sharpshooter11000 wrote:Haha you certainly know how to attract a lot of people on instructables, 700fps and bb gun in the title should get thousands of views :wink:

That's really cool, how is the CO2 inflator? Can you tell how much pressure you put in?
My instructable already got 'featured' :D

The CO2 inflator is pretty cool, I can't tell how much pressure I put in the gun though. GGDT suggests that with such a short barrel, 800PSI of CO2 will do little in terms of performance compared to 350PSI of air; so not even a chrony reading could give me that much of an idea of how much CO2 I have in the gun when filled from the inflator.
Also, small nitpick, the trigger could be a little more discreet.
Like the one you sent me on the pengun? I actually used that for a bit; when I couldn't be bothered screwing my adapter on. I agree that my adapter could be smaller but I couldn't work out how to make it smaller from the fittings I had and it had to have three attributes:
1. It could thread on or attach in some way
2. It had a return spring for the bolt
3. The bolt was prevented from falling out of the adapter

I've been thinking of hacksawing off 75% of the threads on the adapter so I can screw it on quicker but then that risks me screwing it on and the bolt pushing down on the schrader and firing the gun.
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jackssmirkingrevenge
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Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:20 am

MrCrowley wrote:Like the one you sent me on the pengun?
have a look at the one on the dimply penguns, granted you don't have a lathe or mill but it should still be possible to adapt a cheapo metal schrader cap using a drill press.
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
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MrCrowley
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Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:27 am

jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:have a look at the one on the dimply penguns, granted you don't have a lathe or mill but it should still be possible to adapt a cheapo metal schrader cap using a drill press.
The pengun you sent me was dimply? I just searched for some of your topics but one had all its photos missing and the others didn't have any pictures of what you might be describing.

Perhaps I would have made something cap-sized if I had a metal cap on me but the only things I had that threaded to schraders were the blowgun nozzles and some weird thing that had a check valve on one end and I couldn't work out where it was from.

BTW: no more chrony tests for awhile...shot my chrony today :roll:

More to come later, it was kind of unlucky but not all that surprising and considering the difficulties I've had with using the chrony for anything but small bore pneumatics I'm indifferent to its demise (though it may be salvageable).
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Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:38 am

MrCrowley wrote:The pengun you sent me was dimply?
No, that was the pre-lathe deluxe ;)
I just searched for some of your topics but one had all its photos missing and the others didn't have any pictures of what you might be describing.
Have a look:

[youtube][/youtube]

Image

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Note that it's missing a lathed down schrader cap to allow it to be screwed on.
shot my chrony today :roll:
When, not if ;)

Damage pics?
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
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MrCrowley
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Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:42 am

Ah, I forgot about dimply and assumed you were describing the pen gun exterior as the one you sent me has dimples I believe.
jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:
shot my chrony today :roll:
When, not if ;)
Damage pics?
Video, but you can't see the damage from it. Perhaps I should wait 'till tomorrow to snap some pics before uploading the video.

Edit: Got featured on the homepage now (although I can't see it yet), earlier they just had me featured in one section. Got 3 months 'pro' membership for free, not sure what that means yet :D
natas
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Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:15 pm

how long does it hold the pressure after filling ?
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MrCrowley
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Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:17 pm

There aren't any leaks so hypothetically it could hold the pressure for hours.
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frankrede
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Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:31 am

Absolutely impressive!
Current project: Afghanistan deployment
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Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:37 am

So glad you're still with us!
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life
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MrCrowley
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Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:41 am

Thanks frankrede, good to see you're back again.
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MrCrowley
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Sun May 06, 2012 6:14 am

Not really important but I updated the first post with a new how-to video. Will probably be more interesting to those who haven't heard me speak on video before :D
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