Dreamwave

This is legit a really cool mech. I look forward to seeing what else you come up with!

Any updates on the site? At college at the moment, but would love to help in any way possible. I'm working on a CS degree so if you want me to handle any logic for the site or anything I'd be happy to as a side project.

Thanks! I definitely look forward to seeing your designs evolve with time

I'd almost recommend a belt-fed design if using finammo as you can just carry it on top of the belt and have bands pull it off of it through an open-side chamber

Off at college at the moment, but would definitely build it over vacation just for fun. Thanks for staying around, I look forward to seeing your repeating slingshot :)

Woot :PThanks for running this contest, it got me back into this stuff after a bit of a break which was a ton of fun. I look forward to seeing what else comes of this community in the future, and hope that we see more contests going forward

Thanks!

Looks like just you and me before the deadline

it's all good. Thanks for running the contest! Kinda wish there were more entries but I guess the community is experiencing a bit of a lull right now.

OK, I should have time this evening to do an approximate count

Any pointers on areas of the instructions I can improve are welcome, hopefully I can get the image arrangement bug fixed and start fixing their order and arrangement. As is, I was able to upload all the photos but not see many of them after uploading so it was a bit of a shot in the dark while editing.

Thanks! Btw the only part you really need to experiment a bit with is the bands for the main shuttle. If they are thicker, they need to be moved up a little bit on the posts but if they are thinner it stays in place better if they are further down. Not too much experimentation but I didn't want to put down a catch all solution and have people complain a ton about a couple rubber bands breaking or about not getting the advertised range.

Here: https://www.instructables.com/ZipDart-V2-by-Dre...The instructions are a hot mess, but hopefully fairly understandable. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns

The site is being super unstable for me. Still uploading stuff and getting it all sorted out. I'll post the link as soon as I finish

Thank you, I'm crippling our internet connection trying to get all the photos uploaded as there are a couple hundred needed to really show how to build it. It's very complicated internally and requires a lot of detail as to exactly how some stuff is positioned that is hard to show on camera, and even more difficult to describe. I hope people like it, it took forever to build and is taking a significant chunk of time to show how to build it. I'll get it up asap, even if that isn't before noonP.S. which time zone are you in? :P

Thankfully many of them are not required (can be swapped out) or are common ones (cut white rods.) I think there may be 5 or so special cut ones, with two of them retaining their full normal capability (just shaving off some plastic that gets in the way but isn't part of what the connector actually uses to grip pieces.) I will probably do a head count of which are required and which can be gone without.

Have you made something by any chance?

Very much rushing right now to get the instructions assembled and uploaded, sorry for being so late about things

just finished taking photos, working on instructions now

It does involve a lot of broken parts, including a few quite specific to this design, I'll warn you of that right now. It's definitely a fairly cool build (the one I'm so far most proud of, hence the ZipDart name) but quite complicated with a lot of broke parts, most definitely.

The youtube version is probably a copy. Look at how old this instructable is.

I think I may be finished! I'll have to do some testing, but so far it's fairly reliable and doesn't break parts much during use. Lot of mechanical elements, but what's new there? :)

I know it isn't the intent of this mech, but this just have me an idea for how to properly execute a horizontal magazine. Thanks!

How many entries are there so far?

Probably going to run up right against the wire, as I'm facing some issues with component durability and weird friction issues. It won't be perfect probably, but I should be able to get it to at least last through 200 shots before the sling ends up breaking (currently using elastic paracord for that small section) and I should be able to have it break 50ft of range, even with the wildly sub-par projectiles I'm using. A few tradeoffs that would require a big overhaul to fix, but shouldn't be too much of an issue for normal users.

Knex lots on ebay aren't that expensive. If you're looking at getting into knex guns and the like, I'd get a lot or two and call it good.

I've tried to minimize how much pressure is exerted on the sides of the projectile as much as possible, but even despite that changing how much force is exerted should at least minimally change how far the projectile goes.

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/Xafs8yHM6DzeAedP7

photos coming as soon as my ISP chooses to be stable for 5 minutes

When you have time I may want to draw a bit on your experience with what works and what doesn't, I think I'm trying to reinvent the wheel in a couple places where I really don't need to

I'm still working on the thing, made a camera slide track with some of my other knex for making piano videos but am getting back to the gun. So far I'm having issues with the catch/trigger assembly as well as with finding a material for the slide that doesn't wear down too much from the movement and the shock but doesn't break the projectile. I may post a forum topic asking for help at this point.

Dude, I would be so excited if you started posting here again! I've definitely used a few mechs of yours for inspiration for some things, and look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Thanks for moving the due date. Now that it is after graduation I have a bit of time over the summer. The basic design is complete and all the mechs work, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding elastics durable enough for more than 5 consecutive shots.

That would probably be nice, I'm currently completing senior year of high school and have a ton going on until the summer so I can't do much until early june myself. If late June is possible, that would work best for me but it depends on what everyone else thinks

current specs: Bolt action with forward assist Bolt/chambering catchRetractable stock (long enough though that even i, at 6'2" keep it at the shortest setting)60 ft range with the recommended mag-loaded rounds (caliber adaptable design though, so this may be changed)Up to 120 ft with manually loaded roundsBetween 8 and 14 rounds per minuteSwivel out magazine with releaseStill working on increasing accuracy, possibly adding a hop up, and on streamlining operation. I'll probably post a v.1 very soon but I'd wait for the v.2 to come a little bit later to really build unless you are antsy to see how it functions.

almost done and looking for input on aesthetic design, so i figure a sneak peek is in order :p

Yeah, just did a range test and found that it is flinging a grey connector + green rod + blue clip a full 120ft. I honestly don't know how it's getting these kinds of ranges, as there is a fair amount of friction inside the shuttle mech and I don't have a ton of bands on it.

It has a bunch tied together, but at its thinnest point probably a single #33 band on each side of the shuttle

What's the nasty you speak of in the stock? Honestly, your builds are so clean over all that something in the wrong place would stick out like a sore thumb...but I'm not seeing anything amiss. Great job!

Thanks! I look forward to seeing yours as well :). For mine, it puts a huge amount of kinetic energy into the round (as I've slimmed down the shuttle to a grey clip with a cut flexi-rod tip in it) but I need to find a round that will not flip sideways. What is promising so far is connector ammo with a leading round. If I can't get the round to be statically stable in the air, I might have to figure out a way of spinning it or giving it hop-up. It would mean that it loses some linear kinetic energy, but as it's already shooting an orange connector attached to a grey clip at around 120fps I don't think that will be a big deal.

Gun is more or less complete, now just evaluating ammo revisions to try to get one that is the most stable in flight without catching when taken out of the mag

The actual build is "super-top-secret" until posting it, but I've definitely gotten the core gun that I will submit. It is a bolt action, repeating railgun that gets upward of 100ft ranges flat (zero drop for a full 30ft, then gradual drop from there) with the ammo that fits in the magazine. Super psyched to get it working, but will definitely take my time before posting to work out every single kink I can.

The regular straight one. So far, there are about 10 or so cut white rods, 2 green connectors with modified tabs, a mutilated snowflake for the ratchet, and 3 or so broken orange connectors that are integral to the core mechanism. That may change going forward, but at this point I've gotten the trigger sear, the main bolt, the chambering mechanism, and a solid body for it all to go into. Now I just need to connect all of those separate mechanisms so they work in tandem and add a stock, grip, and finishing touches like sights and my now-trademark flexi-rod shell type thing.

It's all good dude, I changed the design to have a moving bolt-top-sled so the ratchet could afford to be further back

I probably will, I'll definitely estimate a part count. How many pieces in general do you have? I'm going to say this right now, it will use over 30 orange connectors plus one for each round and that is definitely a part I am starting to run somewhat low on at the moment.

If I can butt in here, starting with a mech--however crazy it may seem in concept--has worked best for me. Every gun where I've started with a body and designed the mech into has been maybe pretty, but unimaginative inside and hardly well performing. It's maybe a viable tactic for replicas, but I have *personally* had little luck with that tactic.

I'll be honest, if someone had emailed me or reminded me that knex guns really exist during my hiatus I probably would have come back sooner. I might end up still building knex guns when I'm 20+ and in college, so long as I don't forget about it. I honestly never got bore of the things, and it's still exceedingly fun taken as an engineering challenge, but I've definitely lost all interest in non-fuctional guns and replicas. Although I'm not exactly much of a veteran in the way that TD, Kinetic, Red Book, Dark Owl, and say Oblivitus, I feel as though I've been around long enough to see how things have evolved. The glory days always seem to be thought of as in the past, but the community has stayed fairly steady when it comes to innovation (if not raw contribution) since 2013-2014. It may n…

I'll be honest, if someone had emailed me or reminded me that knex guns really exist during my hiatus I probably would have come back sooner. I might end up still building knex guns when I'm 20+ and in college, so long as I don't forget about it. I honestly never got bore of the things, and it's still exceedingly fun taken as an engineering challenge, but I've definitely lost all interest in non-fuctional guns and replicas. Although I'm not exactly much of a veteran in the way that TD, Kinetic, Red Book, Dark Owl, and say Oblivitus, I feel as though I've been around long enough to see how things have evolved. The glory days always seem to be thought of as in the past, but the community has stayed fairly steady when it comes to innovation (if not raw contribution) since 2013-2014. It may not be the same as things were in '08-'10, but I'd chalk that up to limits being reached in just a couple areas. As controversial as this may be, pin guns are effectively as good as they will get in terms of range, and things like the slamfire weapon of war (probably butchering the name) and Zip 3 are about as good as they will get. Hell, the TR8 and ZKAR are still considered near perfect war weapons. I think we need to start working on promoting new and evolving methods of propulsion. I might make an 'ible that has evolved from the one by DOP that keeps getting referred to. All reference materials talk about how to start building pin guns, with all sorts of ammo types and such alongside standard slingshots. The promotion of new concepts, maybe a slew of new contests for who can best bring a concept to realization, I think would really revitalize the community. Thoughts on any part of this *incredibly* long rambling?

Hopefully it'll make up for it in performance. 1ft rail, 50 ft+ in initial tests before any optimization or anything, and a fairly robust bolt in contrast to the v.1.

I'll warn you now, though, it uses a ton of cut pieces with most required for it to function. Most "white rod" length ones are not under too much tension though, so a long flexi rod cut into pieces will work fine

I guess I picked the right time to make a reappearance! ZipDart v.2 coming soon, that's what I'll enter

I think I should have my ZipDart v.2 ready in a week or so, so I can probably make that work. Thanks for the heads up!

Just my two cents, I must pretty much echo what JBG, Kinetic, and TD have said they do, but if anything to an even more insane level (probably to my detriment.) I will consistently imagine a mechanism, and start by building the core of those internals. If you haven't already noticed, most all of my guns are concept guns, and it definitely shows. In starting with the core mechanism, that usually means that the trigger, magazine well, and even propulsion mech plus other moving elements end up being glorified bodges added nearly as an afterthought. Take, for example, my Jolt. The mechanism that I found so cool in that was the feeding mechanism for retrieving the rounds from the magazine. Unfortunately, that meant that attached to it was a half-assed slingshot that barely rivaled the average …

Just my two cents, I must pretty much echo what JBG, Kinetic, and TD have said they do, but if anything to an even more insane level (probably to my detriment.) I will consistently imagine a mechanism, and start by building the core of those internals. If you haven't already noticed, most all of my guns are concept guns, and it definitely shows. In starting with the core mechanism, that usually means that the trigger, magazine well, and even propulsion mech plus other moving elements end up being glorified bodges added nearly as an afterthought. Take, for example, my Jolt. The mechanism that I found so cool in that was the feeding mechanism for retrieving the rounds from the magazine. Unfortunately, that meant that attached to it was a half-assed slingshot that barely rivaled the average pin gun, and was significantly slower to use. Come to think of it, most of my guns are needlessly inefficient to operate, and aside from maybe my Zipdart and the forward assist rifle, really don't compensate when it comes to performance. When I hit a home run, it can feel amazing to use as was the case with the Zipdart (principal reason I'm making a v.2 --end shameless plug--.) The mechanism in that case was indeed the propulsion mech, and despite its quirks it did accomplish what I set out to do. Unfortunately, I don't hit many of those home runs. Some of my guns can be a balancing act between a bunch of rubber bands, a few pieces cantilevered far further than Knex are meant to be capable of, and a gajillion other things that are far too complicated to be war worthy or even flat out reliable. I design compact rube goldberg machines that may or may not serve their intended purpose. If that is what you want to do, here is more or less my process:1. Have some idea for some part of the gun--literally any part (one concept of mine revolved around how a mag release could work)2. Create an "in a vacuum, this could work" type of dismembered inner mechanism3. Try seeing if that mechanism is even feasible with the limitations of Knex (size, shape, strength)4. Begin the exercise in futility of trying to cram that mechanism into a body that isn't 20 layers thick and looks vaguely like a gun5. ???????6. Profit

FYI, I know I've been in hibernation for like a year or so but I'm now hard at work on a V.2. It should have a more robust bolt (more of a slide, actually), it'll have a greater band travel, and it'll be bullpup ('cause why the heck not :P...for real though, the trigger would have to be more complicated if I made it configured in the normal way...you'll see when I post it.) Still uses the same rounds, and hopefully the same mag as V.1.

If you're working on getting the mag to be mechanically similar, feel free to pick up anything that works from the one I tried making. It would take some pretty complicated engineering, but I bet you could make something like it that used grey connectors and a slingshot mech with a bolt. I might get around to trying to figure something like that out once I'm done with ZipDart V.2, but have a go at it and see what comes of it. I look forward to seeing what you think up!

Finally, my zipdart has been eclipsed :PGreat job dude, that looks awesome!I've gotta get back into things again, so many new innovations since I stepped out--I might be able to use a couple to figure out how to get my pullpup idea working :)

That thing looks amazing--and with that range holy cow! Nice job dude!

Not to butt in here, but when it comes to the mag are you talking like a straight mag with the bottom angled forward? I could see that working pretty well if you have a bolt action rig that needs to take the round out to the rear into the chamber, but I think it would end up destabilizing any rounds and causing some funny pressure distribution if rounds were launched directly out. If you want that look what you might try is using a 5 layer section with a 3 layer sliding bolt that leaves a follower or is long enough to hold the next round in while pulling the first one back and letting something push it up. I think I tried something like that on my Zip-Dart but I ran into trouble keeping the round in place at the top of the chamber if it was done too slowly.