Introduction: 7 Things We Learnt Building the Sugru Rainbow Gatling Water Pistol

About: The team behind Sugru, the mouldable glue that makes fixing and making easy and fun. Do-ers of the world it's time to get excited. http://sugru.com

We love testing the limits of what sugru can do.

Our engineering and material teams are always cooking up new ways to flex, stick and stretch sugru, to test just how much it can take. They doggedly pursue excellence, care deeply about every last detail.

Then it gets hot outside and they start dreaming about water pistols!

Which got us thinking. With all this sugru, and these amazing people, could we create the coolest water pistol ever?

Now, while we take our work very seriously here at sugru, we don’t see the harm in having a little fun while we do it. In fact it’s kind of in our DNA — ‘sugru’ was inspired by the Irish word for ‘play’ (and it’s still our most important ingredient)

Take a look at our beautiful new video to see the sugru rainbow gatling gun in action!

We've put together guides to show you 7 great sugru ideas that we used while making the water pistol. We hope some of them are useful to integrate into for your own projects! We're looking forward to hearing what you think :)

Need to stock up on some sugru? You can buy online from us.

Step 1: Create Your Own Sugru Pistons

Why use sugru for this?

- elastic properties

- almost zero shrinkage

What you will need

- a length of PVC pipe

- sugru (we used 2 same colour, 1 different)

- a saw

- a vice

- a hammer

- a carving tool

- a cup of soapy water

Steps

1 - place the PVC in the vice and saw off the length needed (we used ~2.5cm)

2 - use your fingers to wet the surface of your workspace with a little soapy water (it prevents sugru sticking to the surface)

3 - open 2 minipacks of sugru and squidge them together (we used the same colour) Then push the sugru into the cut piece of pipe until it fills it completely.

4 - Leave to cure for 24 hours

5 - When the sugru is cured, place the piece into your vice lengthways and make an incision in the pipe to weaken it.

TIP - take care not to cut into the sugru inside.

6 - using your hammer, hit the pipe on the weak point you have created to break it apart. You will be left with just a cylinder of sugru.

7 - Use your carving tool to remove a little sugru from each end - this helps to make the piston more squishy!

8 - Carve out a ring around the circumference of the piece of sugru

9 - Open the third minipack of sugru and roll it into a small sausage. Apply this to the carved indent around the centre.

10 - Make sure the sugru around the centre is slightly wider than the piston itself. Leave for 24 hours.

11 - Once cured, dip the piston in soapy water and you've got a your own sugru piston!

Step 2: Build a Sugru Injector

Why use sugru for this?

- elastic properties allow it to be compressed as needed

- almost zero shrinkage

- can be drilled once cured

- bonds to most materials

For this you will need

- sugru (we used one minipack for this)

- scalpel

- bendable plastic pipe / hose

- a stick or something that fits inside the pipe (for pushing the sugru in)

- x2 metal collars

- screwdriver

Steps

1 - with your scalpel, cut a piece of plastic pipe to the length needed (ours was 4cm long)

2 - open a minipack of sugru and squidge between your fingers a little bit (enjoy that feeling!)

3 - roll the sugru into a long thin sugru sausage

4 - insert the sugru into the pipe with the help of your stick, push it from both ends making sure the sugru sits in the centre with a margin of 1cm on both ends of the pipe. Leave to cure for 24 hours.

5 - once cured, drill a hole through the centre of the sugru to the size you require.

6 - make sure you have a clear hole through the whole piece of sugru.

7 - wrap the metal collars around the outside of the centre of the pipe, where the sugru is.

There you go! your very own sugru injector mechanism.

Step 3: Insulate Switches With Sugru

Why use sugru for this?

- electrically insulating

- bonds to most materials

- easy to mould

What you will need

- sugru (we used one minipack for this)

- some blu tac

- cables

- soldering iron and solder wire

Steps

1 - Use the blue tac to hold the cables you are using in place.

2 - Preheat and solder each of the wires in place

3 - Make sure the connection of the wires is secure

4 - take a pinch of sugru and start covering the soldered parts

5 - shape and flatten the sugru around the parts

6 - leave to sure for 24 hours

Step 4: Connect Tube & Pipes With Sugru

Why use sugru for this?

- strong and durable properties

- bonds to most materials

- water resistant

- sugru can resist high pressures

What you will need

- choose the pipes you need

- sugru - sugru (we used one minipack for this)

- pipe reducers in the size you need them

Steps

1 - lay out the piece you will need

2 - connect the tubes using the pipe reducers

3 - open your sugru pack and squidge!

4 - apply the sugru to the join

5 - ensure the sugru extends beyond the joint, to provide extra structural support

6 - smoothen the sugru and leave to cure for 24 hours

Step 5: Design a Custom Sugru Grip

Why use sugru for this?

- hand mouldable so you can create personalised grips

- bonds to most materials

- strong and durable

- ability to add texture to increase grip

What you will need

- between 4-5 minipacks, depending on the size of the handle you are using. Work with one minipack at a time and open new ones as needed.

- the handle of your choice!

Steps

1 - open a minipack of sugru and squidge it a little to soften it up

2 - start at the bottom of the handle, applying the sugru in patches.

TIP - sugru bonds great to itself. Check out sugru.com/tips for12 short videos to help with your sugru skills

3 - Continue to cover the handle bit by bit, ensuring that the sugru joins up and covers the surface fully.

4 - Work your way to the top

5 - Once the handle is fully covered, you can give the sugru more texture by imprinting another material onto it. We used the strap from a backpack, but why not get creative? We've seen people using a sponge, a toothbrush, even an orange!

6 - Before the sugru starts curing (you've got 30mins from opening the minipack) grip the handle to make a personalised grip.

Step 6: Shield Sharp Edges With Sugru

Why use sugru for this?

- bonds to most materials

- strong and durable

- hand mouldable

- dampening properties

What you will need

- just need sugru (we only needed half a minipack to protect each tube)

Steps

1 - Open your pack of sugru and squish

2 - Remove half of the sugru and roll into 2 balls of equal size

3 - Apply the sugru to the sharp edges of the plate

4 - Shape and flatten the sugru to ensure the pipe fits

5 - Leave to cure for 6 hours

6 - check that the pipe fits the new sugru-ed socket

TIP: If you apply to much sugru, it can be cut with a scalpel once cured. If you haven't applied enough, sugru bonds great to itself, so just add another layer as needed.

Check out sugru.com/tips for 12 short videos to help with your sugru skills

Step 7: Secure Loose Parts With Sugru

Why use sugru for this?

- bonds to most materials

- strong and durable

- hand mouldable

What you will need

- sugru (we used one pack here)

- soapy water

Steps

1 - Before opening your minipack of sugru, ensure the surface you are applying sugru to is clean and dry.

2 - Apply half a minipack of sugru to the disc, attach the pipe on top and press down.

3 - Roll the remaining sugru into a sausage and apply around the top of the pipe.

4 - Pinch the sugru and pipe all around to ensure a strong bond

5 - Using soapy water, use your fingers to smoothen the sugru

6 - Leave for 24 hours

Step 8: DXF and PDF Files for Laser Cut Parts

This water pistol was an epic build (we're talking 60 hours and sleepless nights) and we didn't document the entire process (oops!)

For those that are interested in actually building this beast - these are our DXF files - they will serve as a template for laser cutting the various parts of the project (with PDF versions also as they are quicker to preview - they show the positioning of the parts in isometric projection and side view)

Scale on these files is 1:1. Aluminium parts thickness is 4mm. Stainless steel parts thickness is 3mm)

For the engineers among you, this should give you a great starting point.

NOTE: we built this pistol in the UK so all the holes in the drawings are for standard metric plumbing parts available here - these will be different in the USA.