Portable air powered 6mm airsoft strafer

[al-xg]

I should have posted this a while ago before I decided to make "improvements", I should have somehow expected this but I took it apart and never rebuilt it fully.
So now theres no rail, no relfex sight no paint, no top receiver etc... I'll add them back on some day...

Specs:
- Inline 3/4" half hole vortex block - made from epoxy paste stuff and copper pipe for the hole.
- copper BB chamber that holds, err maybe 100BBs ? I made it small so i wouldn't go crazy and use full auto.
- inbuilt regulator - I can set the power and ROF even during a game.
- 50cm aluminium barrel
- airsoft hop up
- ~60cm overall length
- ~2L steel backpack tank filled to 16bar (230psi ?) or more when i fix the pump. So I don't use a compressor, CO2 or HPA.
- the power can be set from 0 to over 2J
- effective range with .20g BBs is about 40m (for airsoft), .12g BBs go wild after 15m (nice shot gun effect though)
- bullpup set up
- modded pistol grip blow gun is used as the trigger. The regulator is after the trigger because I thought it would improve flow and reduce dead space.

ok here are a few pics:










I made two videos but the first one is weird
[youtube][/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-whZaIW7LI
and i wasn't holding the camera right in the second one
I'll make a better one someday.

I ran out of BBs in the egg video and the guy filming (scottish boy with the weird laugh) kept moving because of the BBs bouncing back (a block of wood was holding the egg up) and they did sting a little.
Oh and i only had .12g BBs in that video.

[Hubb]

Nice hair. And the face on the egg almost brings it to life.

That is a nice strafer. Go ahead and take the time to put it back together so we can enjoy it even more.

[al-xg]

mmm... the hair must do something about it...

[f.c]

that looks so awesome slightly ghetto but still awesome. can i get a diagram of the airtank you used ?

[al-xg]

The airtank is...err, something used to mix water ? maybe different temperatures?, well anyway its just a tank with six treaded holes in it.

I blocked of 3 with brass plugs and added a 28bar pressure gauge, some flexible pressure rated tube with a quickdisconect fitting, and a shrader valve onto the other three holes.
It could be done with any tank and some T fittings, i just didn't find any and thought I'd use what i had.

I'll edit in a diagram if you want but there isn't that much to draw.

I was hoping to find a tank with a larger volume, but it gets frustrating pumping it up to 16 bar with just a track pump (i'd say it goes up about 1/4 bar with each pump...)




Oh and by the way my pump doesn't work at the moment air seems to escape back past the piston. I checked it and it doesn't seem to be broken. Does anyone have an idea of what went wrong? It might just need some extra grease or something?
Its a pitty because it could probably achieve quite high pressures, the hose supplied with it bursts before it even gets hard to pump and that happens just over 16bar.

[origin unknown]

Great! I like this strafer because it actually looks like a firearm than other BBMGs, along with the neat feature of the clear bottle for the BB chamber which is sleeved in copper with a hole cut to look at the amount of BBs left. Another area of this strafer that I like is the Bullpup style configuration which must be pretty comfy to hold. You are the 1st person to use a hop-up on a vortex bbmg. In another thread, some of us forum members were debating whether or not using hop-up on a vortex gun would work well or not considering that the hop-up bucking might wear down quickly because of a vortex's high ROF. Will you keep us updated as to how long your hop-up lasts you?

[singularity]

is the hop-up adjustable or did you just like pull it out of a mini or crappy springer?

[noname]

Looks pretty cool, if not ghetto. By the way, that is one weird lookin' vortex block, very unique!

[jon_89]

how long does your tank last?

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Finally, someone else who's cut down their blowgun

Nice bit of work there, why not but a cheap airsoft gun and fit this into the shell for aesthetics?

[al-xg]

Thankyou, the hop up is from a broken Both Elephant Steyr AUG AEG so it isn't ajustable (wich is actually better in my opignon on the cheap airsoft guns, the cheap ajustables often loose the consistency).
I've probably shot around 3000 BBs through the hop up so I can't really tell if its worn, I have a feeling it might last again due to the fact that it isn't ajustable, the small lip isn't pushed in in any way.
So maybe yay ! to cheap airsoft hop pup ?
And then about the hop up in general, it does seem to improve the range and grouping (but as I can't just turn in on or off its hard to see the difference). There is about half a centimeter of aluminium barrel before the lip, so i think it does put spin on the BBs even after the vortex.
The hop up might also help in having a higher pressure in the BB chamber acting as a weak burst disk, the vortex won't work by blowing through it anymore and the sound of firing has definitely changed, even though its fast when the pressure gets low its makes a "plop plop plop" sound.

The bullpup design does make it quite back heavy because the grip is so far forward but its still is quite nice and easy to hold, just not one handed Id probably need a longer barrel.

The vortex block was a bit of an experiment... It did start of in more of a block shape, I used the copper because it was smooth and i don't really have the right tools to make a nice 3/4" hole, but then i added some more epoxy stuff so the barrel would fit in, then made it even bigger to the hop up bit would slot in, then i rounded off the back so BBs could be fed in a little better, its also a bit larger at the back, oh and it did use to have shrouds but they don't seem to help, I think they're actually worse.

I'm not too sure how long the tank lasts, it depends on what pressure the regulator is set to, but I haven't often(ever) emptied it in one go. I need to time it. Probably only a few seconds, but when firing bursts in an airsoft game you tend to hit people with the first or second shot so it lasts the hole round (well thats only ten people playing though...). I usually run out of BBs before I run out of air.

I'll have to make the blow gun a little cleaner but it probably is actually the best "improvement" i got done. I used to have a flexible tube going back to the regulator.
I do actually have the body of the AUG and could quite easily fit it in but I was quite happy with the BBMGs looks before I took it apart. I'll try and finish it.

[singularity]

I'm not too sure how long the tank lasts, it depends on what pressure the regulator is set to, but I haven't often(ever) emptied it in one go. I need to time it. Probably only a few seconds, but when firing bursts in an airsoft game you tend to hit people with the first or second shot so it lasts the hole round (well thats only ten people playing though...). I usually run out of BBs before I run out of air.

do you play with like a bunch of noobs with springers or something because every time i fire my vortex people intermediately drop on the ground becuase of its distinctive noise (similar to a mini-gun).also does that mean your gun is also capable of firing like two or three round bursts, cause i know even with the shortest trigger pull on my gun will result in a 10 - 20 round burst.

[al-xg]

Well i guess I'm a bit of a noob too they have AEGs but they're plastic gearboxes. Oh and when i said shot i meant burst, just saying that most of the time you get a hit out of the 10BBs flying through the air every time the trigger is pulled.
I'll do a test by shooting into a box or something but I'd say that 10BBs /burst seems about right.
The AEGs we use are cheap so i guess we must play at closer ranges than proper airsoft replicas.
I've managed to beat someone with the strafer a few times but I have to sneak up, I also got headshot, about 20m away in the lip.... stings

[singularity]

i guess that would explain it, most of the kids i play against have Tokyo Mauri/Classic Army AEG or a decent spring sniper atleast. i have found the best tactic to use with a vortex gun is ambushing people. hide in some bushes wait for someone to walk by and just open up on then, a vortex gun's fire rate should ensure your success.

[al-xg]

Yea ambushing is fun too
Decent airsoft replicas are a little out of my range finacially, and I think i'd probably modify a cheaper airsoft gun anyway. I like the designing building parts...
Oh my next 6mm project could be a semi or full auto blow back (or some other mechanical action) but i still have loads of other ideas to build...