HEAL 2. Any suggestions?

[judgment_arms]

What, no comment on the auto idea?

I’ll see what I can’t think up to replace the hose-clamps…
Perhaps using tennons and wedge pins to hold each sub-assembly to a wood stock?

As for weight, you’re not exactly making an assault rifle, now are you?
It’s more like a shoulder cannon.
A few extra pounds of gun won’t kill you.

[SEAKING9006]

I find auto would be just dandy on any gun.

[judgment_arms]

I find auto would be just dandy on any gun.

Yes, in an ideal world all one has to do is pull the trigger.
No reloading, no setting up targets, no try to deal with the recoil, no aiming, just sitting in a comfy chair and pulling the trigger...
If that sounds good to you, go play video games…


Automation has it’s place, but not all guns need it; after all I enjoy a good day at the range with my Hawken rifle.


No offence, friend.

[pizlo]

I spose I forgot to say that I can get tanks for 5 bucks a piece and get free fills twice a week... Pity I don't have any guns to utilize that. For a stock I would say get bendable copper, and make a nice T stock with a nice bent in the part that contacts your shoulder.

[King_TaTer]

I would say that on the aesthetic side of things the grip is one of the more important factors.

I personally think that the polymorph grip looks hideous. I understand that you may like it I'm just giving you my opinion and think you'll agree that it doesn't fit in to well with everything else. But I'm not here to comment, I'm here to help. It wouldn't be too hard to create a good looking grip along with the stability you require. you could use the wooden grip that you had made for HEAL. Just streamline it with metal rods like you did with the polymorph. Possibly drilling holes through the core of the grip and feed metal rod through them to help with stability. Also painting the grip with a nice dark varnish to compliment the copper would look awesome.

Another thing to think about would be cleaning up your copper joints and making them look more professional.

If you really want people to be blown away by "HEAL 2" give what I said some thought

Peace,
King_TaTer

[psycix]

You should definitely use 500 psi.
What limited the pressure on HEAL1?

[Ragnarok]

@Judge: Half-auto is kind of moot.
Eventually, the cannon will be able to switch between manually controlled cycling, semi-auto and full auto with just one switch, which means half-auto isn't really needed.

I'll still need a breech loader to fire the rounds that are too long for the autoloader though.

@King_TaTer: The grip, although not the most attractive thing in the world, is certainly functional - HEAL was never intended to be the prettiest thing ever.

However, although I'll likely borrow the polymorph grip from HEAL at the start, I'll be searching for alternatives later on. Judge's stock idea is gaining weight with me, so that may be what happens.

And "HEAL 2" isn't going to be blowing any one away... I know what you meant, but it was hardly the best word choice in the world when talking about an air cannon, was it?

@psycix: Mostly the fact I didn't want to subject my crappy soldering to more than 300 psi.
There's nothing strictly forbidding those pressures in HEAL, but I wouldn't feel comfortable using them.

[psycix]

Why not give it a try?
With the necessary precautions ofcourse...

[Ragnarok]

Why not give it a try?

Well, to start with, because I've yet to get any way of reaching 500 psi (I'll be working on that later) and because there aren't enough safety precautions in the world to make me comfortable with it.
HEAL is a handheld cannon, with no method of remote firing.

If you want another reason, I've already started to take HEAL down to provide some parts for it's sequel.

[ALIHISGREAT]

you shoudl do everything possible to make it fire as consistantly as you can to improve accuracy... and also you should get a really nice barrel.

[MaxuS the 2nd]

I think you should also look as rifling. Maybe not with copper because of the wall thickness, but maybe on an aluminium tube?

[Ragnarok]

@MaxuS: Rifling is something I'm thinking about, although I suspect it will be relegated to just a single shot breech load barrel.
It's also going to take me forever to work out a sensible rifling rate.

@ALIHISGREAT: That's the plan, consistency, which is going to make the drum mag a nightmare when I get round to it. Trying to make the six revolving "chambers" as near identical as possible is going to take some work.

If I can, I still have hopes of trying for long range accuracy. My darts are still in the design phase, but they're improving.

[MaxuS the 2nd]

It's also going to take me forever to work out a sensible rifling rate.

One turn in 20" is the usual.
Or did you mean how you're actually going to do it.

Can somebody tell me how regular barrels are rifled?
I have but not a clue.

[Ragnarok]

One turn in 20" is the usual.

It entirely depends on the projectile, and it's velocity.

The notorious SS109 round needs a twist of 1 in 7" to be stable.
Long guns and muzzle loaders tend to have twist rates of several feet.

In my case, I fire lots of things, all different speeds and sizes, and I'll need to work out something that's a compromise between all of those, and which doesn't spin anything so fast that it throws itself apart.

I suspect I'll end up in the region of 24" twist, but you never know.
I do have a plan for how I'll actually rifle the barrel though.

[King_TaTer]

And "HEAL 2" isn't going to be blowing any one away... I know what you meant, but it was hardly the best word choice in the world when talking about an air cannon, was it?

Yes I realize it was an ironic choice of a word, but at 500 psi it could come close haha. Good luck with that.