Steampunk Dystopian Sniper Rifle (Mercury Bow)

Ok, i decided to pull out the big guns with this one (no pun intended).

Ive made a mercury bow, which is described as

"Unlike its low-tech namesakes, this "bow" fires a compressed sliver of frozen mercury at ultrahigh velocity. Damage comes both from the initial trauma of impact and subsequent mercury poisoning. It kills all but the strongest enemies with one shot."
the idea is taken from the game "oni"

I decided to make it recognizably steampunk, while staying true to my own style.

Ive used alot of metal, and alot of card. and alot of other stuff, so much infact that there is no point me creating a list of items. The main barrel is made from metal, and the handle and stock is mostly card, dense card with a layer of corrigated.

Ok, this is about 5 weeks of work, off and on, i will try my best to explain, but its pretty length, so im gonna try and keep it short and sweet.

Thanks to bumpus on this one, he help in the chatroom has made the difference, also thanks to all the other chatroom rats out there.

There are more final pictures in the final step.

If you like it, please vote for it in the book contest.

Step 1 The main base,

Ok, The main base is made up of three main sections,

The cardboard stock and handle, this is made in my usual style, with two layers of dense card sandwiching corrigated card, and stuck together with PVA.

The Metal barrel, this was made from two metal rods, which were jammed inside of two brass shelf brackets.

The Brass hand grip, although this section was added part wat through the project, it is a key feature of the design.

I started by laying out the metal 'barrel' peices, and the Stock shoulder pad, and basically drawing the shape i wanted.

Then after cutting out the three cardboard layers, and assembling the metal 'shelf' sections, i glued it all into place.

Comments

[ousire]

ousire again. i still dont know how to replicate the bridges you've done. do you think it would be possible to make the curve with a large amount of cardboard cutouts, each one smaller then the rest, stacked on top of each other to get the general shape of a curve, then smoothing it over with some sort of sculpting clay substance?

[galenorama]

I am hoping to make a crossbow version. The idea is that it would store magnetized cesium in a glass "ammo" cylinder, which would be kept warm to keep the cesium in a liquid state. It would inject the cesium into the barrel where it would cool into a hard projectile. When fired, it would fly through the air into the target, where the water in his/her body would start a violent chemical reaction producing (lots of) heat and hydrogen gas. This would explode (violently)! Of course it wouldn't actually do this, but that is the idea. What is the name of the card you used?

[ALogan97]

Better idea. Try launching the entire cylinder instead of just the cesium, and have a vacuum in the cylinder so the cesium doesn't react to water in the air in the cylinder. Then, when the cylinder hits the target, the glass would shatter and leave cuts to cause bleeding, exposing more water. The shattering of the cylinder would leave the cesium open to react with the water in the blood/surrounding tissue/atmosphere. This way you would save more cesium and reduce the chance of it exploding in the barrel. Also, try spring or compressed air to shoot it instead of gunpowder, because the gunpowder would probably cause it to explode.

[toxicwolf]

problem!
how would it it be fired
1 if black powder is used round would bust in chamber
2 how would it be formed and load
3 wouldn't the round start to dissolve in air
but i made a crossbow it this shape using parts from .22 caliber rifles(to make the butt-stock) it fires trainning arrows though                                      

4 it takes a massive amount of heat at a steady rate to liquify cesium with out it becoming too unstable and becoming acidic or make it explode 

[Colonel88]

Lols @ the round bursting in chamber. Air compressor then to push it out! ( the liquid)

[toxicwolf]

if that is the case then how would you keep the round uniform enoughf to stay stable in flight and penetrate the target
air too can still break the round while in chambe r (if to strong) or deliver the same amount of force as a cheap airsoft gun
no offense but you would be better off with solid cesium imbeded into the head of an arrow and to double the fatality use lead and cesium in the arrow head
you could use a crossbow (semi-automatic which are rare but do exist)
to luanch it
doing this is a cheaper alternitive 
p.s.
nice pic (big dady bouncer i believe bioshock right)

[Colonel88]

Yeah lol. When bio shock 2 comes out I change pic :F

You have a nice one too but i don't know who that is :/

1st of all to the questions.

You use a glass vial which BREAKS ON IMPACT. It breaks when it hits the person/object.

To not break the vial, you use a wad of paper,etc Or you can make the covering metal, but stick in a syringe as well.

Actually screw this I don't even know what cesium is :D>

[toxicwolf]

cesium is a alkali metal that becomes highly unstable when in contact with even the smallest traces of hydrogen which is found in water
sence blood is composed of water if you are injected with cesium your body would  tear apart from the inside out and explode within minutes
plus cesium is solid
ps
its a hunter from halo3 in his home world of Te 

[necropolian]

Try francium. It is the strongest alkali metal, I think. And it is also radioactive. that introduces another problem to your opponent's survival...

[Berkin]

Doesn't francium have a half-life of about 22 minutes?

[necropolian]

 Indeed, and that fact makes the francium bullet unrecognizable in 22 minutes!
But, of course I know that there is no way you can make a francium bullet, at least at this time.

The idea "francium Bullet" is something to build a detective novel on,  and just another idea in the gallery of "perfect murder"...

[Fox-san48]

nice, you should write it

[necropolian]

Now there's an idea...

[galenorama]

Yeah, ive had that suggested by lots of people also, but I'm going to stick with cesium because Francium is so rare. Thanks for the suggestion, and great idea!

[necropolian]

but that's the point! because francium is so rare, nobody will expect someone to use it as a weapon! because, really, who would put so much effort in a francium bullet, if a lead one is easily attainable? two words: 'perfect' and 'murder'...

[qualia]

yes but then you'd be the only person with the privately owned equipment to procure francium in your area so you wouldn't be a prime suspect or anything. two more words: 'detective' and 'novel'

[necropolian]

I would claim someone stole some Francium before the body parts were found.

[qualia]

so this is like one of them places where we like speaking bout polluting battlezones with radioactive material and stuff to mutate further generations on both sides of the conflict right? imagine if we lived in a world where that doesnt happen on a daily basis? that would be pretty boring and unscientifical huh.. sorry if i sound a bit trolly.. im just high man. im not trying to direct the content towards you personally, it just occured to me that human beings make me sick, and i wished to voice a passive observation. i sort of wonder why we see these new and unusual ways of maiming and killing others for personal gain as somehow desirable and why society cultivates and incubates these worms of thought because for the most part, noone actually cares about anything happening that doesnt put them outside their manufactured bubbles of consumerist comfort, and for the most part, these aspects of violent human nature are patently ignored or buried. couple that with a television as a replacement for moral guidance in the average household nowadays and you have yourself a pinless grenade.

[galenorama]

That is so incredibly devious, I might have to try it! Also, because francium explodes like so: When it comes into contact with water, a violent reaction is induced, producing large quantities of hydrogen gas. The heat ignites the gas, creating the visible explosion. I was thinking that as the bullet travels through the air, the small amount of moisture would produce some hydrogen, but not in a reaction violent enough to ignite. The shot would then be accompanied by a hiss, and a trail of gas that would look pretty wicked.

[qualia]

cesium was your one. sorry. more practical. qudos to you. sorry i just went on a construction layout tangent for a bullet.

[qualia]

you would want to coat the francium surfaces of the projectiles with a non-corrosive, airtight lubricating enamel as you load them. maybe even just have a slightly thicker fmj made of francium with a lead then tracer powder core, and maybe a carbide or depleted uranium penetrating tip. you'd need to make sure it weighs the same as a standard projectile from the same propellant cartridge, that would look like a tracer streak followed by an explosion on a wet target. the rifling in the barrel would cut through sufficient enamel to let the projectile reliably travel to the target without uneven or excessive gas producing reaction (thrust) causing yaw and/or fishtailing during it's trajectory due to uneven eccentric surface reaction which would render the rifling in the barrel, and by extension; the gun, pointless. most of the surfaces would be covered and surface oils/moisture would not make any tangible difference through the enamel except from on the bullet where the edges of the lands of the rifling will have cut evenly proportioned helical streaks in the enamel, during firing, and on impact, the bullet will be more likely to have a prolonged effect, after the projectiles' mushroom deformation during impact and leave a nice hole in your chosen target, sorry for inneffective grammar and punctuation, i havent slept in a few days and i know i'm not doing anything as well as i normally would. i dont believes in CAPITALS, im prefer socials. yeah you can use that joke i came up with just then as i looked at the literal nightmare above. hah! literal.. the puns. im on fire. :-/

[necropolian]

but the blood of the victim would provide enough water to induce a small explosion...

[galenorama]

Exactly, the bullet would wizz through the air, leaving a hissing trail of hydrogen, hit the target, and BOOM!

[Robotech112]

And you could breathe in the hydrogen and burn your lungs up.
Solve that genius.

[necropolian]

and the igniting trail of Hydrogen would make a nice special effect...

[galenorama]

Maybe the friction from the bullet traveling through the air?

[necropolian]

there is not much friction, a bullet is pretty aerodynamical, the main cause of a bullet stopping is gravity.

[WhiteTigerTails]

No the main cause of a bullet stopping, is a solid object in the way.

[necropolian]

but such an object is not always present. Gravity is always present on earth.

[badideasrus]

lol. does not gravity cause things to run INTO solid objects? ^^

[galenorama]

Yeah, maybe something else?

[spartan 2209]

The flash maybe?

[ricochet3212]

 Actually, Francium is so sensitive that it reacts with the vapor in the air, You'd explode unless you set up an exploding shell containing the Francium.

[Electronics Man]

can someone please explain to me the definition of steampunk?

[bluesquirrel]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

It's honestly easier to just read up, than expect somebody to try and explain it. Read away! :D

[DELETED_kage_no_akiri]

(removed by author or community request)

[hayme]

that would be cool. Maybe make an instructable for it? :D

[DELETED_kage_no_akiri]

(removed by author or community request)

[-Chrimson_And_Clockwork-]

actually with a series of capacitors and a good battery you could build a coil gun that could rival if not surpass the power of some civilian rifles,the only reason this isn't in effect is because the capacitors needed would cost almost as much as a life time of bullets, and if it wasn't insulated right it would fry the gun (and the wielder) if it got wet.
all in all it would be an amazing weapon but just not as practical as a normal gun.

[acoleman3]

http://www.anothercoilgunsite.com/nf-home.htm